7thangel

Intellectual Integrity


Hello everybody. Here is my first post which I am so eager to share. Please bear with me if you would find it lacking presentation. Here it is:

I am a Christian. And my intellectual integrity lies on my wisdom, which is a gift of God. My wisdom is not a part of my physical being, nor is subject to physical laws. For choices could lead me to physical advantages yet wisdom sometimes leads me to choose the least to my physical advantage. Because this wisdom makes me believe of a being who has power over physical things, even of my wisdom, and that it could recreate me to exist eternally. So I have a reason to make physical sacrifices. My wisdom has a standard because of these convictions, and I apply the standard of my wisdom on my daily living, with a hope that there will come a time where all men will be living in harmony and peace. With this wisdom, I believed that truth is absolute, and is leading to absolute good. Therefore I am convinced that my wisdom should be enforced on my being, and use it to encourage or discourage, to excuse or un-excuse, or judge one another….allow me to stop in here…..

So my question is: Where does your intellectual integrity come from? And share to me the reasons that I can depend on it?


P.S.
Please bear with me if I will be slow to respond.
May God Bless You All,

NILO

Shadowy Man

My intellectual integrity comes from not believing things I have no reason to believe.

I depend on the merciless exactitude of skepticism I apply to claims and new beliefs. This has been honed by years of scientific procedure and inquiry.

I am by training an astrophysicist, an occupation that requires an enormous amount of intense observation of the universe around me. For me, the final arbiter is the universe and the way it works.

Jayjay

I'm not sure if I understood correctly, but here goes...

My intellectual integrity comes from observing people who do not have it. Creationists, UFO nutcases, cultists, political extremists... frankly anyone with the amazing ability to ignore reality when it contradicts their own prejudice or fuzzy feelings. If it wasn't for these people, I probably wouldn't give second thought to "intellectual integrity", or why it's important.

Xeluan

The most important (and overlooked) aspect of intellectual integrity is the ability to know when you are wrong and admit to that fact.

Xeluan

xoc

Integrity refers to the purity of something, that it does not suffer mixture with a lesser element. In this way integrity can refer to systems(eg. database systems), substances(even heroin), or the ethical purity of a person.

Jesus said "let your eye be single." As I understand it this refers to not having two eyes for judging, one eye for judging others and one eye for judging ourselves, but one eye which judges all (self and others) in equal manner. When we look at the world, we seek to understand it; with understanding comes evaluation, and from that judgment. The first integrity is to have integrity in ourselves; if we practice what we preach, and that our beliefs do not have conflict with each other. If we hold contradictory beliefs, we violate intellectual integrity- the first belief that the World is "ONE" in reality, and that contradiction does not exist in Nature itself, but only our perception of it.

My intellectual integrity is not complete- it is not perfect, as I find I must accept elements of one world view for one reason that seem contradictory to another world view I must accept for some other reason. I have conflict in belief and understanding. My way of getting around this is to take each element as it is and accept it for that "as if it were true." This has become preferable to me than trying to reconcile every perceived fracture that seperates a rational secular view from a spiritual view. One eye sees the world as it is and was, the other sees the world as it "will" be and as it is beyond perception- by faith. The intellect is not the full aspect of a man; and if I must sacrifice or not fulfill a perfect "intellectual integrity" to try and keep a greater spiritual/emotional integrity of the "full man" then I guess I must.

Plato saw man as one living in a cave, perceiving shadows from the outside and trying to understand what made them from that. Paul wrote of "seeing through a glass darkly." Both refer to a fundamental ignorance which we fight, but cannot ultimately conquer. Intellectual integrity means to me to take each thing as it is, each study as it must be taken. It means not to twist our interpretations of data to fit our preconceived expectations, and not try and fit square pegs in round holes. The problem is when one perception contradicts another- the infamous wave/particle duality is the classic example of 20th century physics. Then we must accept the seeming contradictory reality as being truly "integral" in itself and not contradictory, and question our own perception and interpretation.

I guess intellectual integrity to me is really an awareness of my own ignorance.

AnthonyAdams45

What do you mean by "intellectual integrity"? The standard usage refers to someone's trustworthiness in intellectual endeavor; that the speaker will present only honestly arrived at observations coupled with seriously considered conclusions. As such, my wisdom, such as it is, rests on my integrity, not the other way round. My integrity comes from a sincerity about inquiry and an honesty in my reasoning.

Are we talking the same language?

Keith Russell

Greetings:

'Truth, it must be truth. When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.'
--Merlin, in Excalibur.

Keith.

Arrowman

I think AnthonyAdams45 sums it up quite well; along with Xeluan's "The most important (and overlooked) aspect of intellectual integrity is the ability to know when you are wrong and admit to that fact" and xoc's "I guess intellectual integrity to me is really an awareness of my own ignorance."

To that I would add "acknowledging the difference between what is fact, and what is your opinion". Consistency and honesty are the keys, I think.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan said something very apposite here:Jayjay is right when s/he points out that creationists, UFO nutcases etc are prime examples of the lack of intellectual integrity. A very good, and reasonably straightforward, example is this thread from another forum:
http://forum.jcsm.org/jcsmforum/topi...=&TOPIC_ID=670
The thread runs as follows:
1. Jason cites an assertion from a "friend who is a creation scientist" (my guess is Kent Hovind) that the use of "leap seconds" is evidence that the rotation of the earth is slowing.
2. After a while, and in the face of information from other posters, Jason concedes that the leap second is not in fact evidence that the earth is slowing down. He demonstrates intellectual integrity.
(Note at this point that the argument is not about whether or how fast the earth is actually slowing down - it is about whether this particular phenomenon is evidence for that claim.)
3. Jason reports this back to his friend and the other posters eagerly await the response.
4. The response, eventually, is that according to Jason the friend "only wrote two sentences. They were a bit off the subject. He simply said that evolutionists were wrong about various things."
Now the lack of intellectual integrity rears its ugly head. Jason refuses to acknowledge that his friend was wrong about something very basic and obvious, or concede that perhaps on that basis this friend's assertions is other areas might to be trustworthy. This is not intellectual integrity on his part. And his friend, apparently, also refuses to acknowledge the obvious error - even though to do so would not necessarily entirely undo his case.

And that is one of the key things about intellectual integrity - or people who lack it - they won't concede even the most obvious point, for fear that it will undermine their case.

To continue with the creationist example - a creationist who bases their position entirely on faith, is not necessarily guilty of a lack of intellectual integrity. Deluded, perhaps, but that's another story However - more dangerous than the "faith based" creationist is the one who claims that there is actual scientific evidence to support their belief. To sustain this position, they need to lie, distort and ignore the facts. And that is a lack of intellectual integrity.

Now, 7thangel, since you are a Christian posting this question on an atheist forum, I see an implicit question in your post - forgive me if I assume too much:

Do atheists believe that Christians lack intellectual integrity?

- For me personally, no - that is not a generalisation I would use. I know too many Christians who demonstrate intellectual integrity, and acknowledge the basis of their faith is just that - faith - to make that claim. As I said above - deluded, perhaps, but not necessarily lacking intellectual integrity.

Neither should Christians assume that atheism somehow mitigates against intellectual integrity.

Now to your specific question: "Where does your intellectual integrity come from? And share to me the reasons that I can depend on it?"

There are two parts to this question:

- First, we have the "where does it come from?" question

This assumes that a phenomenon such as intellectual integrity (or love, or morals, or whatever) must have a "source" or a "giver". Neither. It just is. Some people got it, some don't.

- The second part is, how can you depend on my/our intellectual integrity, when we don't claim it came from God?

You state that "my intellectual integrity lies on my wisdom, which is a gift of God" but as has been pointed out, intellectual integrity and wisdom are not things which can be said to depend one upon the other. It seems fairly unlikely that a person could be genuinely "wise" and yet lack intellectual integrity, but that doesn't mean that one comes before, or rests upon, the other. But maybe that's nitpicking - the important question is, why should you, a Christian, depend on the intellectual integrity of an atheist, when you believe that intellectual integrity is given by God?

Well, I suppose if you're prepared to believe that an atheist can be a good and moral person, you should be prepared to believe that atheists can be relied on for intellectual integrity In fact, it's easier to determine whether a person (Christian or atheist) has intellectual integrity, than whether they are "moral" because intellectual integrity can be objectively measured. Is this person lying about facts? Are they expressing opinions as though they were facts? Are they distorting things said by others, or ignoring reasoned rebuttal? All of these questions can be answered reasonably objectively.

Intellectual integrity is like a lot of other human traits - one either has it, or one does not, and one may believe it came from God, or one may not. You may believe it was given by God - that doesn't mean He didn't give it to me as well

lunachick

Another nod here at AnthonyAdams45's answer.

However, Arrowman assumed you were asking:

I am assuming you are asking:

Why I assume you are asking the second question, rather than Arrowman's suggested question, is because:

*Emphasis mine.

And so I'd like to ask you a question, 7thangel. Do you believe atheist's have intellectual integrity? And are you equating "intellectual integrity" with "morality"?

Kantian

Intellectual integrity is a vague description, which is an approval of a type of behavior that exemplifies some kind of ideology. Given the subjective nature of the individual, an approval is but mere contingence, temporal, finite - irrespective of the percentage of common beliefs. What is the matrix of the matrix?

Lunachick, you've nailed it.
:notworthy
Most of the drive-by criticism of Christians have been motivated by a "holier-than-thou" feelings of superiority, and the vocabulary they employ is a sterling example of their prejudices. A deep sort of psychological hatred of the 'different' spurs a person to compensate for adlerian complexes. (coughstrollcoughcoughs)

Another drive by expresses the website's parochical attitude, to the amusement of those in the know and the lurkers.

~Transcendentalist~