Peace: How we Planted the Fragmentation that Causes Distrust

It is always difficult to talk about religion. Even though we all acknowledge that it plays a significant role in our lives we don’t really want to consider exactly what that role is.

We need to discuss religion here because we just spoke about how the beliefs that our human ancestors held about the one they believed was responsible for their existence had the unexpected consequence of leading to the first murder among humans. But this discussion has to begin with ancient religions because it was there that the foundation was laid.

Priests played a central role in all ancient religions but they did not serve the same roles that their modern counterparts serve in contemporary religion. Ancient priests were not separate from the mundane activities of life. Their primary job was to meet the needs of the gods and goddesses but it was considered to be an ordinary job. However, unlike other positions of leadership in ancient societies, they were not appointed to that position because of special knowledge they had about the area they represented. They were as clueless about the gods and goddesses as were the ordinary man in the street.

That ignorance about the deities the priests served was to their advantage. There was no one who could question any claims they made about the deity. It is no surprise that so many religions developed around so many gods.

As the influence of religion and the priests increased in society the need for additional priests grew. New initiates were required to perform the various rites and rituals that had developed over time. This legitimate need led the ancients to make the first attempt at formal education. For the first time individuals were gathered together in a group, we now call it a classroom, primarily for the purpose of instruction. This was the foundation of our modern system of education.

From the very beginning of this blog we have emphasized the role that education plays in ensuring the optimum development of the species. But when the foundation of our system of education was laid the architects were not concerned with the interests of the species. These classrooms were not established to educate the wider society, and certainly not to develop the species as a whole. Their only purpose was to educate priests in a narrow area of expertise that was based on knowledge that could not be independently verified. Each ancient classroom and its curriculum were focused on the development of priests who served in a limited form of religion in a limited locale.

We can see that from the very beginning we began our experiment with formal education on the wrong foot. Our ancestors did not realize that those first classrooms had the wrong focus. It is not surprising that today scholars are lamenting the fragmented state of the modern curriculum. This has always been the focus of our education system. Instead of being used to complete the evolution of the species was our education system that was used to develop only a subset of humanity and this perspective has been at the center of our educational development. A new paradigm is needed if our education is to serve the species as our DNA intended.