1/16/2023 Why critical thinking matters to Christians in this increasingly technological world?Read Now The youth of today may not realize it but the internet has changed the way we think? For one thing, it’s made us all “dual-screeners” -- constant access to information makes us tend to multi-task more, and more multitasking makes us more distractible. Even though some of us have become so called “king of multitasking”, there’s often so much new information cramming up onto our screens, or notifications on your mobile phones, at any given time, that makes it harder to concentrate on what is at hand. This is because our attentions only have a limited capacity -- the internet is throwing broadband speed information at us, but we’re still absorbing the information at dial-up speed. We rely on the internet so much today that it’s like an extension of our minds. Like a Swiss army knife but with new brain features. A good example is with memory: because we now can easily access information whenever we want, we tend not to bother to remember the information itself; all we do is just remember where we need to go to find it. When we find it, we tend to skim through the pages on the screen in front of us as though we are speed readers. These days, when we face a gap in our knowledge, we’ve primed ourselves to turn to the internet first for answers. Like the phrase often used: “Just Google it!” The pervasiveness of technology in our everyday lives means we don't ever slow down to think about what's really happening. Instead of communicating with people in a face-to-face manner, we're constantly staring at tablets, typing away on touchscreen keyboards, and smartphones often at the side of our faces. Technology has affected the way individuals communicate, learn, and think. It has positive and negative effects on the world and it impacts our daily lives. Social comparison, feelings of missing out, and cyberbullying all stem from the content we see online. These negative impacts lead to more depression and anxiety. Our bodies experience the negative effects of technology, too. More screen time can disrupt sleep, especially if this screen time is before bed. Basically, our brain is learning to disregard information found online, and this connection becomes stronger every time we experience it. So the more we use a search engine like Google, the less likely we are to retain what we see. Our brains use information stored in the long-term memory to facilitate critical thinking. It is certainly changing what parts of the brain we use, has made us a little more distractible, and has become an “addictive” activity. Above image from the BBC T.V. series : The Undeclared War, Episode 4 (10.36 min) The following dialogue on fake news: Reporter: So all of it is made up, the whole thing?! Manager: Well, I prefer managed. Reporter: So, what’s the point of reporting something that’s so obviously fake news? Manager: Whether it’s fake isn’t the point. I mean everything reported is fake one way or another. We know that people won’t believe it, it probably contradicts what we said yesterday, doesn’t matter. The point is to get people used to the idea that everything is a lie, there is no truth. Once they accept that the biggest lie wins. Therefore, all these circumstances and the information we are exposed to have to a large degree influenced the way we live and think, which has also affected how we practice our faith and how our religious beliefs could be corrupted. Indeed, as people of faith, we should always be applying critical thinking to avoid being influenced wrongly against our faith; especially today we are surrounded by main stream media and all kinds of information streaming through on our mobile devices, and what we see in public TV screens. We must be weary of the flood of fake news, of peoples’ agenda or Globalist’s propaganda or information that will influence our thoughts and behaviours. Or are we going to do just what the media or authorities say? Should we be gullible? First of all, what is critical thinking? When we hear the term critical thinking we might think of criticism or cynicism, when in reality those aren’t the elements that define critical thinking. Critical thinking is not about thinking critically in the sense of criticizing others’ thoughts, or of our own. Critical thinking is more of a rational and disciplined way of thinking that follows a consistent logic, and/or recognizes when consistent logic is absent. The aspects of ordering and structuring is the realization that all the things that can ever go wrong with any thought that may be due to ambiguous terms, false premises, or logical fallacies. And this is a wonderful simplifying and clarifying of the process of criticizing any thoughts, written or spoken, by any person, yourself or another, about any topic, human or divine. Critical thinking skills are the ability to imagine, analyze, and evaluate information in order to determine its integrity and validity, such as what is factual and what isn't. These skills help people form opinions and ideas as well as help them know who is being a good friend and who isn't. In fact, critical thinking is an essential part of problem-solving, decision-making, and goal-setting. It also is the basis of education, especially when combined with reading comprehension. These two skills together allow kids to master information. According to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, thanks to technology’s great influence in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved. The way people learn have changed as a result of their exposure to technology, says Greenfield, who analyzed more than 50 studies on learning and technology, including research on multi-tasking and the use of computers, the Internet and video games. Her research was published in the journal Science. Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said. "Studies show that reading develops imagination, induction, reflection and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary," Greenfield said. "Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades." Parents should encourage their children to read and should read to their young children, she said. Why is critical thinking important to Catholics? "Critical thinking" is simply the currently fashionable term for what used to be called "human reason." It means judging thoughts, negatively or positively, by these three standards. Another word for “critical thinking” is “logical thinking.” This is a holy and Christian thing, because the ultimate foundation of logic is the Logos - the eternal Mind or Reason or Inner Word of God, which St. John’s Gospel identifies as the pre-incarnate Christ. The human art and science of logic is the instrument that teaches us to rightly order and structure our thoughts, as a means to the end of thought, which is truth. So for a Christian, critical thinking means not only thinking that has been purged of illogic but also of sin; not only thinking that has been subjected to the honest judgment of the theoretical reason, but also to the honest judgment of the practical reason, or reason about practice, i.e. moral reason. Catholics need to realize that critical thinking enables us to establish that doctrines central to the Christian faith are based solidly on scripture, reason, and available evidences. We find that these doctrines stand up to a careful examination. Consider it as a divinely designed tool for ordering our thoughts, our actions, our world, and our task of being working organs in Christ’s Body, His hands and feet for building His Kingdom, His empire – in other words for our holy spiritual war. Children and young people need to be able to evaluate online content and contact, and recognize how the content they are exposed to and the people they interact with can affect their own behaviour, emotions and beliefs. Critical thinking can help you better understand yourself, and in turn, help you avoid any kind of negative or limiting beliefs, and focus more on your strengths. Being able to share your thoughts can increase your quality of life. What are the benefits of critical thinking in daily life? It encourages curiosity. It enhances creativity. It reinforces problem-solving ability. It's a multi-faceted practice. It fosters independence. It's a skill for life, not just learning. What causes lack of critical thinking? At a personal level, barriers to critical thinking can arise through: an over-reliance on feelings or emotions. self-centred or societal/cultural-centred thinking (conformism, dogma and peer-pressure) unconscious bias, or selective perception. What are the common pitfalls or barriers to thinking critically and analytically? Misunderstanding. This can arise due to language or cultural differences, a lack of awareness of the ‘processes’ involved, or a misunderstanding that critical thinking means making ‘negative’ comments Reluctance to critique the ‘norm’ or experts in a field and consider alternative views (feeling out of your ‘comfort zone’ or fearful of being wrong). Lack of detailed knowledge. Superficial knowledge (not having read deeply enough around the subject). Wanting to know the answers without having to ask questions. A consequence of not thinking critically is a loss of personal freedom. If you passively accept beliefs that have been handed to you by your family and your culture, then those beliefs are not really yours. Or accepting whatever the main stream media publishes as true. How do you know if you lack critical thinking skills? Jumping to conclusions. Making assumptions. Negative thinking. Losing track of our purpose. Accepting false or inaccurate information. Thinking one-sidedly. Ignoring our own ignorance. Critical thinking can feel very hard in the beginning, especially if you have not already gotten accustomed to it. It will be like starting to use a muscle that has long been left ignored, and you may feel pain and discomfort when you start to work it. Your current view on big and small matters can be challenged, and this can leave you feeling a bit shaky and not on stable ground. However, the more you use that muscle the stronger it gets, and you will soon start to feel the results of living a life that is conscious and chosen and not automatic or chosen for you. You will also feel stronger and more capable of handling any situation because your brain muscles will be strong and agile and ready to tackle any challenge. And one of the best parts of all is you will become less vulnerable to external manipulation because you will see right through it and to the truth of the matter. In short: it ain’t easy, but it is sure worth it.
For a Christian, critical thinking means not only thinking that has been purged of illogicality but also of sin; not only thinking that has been subjected to the honest judgment of the theoretical reason, but also to the honest judgment of the practical reason, or reason about practice, i.e. moral reason. The judgment of the theoretical reason consists in these three logical questions: (1) what does it mean? (2) is it true? and (3) what is the evidence or proof? In other words, are there any ambiguous terms, are there any false premises, and are there any logical fallacies? If not, the conclusion is true. The judgment of the practical, moral reason consists in a single question: is this good or evil? A crucial difference between the judgment of the theoretical reason and the judgment of the practical reason is that the judgment of the practical reason is almost always clear, and immediate, and certain. We know what is good and what is evil far more clearly than we know what is true and false. Our conscience is louder than our logic. Most problems of discerning God's will are moral, not intellectual. Jesus Himself said, when asked by the Pharisees how they could understand His teaching, "If your will were to do the will of my Father, you would understand my teaching." That is the most important principle of critical thinking about morality. Reasoning, or critical thinking, comes from God. It is God's gift. But how can that be true if it is something we do and something we are responsible for? God does not do our critical thinking for us. It is God's gift for two reasons. First, because it is the exercise of an essential part of the image of God in us. God does not think our thoughts for us, yet our minds are dependent on God's mind just as totally as the existence of the physical universe is dependent on God’s will to “let it be” and on God’s power to do all that He wills. Our minds are mirrors, and God is the sun, and all the light we generate is reflected light from Him; yet it is our choice to turn our mirrors to the sun or not, and to keep them clean or not, and to keep them unbroken or to break them into fragments. Every time we think wrongly, we misuse a divine gift, just as whenever we misuse our free will we misuse a divine gift. Both wrong thinking and wrong choosing are sacrileges, because they desecrate a holy thing. What we pervert in wrong thinking is the mirrored powers of God's own mind that He gave us in giving us His own image. We pervert this image whenever we move our minds into the dark and away from the light, just as we pervert the mirrored powers of God's will which He gave us in giving us free will as part of His image in us, whenever we move our wills to evil and away from good. God continues to uphold in existence His spiritual gifts, the two powers of His image in us, even when we pervert them, just as He continues to uphold the physical universe even when we misuse it. At the moment when He said "Be" in creating the universe, he said "continue to be" to Cain's rock even as it split Abel's head, and to the nails we used to pierce His own Son's flesh on the Cross. The second reason critical thinking is God's gift is because grace perfects nature, and this is an essential part of human nature, the ability and the desire to think logically as a means to thinking truly. The fact that grace perfects nature means that the very same things that are truly ours, and come from our own human nature and activity, can be truly God's, and from the actions of His grace. Another good question is:” How should critical thinking order our thoughts? And my answer is: Unconscious time but by conscious decision sometimes, especially those times when it is hardest and we are most tempted to laziness.” Dr. Peter Kreeft There are many other good ways of thinking than thinking logically –thinking intuitively or mystically or imaginatively or romantically or even sometimes randomly – and there are many occasions when we should think non-logically, but there are never times when we should think illogically, except when we are deliberately making a joke, laughing at laughable follies. But our lives should not be laughable follies. Thus the answer to the question of how critical thinking should order our thoughts, is also the answer to the question, how it should order our actions. For "Sow a thought, reap an act." It takes the will, not the mind, to carry out the thought into the act, and between the thought and the act lies many a shadow. But that is a topic for another day, when we talk about moral vices and virtues. Another question is how critical thinking should order our secular world, which is simply an extension of the another question, how it should order our individual lives, for the life of the world is simply the coming together of all our individual lives. Do you want to see what critical thinking looks like? Read St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The Church and Her Enemies By Father Michael Mueller C.SS.R. |
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AuthorAn artist, entrepreneur, a loving family man, 30 years a Catholic traditionalist upholding traditions for the love of God. Shop for Catholic giftsArchives
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