It's good to know things, not just experience them

Epistemology is not a dirty word

And now, for something completely different. I am aware of the significance of this date in history (80 years ago), and also aware of the news going on around the world. Eventually I am going to get into some of that, but first, I want to go deep into the minds of birds. This piece might ramble a bit, but I promise, as usual, there’s a point and I’ll do my best to clearly make it.

Zelda is our lutino cockatiel. Photo by Steve Berman

I get a lot of peace watching birds. Not being a “birder”—the ones who sit quietly with field glasses and notebooks trying to identify rare species—but because I have had pet birds in my home off and on since I was a kid. Our current bird is Zelda, a lutino (no grey pigment gene) cockatiel. Zelda is very loving, attention-seeking, food-obsessed (if we’re eating it), and curious. What I’ve noticed about birds is that most of their behavior is not “taught” but—to borrow a computer term—it’s in ROM, read-only memory. They’re hatched with it.

If you look at a random wild bird long enough, you will see many of the same behaviors and mannerisms shared among species. A crow on a light pole will stretch its wings in exactly the same way as Zelda: one wing, then the other, then both in an “angel wings” configuration. When excited or facing a potential rival or foe, Zelda will spread wings—I call it “eagle wings”—to appear larger and more ferocious or imposing (cockatiels are never ferocious except to a newspaper). Crows do the same, as do pretty much all birds (penguins excepted). A goose will spread wings and chase you down for getting in its territory.

In that tiny bird brain, there’s a lot of pre-packaged behavior, and, strikingly, a lot of room for learned things, like whistling, singing, mimicking human words, and tricks (if you have the patience to teach them). Marvelous creatures who are gloriously uncomplicated in that they know what they know, and are unencumbered by complex simulations of the world like what plays in the heads of human beings.

Most people think it’s an insult to be called a “bird brain,” but to me, it’s not particularly bad. I mean, it’s not a compliment like calling me a genius, but you try controlling the orientation and angle of thousands of feathers, while generating lift in wings, processing a thousand bits of information every second, to execute a perfect landing on a picture frame without smacking the wall. That’s a learned behavior, because when we first got Zelda as a baby, it didn’t go so well. “All birds can fly” is only half true, because all birds have to learn to fly, and the more a bird flies, the better it is at flight.

But where I’m going here is the concept of how things are known. The philosophical term for that is “epistemology” or the study of knowledge. Birds know things largely because they have it in ROM. Whether a bird is raised by its mother, or hand-raised by humans, it’s going to know how to stretch, preen, bathe, forage, and handle the basics of flight. These behaviors emerge without being taught. The epistemology of birds is not hard—if you can answer which came first, the chicken or the egg, you have your answer.

People, on the other hand, is a wholly different thing. All we’re born with are some common reflexes, autonomic functions like breathing, digesting food, swallowing, sneezing, etc. (One more thing on birds, they do sneeze: and it’s the cutest thing, except when they spray you with it.) Everything important about being human is learned.

Back in 1799 in France, a “wild child” was discovered, naked and alone, in the forest. When captured, scientists presumed him deaf, or an idiot. But in reality, he probably grew up with no human contact, and failed to socialize in any meaningful way. In 1970, the “forbidden experiment” was conducted with another child found isolated in a room in her parents’ house in Los Angeles. “Genie” never learned to be human, and the grant that funded the initial experiment was pulled (thankfully!). We know that young humans must socialize with other humans in order to thrive. Human epistemology is derived from group interaction—we must be in a tribe.

Just because people have knowledge, doesn’t make it true. This is the historical source of many religions. The sky god won’t send rain unless a dance is performed or a sacrifice is offered. The gods must be angered if a crop fails. The original people who experienced the drought, or the volcano, or whatever calamity, taught their kids that they must do certain things, or believe them on faith, to avoid a similar fate. These rules became religions, and religions were passed down in tribes.

This is not to say that all religions are the internal epistemology of some tribe, scribed for us to conveniently read and dissect with modern science. The concept of right, wrong, morality, and associated behaviors varies among religions, mostly due to the epistemology associated with them. The Incas believed sacrificing children to Inti, the sun god, would spare them from volcanoes, earthquakes, famines or other calamities. Human sacrifice was common among many civilizations. The Romans took a more pragmatic approach: excess slave babies were considered a burden, and frequently simply discarded as waste.

As people learned more, competing epistemologies led to a veneration of human life, even religions like Judaism and Christianity, with the Ten Commandments (“do not murder” is number six), but the act of taking life is still considered necessary, in the name of good governance—keeping the tribe alive, as it were.

Over the last few centuries, liberal schools of philosophy have taken epistemology to a new place: critical theory. One tenet of critical theory holds that scientific principles can be applied to the study of knowledge. Many branches of critical theory believe the learning of things, apart from the accumulation of facts, is an experiential thing, and therefore the experiences (suffering, persecution, justice) of those who do the learning frame the morality, necessity, or “good” in knowledge.

Applying critical theory to various events in history is like taking a fun-house mirror to a painting. The people who made decisions in history were following their own epistemology, their own knowledge of good and bad, and what’s necessary and proper given that knowledge. The Incas didn’t have the same knowledge of vulcanology or seismology as we do now, but they did share a belief that their children (the ones they sacrificed) would go on to a better afterlife.

Christians believe, of course, in the afterlife, sealed with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. Jews also believe in an afterlife. But neither religion holds to a moral practice of killing its own people to achieve it. But at times, because this world, in the epistemology of most religions, is imperfect, fallen, given to atrocity and barbarity, people must engage in killing, war, in pursuit of justice.

Many partakers in critical theory think that those who are persecuted have more of a right to believe their morality carries weight because of their own suffering: that the epistemology of moral truth comes from experience, rather than from objective reality. Jews and Christians, if they believe in the Bible, don’t subscribe to that. The Bible says that God is the giver of all good gifts, and even when objectively bad things happen, He is good. Therefore, the experience of suffering is not a valid source of epistemological truth; rather, faith is the belief that knowledge is gained from the external source of God’s spirit, reflected in what we see in the universe.

I think this means critical theory is incompatible with Christian philosophy. You can’t have the view that epistemological truth comes from the Bible and a relationship with Christ, and also that it’s formed by your own experience and that of your tribe. Either good things happen to bad people, and bad things to good, as a result of God’s order, or it’s our job to right all the badness and make it good. It’s not both.

Said differently, we are all birds, imbued with moral knowledge that comes in ROM, in our spirit, but is only activated when we are in relationship with each other, and relationship with God.

But sometimes, that knowledge means we must fight, and even kill, to defend the good. And good is an objective thing, both at the individual level, and at scale.

Eighty years ago, 7,000 ships crossed the English channel to land nearly 133,000 troops on five beaches code named UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO and SWORD in Normandy, occupied France. They faced hundreds of thousands of German troops manning the Atlantic Wall. From June 6 to mid-September, all the parties to the invasion suffered enormous casualties. The Germans lost the most, followed by the United States, the U.K., Canada and France.

On this day, the Supreme Commander of Operation OVERLORD gave this Order of the Day to all allied troops.

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Ike didn’t know if the invasion would be a success when he gave that order. He might have ordered hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths. But he did know that his task was moral, and good, and that he could ask Almighty God to bless it.

The experience of war is horrible for all involved. The only right thing is knowing, that the task is objectively in service of good. And that means good must be an objective thing. Evil has no place in good, even when, for the good, people who have done evil must die.

Many Americans have been caught up in the lie that good and evil are not objective concepts but the result of critical theory epistemology. That’s false. Good and evil are good and evil, as they are known objectively.

American justice is good. Courts, juries, judges, police who aren’t corrupt, are good. There are good and bad judges, good and bad cops, but God has the right to sort these. It is our duty to serve good.

It’s such a simple idea. Ukrainians are fighting for something good—their own freedom and lives. The Russians are being thrown into battle for evil. Individually, good Russians and bad Ukrainians may die, but God has the right to sort these. It is our duty to serve good.

Israelis are fighting for something good—the elimination of evil terrorists who threaten the liberty and freedom of their own people, as well as the lives of all Israelis. There are good and bad Israelis, and innocent Palestinians will die, but God has the right to sort these. It is our duty to serve good.

On D-Day, consider these things and commit to serve good, even if it means your politics might be upended.

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