Too many men are unwilling to learn from the world. They avoid reading secular texts or digesting worldly philosophy. They do so at their own peril and only reduce the growth of their minds.
You have probably heard statements made in the church like “Why remember song lyrics? If you can remember those then you should be able to remember plenty of Bible verses”. This is a real statement a minister said to me when I was young. While that is true, the implication is that you should not be learning anything from the world.
Church members will do the same thing if you start reading secular philosophy. Heaven forbid that you should read Nietzsche or Neil DeGrasse Tyson since they do not agree exactly with everything we say. By that logic, these same people should discourage American Generals from studying Asian battle tactics or some other enemies strategies. You cannot defeat the opposition if you know nothing about them.
This type of mentality in the church has retarded the mental and argumentative growth of its members.
They no longer know how to rationally argue their points and attack the views of the world, and their knowledge is limited to that which they may acquire in the church (which isn’t much, as scientists tend not to be Christians).
We have a great deal of knowledge about the world available to us. It would be asinine to try to confine everything we need to learn to what we can glean in the church. There is no way for us to live and survive in the world if we only relied on other Christians for knowledge. They don’t know everything. This is not irreverent or disrespectful, it is true.
Legendary Japanese Swordsman Miyamoto Musashi wrote “If you know the Way well, you will see it in all things”.
Not only is this a quote that most Christians don’t know because of their unwillingness to read secular texts, it is also a great insight to Christianity itself. While Musashi was writing about the Way of war or swordplay, it can easily apply to the Way of Christianity. If you know the Way of Christianity well, you will see it in all things. You will see Christian principles in all the secular texts you read and in the worldly philosophy you encounter. Unfortunately, most Christians do not know the way well, so they see it in nothing.
There are a plethora of secular men who conduct themselves in a moral manner that are good role models for the Christian. This is because God has instilled a natural morality in man even if he does not follow the Way. Some individuals in the church would fear if you were being inspired by the “heathen”, which only reveals their ignorance of reality. In a church where there are no longer masculine role models, no longer any real men, no longer any free thinking individuals, you must be inspired by men of the world. Combine their admirable traits with your faith to be the man that the church needs, and repopulate the church with men, and purge it of the effeminate, corpulent eunuchs who wrongfully refer to themselves as servants of God.
Mantra
To grow in knowledge is to destroy the enemy.
Application
Know the way. You must first know what you believe and why you believe it before you can learn from all possible sources in the world. Do this, and you are ahead of 99% of modern day so-called Christians.
Start reading secular works of philosophy, there are plenty to choose from, and they are packed with wisdom that you otherwise never would have known about by simply listening to mindless religious men. This knowledge will make you more capable in argument and in cultivating your own philosophy. You must discover what it is that you believe to be true, otherwise you will be destroyed. Learn your philosophy. Gain Knowledge. Be a Man. Learn from the world
- Pick up any book by Friedrich Nietzche/Ayn Rand/Stephen Hawking and start reading it. Learn to reason through their works with your own mind and discover your own counterarguments.
- Absorb power through secular philosophy. You will always be limited in your growth if you are limited to religious writers.
- Combine secular knowledge with your faith. Combine elements that you read with principles in scripture to create a hybrid philosophy as strong as titanium.
Conduct Yourselves Like Men.