Saved?

I've met plenty of "wrong-headed" people that did not have advanced degrees, also- ignorance abounds regardless of education or lack thereof.

 

How is wrong-headedness solved by a degree or lack thereof? The condition seems universal among humans.

It is not the degree or lack that causes the problems. That is an intentional fallacy called equivocation.

Here is an example of the fallacy in proposition form:

Logic teaches you how to argue.
People argue entirely too much.
Therefore we don't need to teach people Logic.​

Your proposition could be expressed as follows:

Higher degrees teach people concepts and ideas
People use concepts and ideas to do harmful things in the world
Therefore we should not teach higher degrees.​

We could also include in that proposition the books that persons with higher degrees write, the research they do (or did) that helps others to understand the world around us, etc., because those books and the research may lead some to conclusions that do not match someone else's ideas.

That is hogwash, of course.

Why?

Well, for starters, I'm assuming that you are using a computer via the Internet to respond to these posts. You are not sitting in a simple room somewhere, with wood heat, holding a sheepskin with hand-inked letters in your hands. So, you violate your own tenet of the use of higher education, that being the thing that taught the men and women the technology that led to the very items you now use as part of your daily life, and such has been true down through the ages.

Second, every time you pick up a Bible, including the venerated KJV, you are indebted to persons who were scholars with higher degrees. Unlearned men did not produce Bible translations from the original languages.

Third, "learning" is not the sole function of higher education. One can "learn" in or out of academia, as has been amply demonstrated above. One thing that often proves an advantage for academia or higher education is enforced review of learning. Professors require their students to prove in some sense or another their proficiency in the subject matter. Depending on the level of degree pursued that may be anywhere from answering a multiple-choice quiz up to writing a book-length dissertation. There is no such pressure to perform in the personal study, though it should be noted that ALL study is indeed personal. No one, in or out of the classroom actually "learns" anything unless they desire to learn that material. There is no "osmosis" (as has already been observed) that simply places material in the head of the person sitting before a book or before a professor.

Fourth, In this world there are beneficial and non-beneficial items that can be disseminated, taught, studied, or learned. A wise professor once gave his class some valuable wisdom, "In anything you read or study (except God's Word) you will find things that are not correct mixed together with other things that are correct. My advice is to 'eat the meat and spit out the bones.'" I have found this wisdom invaluable in my own studies since hearing them uttered in that classroom. The wisdom and knowledge found in books is an invaluable resource to the people of the world, but someone has to sort out which parts are worthy of utilizing and which are not. In large part, that will be based on the worldview of the learner, for ultimately, short of brainwashing (which I think many non-intellectuals believe is what happens in academia!) what is "learned" is the sole responsibility of the learner.

 

Excellent post, GLF!