The New Road

Opt-In / Opt-Out

I was thinking some more about ID this morning. I had a conversation a while back with someone who believes in ID and what I got was 'it's a matter of faith and personal belief' and that it was a 'sensitive topic' that they would 'rather not talk about'. Fair enough. But how do you teach 'sensitive topics' that people would 'rather not talk about'? The answer is you give a sermon.

I reckon there are two different forms of teaching; lectures and collaborative teaching. A sermon (or lecture) is where a trusted person gets up in front of the group and espouses on a particular topic and you, as the listener, have three choices; agree, silently disagree, or leave. Collaborative learning is often the same but adds a fourth option; disagree and debate.

I didn't know when I was a kid that debating wasn't an option at church, which is what got me in trouble there. And yes, I know that some churches are now more modern in their approach and allow debate. I think it's just a question of gradients. There is always a difference between a minor issue posed by a believer and fundamental flaws exposed by a non-believer.

All of this got me thinking about why someone would attend a sermon. I think the answer is that they want to 'opt-out' of thinking about the topic. They want to be told the answers. Thinking, real analytical thinking, is tough. So it's best that we spend it wisely. On any given topic we can either opt-in to doing the hard thinking work, or opt-out and let a trusted advisor do the thinking for us. Clearly opt-out has it's limits. Regardless of who it is we will likely not jump off a cliff on their advice, no matter how good it sounds.

No matter who you are there are areas where you opt-in to thinking, and those where you opt-out. Diet, for example, is one where a lot of people opt-out and let someone else tell them what to eat. Recipes are basically an opt-out on cooking. Coaching a sport is opt-in, playing the sport is generally opt-out.

Religion, and faith, are opt-out of life choices (e.g. what to believe about abortion, opinions on the origin of life, the meaning of life, what happens after death, etc. etc.) It makes sense to opt-out on these issues since they have little daily impact in comparison with work, paying bills, and raising kids, which is full of hard choices.

I'm not quite sure how to conclude this post. I suppose I could say that school should be about learning, which is actively opt-in, so if there is a course where kids can't debate, can't ask questions, even bad ones, then I think that topic should be left until Sunday.

Here are my opt-ins and outs:

It's funny, now that I think about it, there is far more that I choose not to think about then there is that I choose to think about.