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THI MISSING DIMINSIDN
IN
~mM
The dissemination ofknowledge about sex has
occuned only since World War l . Medieval
ignorance, coupled
with
the "sex-is-shameful"
attitude and church repression, caused
frustration an¡Jmiserably unhappymarriages.
But the modem diffusion ofsex knowledge and
the pennissive sexual freedoms ofthe "new
morality" have plunged
thé
Westem
world
from·the frying pan into the fire. Whyl
by
Herbert
W.
Armstrong
Partll
'"J"'UB
most
vital climeosion
i.o
kDowl–
~
edge about
sex
and maniage has
been lllÍ5Sing.
But tbis vital dimension is mi.ssing
not
only
from kDowledge about sex and
maniage.
lt
is lllÍ5Si.og from kDowledge
ingeneral.
.
To uodmtand, we need to realize tbe
ímpetus
~hind
tbe general kDowledge
ex,plosioo and
How·
tbe most vital
di-
mensioo came to be missing.
· '
The dramatic rise in tbe world's total
tmld of kDowledge began. roughly,
170
years ago, witb tbe advent of modem
science. The new kDÓwledge in tbe fields
of science and tecbnology developed
slowly at first. Knowledge productinn
gai.oed momentum gradually, and tben,
finalJy, camc tbe lcnowledge explosion.
Bven when
1
was
a
boy, we
used
kero–
sene Lamps, horse-and-buggy trans.t
ponation, and tbe little "dínky" trolley–
can
wbicb bad just replaoed tbe borse–
drawn
stteet cars. Radio, television, and
airplanes were
unbeard
of by most
people.
lt's hard
10
reaüz.e, now, that tbis
world weiu along on virtually
an
even
lceel - with no material progress to
speak
of - for tbousands of,years. 11 wa.s
primarily an agricultura! world, usi.og
primilive farmi.og metbods. Tbe cast–
iron
plow was not invented until
1797 -
tbe
disc
plow not uotil 1896, when
J
wa.s
a growUig boy. Tbe fust harvester came
in 1836.
Thi.olc
of it! Tbrough thosc long
mil–
lennia tbe world
was
virtually witbout
ttansportalion or means of communica–
tion.
Transportatioo
was
by foot, mule–
baclc, camel, elepbant or borse. By sea it
was
by slow·moviog sailboat Tbe tele–
phonc was oot invented until 1876, wire–
less in
1896.
Tbe lirst steamboat
(Fulton) was
1803.
In my Ufelime we have seen tbe ma–
cbine age, tbe jet age, tbe nuclear age,
and tbe space age. What slimulated
tbis
accelerati.og materialislic development?
It occurred simultaneously witb tbe
sudden spun
10
national wealtb and
6
power of
two
nations - Britai.o and tbe
United States- 1800 to
1803.
Witb Ibis
suddenly acquired material wealtb: our
peoplc became materialistically rnioded.
The
New Messiah - Modem
Sdeace
Our scienlists
assured.
tbe
world
that
man
had progressed to tbc poiot where
. be could safely dispense witb tbc super·
st ilious crutch of religion and belief in
God. Now humanity could rely on tbe
new
messiab - modero science.
"Given suJ!lcientlcnowledge,
M
said tbe
scienlistS,
"we
shall so1ve
aU
of buman–
ity's problems and cure
aU
tbe world's
ills."
Tbe tools of modero science wcre
mecdy a stepped-up
use
of tbose man
had employed si.oce tbe
dawn
of history
- observalion, experimentlltion, and
human reason.
So lcnowledge production has in·
ereased al a conti.ouously accelecati.og
pace. And
~
includes tbe area ofsex!
But
Eñls
~
A1so
But, paradoxically, hum;(ruty's prob–
lems, troubles and evils bave ' been
i.ocreasi.og at an equal pace of accelera·
lion!
In
tbe one most rccent decade,
from 1960 to 197'0, man's
total
fund of
lcnowledge DOUBLED! But, incndibly, in
tbat same
ten
shon years tbe wor1d's
n.OUBLES and IMLS
lhwbled
a/sol
WHAT'S
WRONO
wjtb tbc dictum tbat
lcnowledgc is the sole need for solutions?
lncrcasi.og evils have come with incnas–
ing lcnowledge! That's tbe b.ard, cold
fact tbat must be faoed!
Is
it wrolig
10
possess
or
gai.o
DIOWL–
EDGe?
Most cenainly not!
Am
1discour–
agi.og tbe acquisition of lcnowledge? BY
NOMEANS!
On tbc other hand, we are faoe to face
witb tbe PACT tbat evils have escalated
along with tbe production of lcnowledge.
Tbat does not necessarily mean that tbe
.lcnowledge
produoed
caused
tbe evils. 1t
dQu
mean tbat the lcnowledge produoed
did 1101
cure existing evils or
prevtntnew
evils.
Tbere
luu
ro
be
a
lcnowledge gap -
a
missi.n¡
dimeosion - somewbere!
It's
bigb time wc learn wbat it is!
For every
eff«t,
tbere has to be a
CAUSe!
Tbere has to be
a
CAUse for all the
world's evils! Tbere ba.s to be a CAuse
for tbc worsening moral problem! Tbere
can
be
TWO IONDS
of lcnowledgc - true
andfalse.
ture
il.
is a tbcory not subject to proof. It·
is a
FAtrH.
And to question it
is -
10·
tbose who embrace
tbis
fa.itb -
aca–
demic heresy!
Do wc, then,
DAU
question tbe tbeo–
ries
so
generally ae<¡epted by advanced
scholarsbip?
Is
it h_erelical to question
tbeir as3umed conclusioos and aslc for
ra.ooP? 1s
it academic
h~
to
look
at
tbe.
otltu
súle
oftbe coin?
Suppose,
now,
W'8
appropriate tbe
ac–
tukmlcfrudom
to carefully
examine
tbat
lo tbis feverisb dcvelopmeot of wbicb has been d{slllÍ5Sed
witlwwt
exam-
kDowledge production, scboiars in uni- ination.
versities bave beeñ placing great empha-
IÍ migbt prove excitíng and enligbt- ·
sis on
academlc freedom.
Academic ening, al
tbis
point, to allow ourselves
fteedom' is delinee!
as
the independent the latitudc of academic freedom
judgment allowed teachen, scbolars, sci- unprejudicially to examine tbe bítslical
entists, students, in tbe pursuit of lcnowl- narralive of tbc forbidden fruit Tbat bit
edge.
of revelalion purpons to describe tbe
Science as a whole and bigber educa- crucial initial even.t in human f'Xperi·
lion have exereised tbe academlc free- ence that cbanged tbe entire course of
dom to postulate
a
creation witbout a
bistory.
Creator. Tbey have engaged in tbe ac-
Tbefirst,l.breechaptersoflheBibledo
livity of lcnowledge production witb
to-
havc something to say about
sex
and
tal rcjection of
any
possibility
of
tbe
matriage.
And, af\er
aU,
.th.e man and
miraculous,
tbc supematural, tbe
exis- -
tbe woman tbere described
~
nalud,
·
ten
ce
or
Ood - or anything outside tbe •
weren't
rh~yl
realm of tlie material. They have re-
Evidently few, ifany- wbetber'scien-
jected utterly revelation as
a
source of
tist,
scbolar or tbeologian - bave viewed·-
ba.sic
lcno¡~~ledge!
Wben 1 engaged
in
researcb on the
tbeory of evolution, I studied Darwin,
Haeclcel, Huxley, Vogt, Chamberlain
and otb.er expontoiS of tbe tbeory. But
also
1 looked at tbe ol.ber side of tbe
queslion. But
1
would venture to say tbat
most of tbose whose higber edui:ation
has been acquired during the past half
century have been taugbt and have ac–
eepted witbout question tbe evolution·
ary
tbcory,1101
havingexamined
wlth
any
~riowsnt#
tbe biblical evideoces ofspe·
cial cto:alion. To go along witb tbe evo–
lutionary concept has becomc tbe
scholarly "tN" tbing.
In
most ínstitutions
of bigber leaming, tbe world's "best
seUer''
has been dislllÍ5Sed
wltlwut a
M<uing.
Is
it not human toen'!
Could
it be
¡wssibk
for tbe most
bigbly edueated
mi.ods
to have been in–
tellcctually misled or deceived? Cou1d
they, vicwing only
one·slde
of the ques–
lion, be infallible, entirely above malci.og
mistakes?
·
Tbe CauseofEnon
For many years now, 1 have ohserved
tbat errors almost always come from a
falsc basic premise, carelessly
assumed
a.s self·evident, and taken for granted
witbout queslion, tben building on that
false hasic bypotbesis. Tbe basie premise
for lcnowledge production in our
lime
has been tbe evolutionary concepl
1t
bas been tb.e eyeglasscs tbrougb
wbicb
aU
questions have been viewed.
Y
ct it
remai.os unpro;-ed, and
~y
its very na·
....
--·
There has to be a cause
for al/ the world's evilsl
Therll_ has to be a cause
for the worsening moral
probleml There can be two
kinds of knowledge -
true and fa/se.
tbis
account witb any remote conception
tbat it migbt explai.o tbe origin of tbe
scienlilie method of
KNOWLBDOB PRO–
DUCTION. Or, tbat it mlght revea1
the
very
SOIIJ'Ce of the faJa/ miJsing dimen–
sionl
Cenainly almost no one - tbeolo–
gians included - has eva
VNDOSTOOD
what
tbis
account really does
SA
Y!
Bqla at
~
Beglnaln¡
1 tbink we must begi.o our view of tbe
forbiddcn fruit narrativo a.t tbe begin·
-ning,
tbe very first verse
in
tbe Bible.
So we b_egin:
"In
thc beginning,
God ....
M
Tbat stalement delinitely
puts
God
in existence before
aU
else. No
postulate - no guess - no
"perhaps~
just the 1imple positive statemel!l,
" . . . created lbe heaven and tbe eartb.
K
'wbether fact or ti'ction - ttutb or er–
ror - tbat is what
was
written, purport–
ing to be tbe revealed Word ofGod.
Sometbing ttemendous is indicated to
have occurred between what is staled to
have beco tbe original creation of tbe
eanh (verse 1) and tbe statement in
WEl!K
ENDINO JUNB 7, 1975
--l
i