being virtuous

In my last post, I talked about "a virtuous education" and forgetting to explain one of the most important point which is what is this "virtue." I had been thinking about this one big question between the relation of virtue and faith, and had it discussed with some friends as well. I prefer to use the word "faith" here rather than just simply "religion" because people could have a religion without really having a faith in God. Religion is just the identity and faith is the essence. Well if one ask what faith is, I just take this description written in Hebrew 11:

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." -- Hebrew 11: 1-3

It is certain that a real faith will produce virtue. However does that mean no faith will produce no virtue as well? It depends on how do we see this "virtue." People such as Confucius has been frequently called one of the virtuous man ever alive on earth. Indeed his teaching is really wonderful and many of them is parallel with what the Bible teaches us. There are virtues in which individual could attain without any need in having a faith in God, however there are also virtues which God bestowed on those who believe in Him.

Many of us may have heard about what is called the four cardinal virtues: prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. By being prudent, one is able to take a proper decision and to think out what one's is doing and what is likely to come of that action. By being temperate, one is able to control himself, going the right length and no further, in drinking and in all other pleasures. By being just, one is able to take a proper moderation between self-interest and the rights and needs of others, it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, and so on. By being fortitudinous, one is able to confront fears and face dangers. 

Beyond these four cardinal virtues, there are yet other virtues which are argued to be attainable through faith. The first is "charity," in which the current word has already lost its original meaning. "Charity" in this sense is love, it's not just the emotion, it's also not the feeling, but "that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves and must learn to have about other people" as CS Lewis put it. Loving ourself is easy, of course everyone by their nature or "instinct" will love themselves. Loving others as we are, and even loving our enemies, are we able to do that without God who enables us? Confucius said, "what you do not want others to do to you, do not do to others," but Jesus said do to others as what you want others do in you.

The second is "hope". The view of the eternal soul brings hope for our current short life here in earth. Our faith on Jesus and His promise give us an assurance of the eternal world to come and everything that we are doing here on earth is not in vain. We do not live merely just for instant pleasures, hedonism, or materialism; we do not live as in everything will end when our life here on earth ends! We know what we are here for, we know what we are called for, and we have hope to return back to our Father in Heaven.

The third is "faith," yes faith in itself is a virtue. In his work titled "Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments," Søren Kierkegaard wrote this beautiful remark about his faith:

"If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe. If I wish to preserve myself in faith I must constantly be intent upon holding fast the objective uncertainty, so as to remain out upon the deep, over seventy fathoms of water still preserving my faith."

CS Lewis in his book, "Mere Christianity," also wrote several interesting points of faith as a virtue. The summary of which you can find it here, and scroll to the last point.

on a virtuous education

I would like to share my personal view towards education, which has over time becoming a personal vision as well. I strongly believe in the importance of education, not only to shape the intelligence of the pupil, furthermore education has the role of shaping one's moral virtue and world view, which make it very important in one's character formation.

The current trend which is emerging is the idea of secular education which put away all kind of faith or believes in any religion from the education system. As opposed to this idea, there is religious education in which faith becomes the center that shape the moral and intellectual of the pupil.

In the United States, education is moving towards the direction of secularism. Some surveys on several US Supreme Court cases which is related with this trend and with regards to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"):

• Limitation on government-directed prayer and / or bible reading in public school: Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) which deemed unconstitutional the New York Board of Regents nondenominational school prayer; Abington Township School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963) which ruled as unconstitutional the practice of reading ten verses from the Bible and reciting in unison the Lord's prayer at the beginning of each day; Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980) which ruled unconstitutional the Kentucky statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public classroom in the State; Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) which deemed unconstitutional the Alabama statute which authorizing a 1-minute period of silence in all public schools "for meditation or voluntary prayer;" Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992); Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000) which ruled unconstitutional the policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games; Newdow v. United States Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et al., 542 U.S. 1 (2004) ruled  that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States are an endorsement of religion, and therefore unconstitutional.
• Limitation of the use of public funds for religious related educational activity: Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U.S. 639 (2002) which ruled constitutional the use of publicly funded vouchers by parents in Cleveland to send their children to private and religious schools. However, Justice Stevens in his dissent argued that this ruling "allowed public funds to pay for the indoctrination of thousands of grammar school children in particular religious faiths;" Locke v. Davey, 540 U.S. 712 (2004) which ruled the constitutionality of Washington publicly funded scholarship program which excluded students pursuing a "degree in theology."

Justice Hugo Black in the proceeding of the ruling of Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947) which resulted in the incorporation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment against the states stressed the importance of this clause to protect the separation between Church and State:

"The 'establishment of religion' clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion. Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between Church and State.'" -- 330 U.S. 1, 15-16.

Well, that's a brief overview about recent trend in the United States. In Indonesia, the condition perhaps is a bit different. The Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia (Undang-Undang Dasar 1945) defends that education shall develop one's potential to gain spiritual maturity and develop one's faith (below, emphasize added):

Chapter XIII - Article 31

1. Every citizen has the right to receive education.
2. Every citizen has the obligation to undertake basic education, and the government has the obligation to fund this.
3. The government shall manage and organize one system of national education, which shall increase the level of spiritual belief, devoutness and moral character in the context of developing the life of the nation and shall be regulated by law.
4. The state shall prioritize the budget for education to a minimum of 20% of the State Budget and of the Regional Budgets to fulfill the needs of implementation of national education.
5. The government shall advance science and technology with the highest respect for religious values and national unity for the advancement of civilization and prosperity of humankind.

With regards to this, I have a strong believe that faith in God and education is inseparable. When society cannot draw moral meaning and direction from religious belief, it draws it from other sources, and what are the other sources? Secularism, which provides new sources of meaning including self-esteem, consumerism, materialism, feminism, and relativism.

Benjamin Rush, one of the founding father of the United States, in his letter argued that "the only foundation for useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion," and he further added that, "without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments."

Northwest Ordinance 1787 which in effect create the Northwest Territory as the first organized territory of the United States ordered that "religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the mean of education shall forever be encouraged."

It is thus the purpose of education, to make children faithful and virtuous, and this will form them into a good and responsible citizen, able to use their intelligence responsibly upon the right moral foundation. The true virtue is thus the fruits of one's faith on God, and a virtue without faith is as meaningless as a guitar without its strings. The idea of truly non-religious education, for me, is simply unimaginable.

on knowing and understanding

Well, I don't really believe in absolute objectivity, perhaps we are still "objective" when we are babies. The entire world was still new to us, thus we could take everything at their respective "face values."

However, as we grow up, the way we see the world will be heavily influenced by our own perception and ideas which we have gathered about the world. Everything is subjective to one's own mind, one's own value, and one's personal world view. Judgments that a rationalist make will be different from what a post-modernist will make.

In knowing another person, our "subjectivity" will play the role as well. What we had experienced in knowing other person before, our first impression, and things can't go rational anymore. Oh now I'm talking like an empiricist. Although there's no absolute objectivity in the way we perceived our environment, there's still a certain degree of it. Through the process of knowing another person, we could into a certain degree of "objectivity" perceive whether any further relation is possible. However in this process knowing each other, mutual openness is necessary.

The door was open but now it seems to be closing.. or I don't know, it's just too hard to comprehend one's mind, or perhaps it's just now my cup of tea? If the human brain were simple enough for us to understand, we would still be so stupid that we couldn't understand it.