{"id":41620,"date":"2025-04-17T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=41620"},"modified":"2025-04-13T09:01:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T16:01:39","slug":"tempering-the-inner-honey-badger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/tempering-the-inner-honey-badger\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempering The Inner Honey Badger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>This week’s reading, The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense<\/em> by Gad Saad, critically examines the prevailing worldview and approach to life that the author attributes to leftist academia. Saad posits that there is an escalating crusade in society to concoct increasingly irrational departures from reason as a signal of progressive virtue.[1]<\/a> He calls these irrational ideas \u201cpathogens\u201d that disable a person\u2019s ability to think properly.[2]<\/a> This claim challenges the intellectual foundations and motivations behind contemporary academic and societal trends, urging readers to reconsider the impact of such ideologies on common sense and rational discourse.<\/p>\n

In the final blog of the semester, I will examine my convictions about modern thought, explore how my convictions are confirmed, and delve into how my convictions have been challenged due to interacting with The Parasitic Mind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My Deeply Held Convictions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout my lifetime, I have observed a significant transformation in Canadian culture, particularly in terms of worldview, values, and morality. Culturally, Canadian society was relatively conservative, but it has quickly shifted towards a progressive orientation. This cultural evolution is evident in the prevailing belief among many individuals that personal happiness is the paramount value for humanity.<\/p>\n

Social issues such as abortion and medically assisted dying rights are now deeply embedded in the individual’s right to choose and pursue happiness. A notable example of this shift is the substantial increase in Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). In 2023, there were 15,343 MAID deaths, which accounted for one in every twenty deaths in our country. [3]<\/a> \u00a0This statistic underscores the growing acceptance and implementation of policies that prioritize individual autonomy and happiness in matters of life and death.<\/p>\n

Additionally, discussions surrounding human sexuality often neglect scientific arguments. In honest and inquisitive conversations with individuals, when I request empirical evidence to support views that diverge from a traditional, biblical sexual ethic, the responses frequently lack rationality. Instead of presenting empirical data or well-founded scientific reasoning, many individuals resort to subjective arguments. This tendency highlights a broader cultural shift where subjective experiences and personal beliefs are often prioritized over objective scientific arguments. While \u201clived experience\u201d is a valid form of evidence, the term seems overrides any other evidence and often shuts down discussion. “My truth” is the trump card that wins every argument.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My Convictions Confirmed<\/strong><\/p>\n

My convictions arise from both a commitment to rational argument and from my experience as a leader. I consistently run into arguments that are irrational regarding multiple issues.<\/p>\n

I am aligned with Saad that our society has embraced an irrational approach to its worldview and has departed from values of the Enlightenment. He attributes this to multiple societal forces. Saad elucidates, \u201cSuch forces include political correctness (as enforced by the thought police, the language police, and social justice warriors), postmodernism, radical feminism, social constructivism, cultural and moral relativism, and the culture of perpetual offense and victimhood (microaggressions, trigger warnings, and safe spaces on campuses, as well as identity politics).\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Saad, the real challenge to rationality is the emotional fragility of the modern individual and the emphasis placed on not causing hurt feelings. This emphasis on feelings and not creating offence overrides the pursuit of rational truth.[5]<\/a> Coupled with this, the postmodern worldview that we are currently steeped in becomes the \u201cultimate epistemological liberator\u201d.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Human fragility along with postmodernism destroys the foundations of the Enlightenment. In Explaining Postmodernism<\/em> Stephen Hicks also writes, \u201cPostmodernism rejects the reason and the individualism that the entire Enlightenment world depends upon. And so it ends up attacking all of the consequences of the Enlightenment philosophy, from capitalism and liberal forms of government to science and technology.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Convictions Challenged<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am challenged by Saad\u2019s approach. In Chapter 8 he recruits the reader to join in the fight against these pathogens as he has done. He recommends such actions as engagement on social media. At the end of the chapter, he encourages the reader to activate their inner ferocious honey badger. He writes, \u201cLet your animal spirit be that of the honey badger; be ferociously uncompromising in defending your integrity and in protecting truth.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I am not opposed to Saad engaging in such a ferocious way but that has not been my conviction. While I have no trouble debating ideas, and occasionally do so, I have chosen a different approach. I have chosen a relational approach and focused my \u201cinner honey badger\u201d on seeking inroads into the postmodern mindset with the gospel. While I do not embrace postmodernism, I do believe that we must think missionally about how to engage those who are steeped in this worldview. Arguing someone into the Kingdom rarely works.<\/p>\n

After reading Saad, however, I do feel more challenged to step into challenging conversations. Even then, I will do so with more curiosity and a desire to help people encounter Christ. I am more committed to the challenge to speak with both grace and truth than becoming a honey badger to win a battle of ideas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Gad Saad, The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense<\/em> (Washington, D.C: Regnery Publishing, a division of Salem Media Group, 2020), XV.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Saad, 15.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> \u201c\u2018I Could Live 30 Years – but Want to Die\u2019: Has Assisted Dying in Canada Gone Too Far?,\u201d April 4, 2025, https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c3wxq28znpqo.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Saad, The Parasitic Mind<\/em>, 20.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Saad, 29.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Saad, 69.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Michel Foucault, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault<\/em>, 1. ed, expanded ed (Roscoe, Ill.: Ockham\u2019s Razor, 2011), 24.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Saad, The Parasitic Mind<\/em>, 186.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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