The doctrine of Self Esteem has been an integral part of our schools for a long, long, time. But a study by
Scientific American has found that this ideal can actually lower grades and lead to "socially unacceptable behavior", i.e. bullying, drugs, and promiscuity.
Some of the most famous programs to build self esteem originated in California in the early 1980s. Of course, we know that self esteem comes from psychology, psychology from Freud, and Freud was an atheist. But that is besides the point. After all, they finally found a doctrine they could teach in school and deny that it is religion. Never mind that the Supreme Court has defined atheism as its own religion.
The rationale behind the push for self-esteem programs is that people are
basically good, but that since they do not "believe in themselves", from thence stems all evil in society. Or that is the way the argument goes. In a 1989 publication called
The Social Importance of Self-Esteem, the statement was made that
". . . many, if not most, of the major problems plaguing society have roots in the low self-esteem of many of the people who make up society."
But the first scientific problem with this comes from the fact that "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." A study was done in 1995 showed that there is no correlation between a person's "self-esteem" and how attractive or intelligent the person actually is. Artificial attempts to bolster someone's positive thoughts about themselves leads to dissatisfaction with other people and feelings of superiority. After all, if "social value" is not based on physical or mental characteristics, I can pass judgment on the value of anyone without any rationale.
Another study done by Scientific American found that self-esteem bolsters a person's opportunity in life only so far as those around them prefer an arrogant person to an insecure person. The lesser of two evils.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky found 'way back in 1987 that having high "self-esteem" hurts one's chances to successfully resolve disputes. Because a person with high "self-esteem" feels that he or she is always right, they will be more prone to sever a relationship than admit that they are wrong.
It has been found that teens who have a high level of "self-esteem" as measured by current standards are actually
more likely to engage in sexual promiscuity and drugs because they feel they are so "good" that nothing can touch them.
Contrary to what we have been told, bullies in school and violent adults do
not generally suffer from insecurity. They usually have high "self-esteem" and as a result have a predisposition to look down on everyone else because they have been told repeatedly how "good" they are.
The message of humanistic self-esteem programs is that we are all basically good, so we just need to accept ourselves and this will help us accept others. But that is not what God's Word says.
"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:3-11)
My favorite Christian comedian,
Brad Stine, put it this way:
The first commandment God Almighty told man was: You must put Me first! You must put Me first! Then, when the Creator of matter tells you YOU matter, then you have purpose and then you have self-esteem!
In Him,
David S. MacMillan III
3 comments:
Protoplasmic primordial globule!!! Nice!
Speaking of which:
Reproduction never changes the single Y-chromosome which males have, because females have no Y-chromosome to interpose over it. As a result, random mutations in the "junk" portion of a guy's Y-chromosome are passed down unaltered for hundreds of generations. That is why descendents of Aaron (the remaining Levites) can prove their ancestry (or at least their close relation); they all have the same type of mutations in their Y-chromosome.
Which makes me wonder; every mammal supposedly came from the same basic pair or group millions and millions of years ago. Why don't these hoity-toity evolutionists map the Ys of chimps to see whether we are related to them?
Just my random two cents. Saying "ancestry" can set me off like that.
In Him,
David
I had to chuckle at your mention of Brad Stine at the end of your post. Earlier in the post, when you mention, "Self-esteem comes from psychology, psychology from Freud, and Freud was an ATHIEST," all I could hear in my head was Brad Stine shouting out that last word in his "Put A Helmet On!" act.
Kudos to you for being a fan of said comedian. ;)
Your post actually reminded me of this opening paragraph from Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton (my favorite author).
()THOROUGHLY worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true. Once I remember walking with a prosperous publisher, who made a remark which I had often heard before; it is, indeed, almost a motto of the modern world. Yet I had heard it once too often, and I saw suddenly that there was nothing in it. The publisher said of somebody, “That man will get on; he believes in himself.” And I remember that as I lifted my head to listen, my eye caught an omnibus on which was written “Hanwell.” I said to him, “Shall I tell you where the men are who believe most in themselves? For I can tell you. I know of men who believe in themselves more colossally than Napoleon or Caesar. I know where flames the fixed star of certainty and success. I can guide you to the thrones of the Super-men. The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.” He said mildly that there were a good many men after all who believed in themselves and who were not in lunatic asylums. “Yes, there are,” I retorted, “and you of all men ought to know them. That drunken poet from whom you would not take a dreary tragedy, he believed in himself. That elderly minister with an epic from whom you were hiding in a back room, he believed in himself. If you consulted your business experience instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter. Actors who can’t act believe in themselves; and debtors who won’t pay. It would be much truer to say that a man will certainly fail, because he believes in himself. Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in one’s self is a hysterical and superstitious belief like believing in Joanna Southcote: the man who has it has ‘Hanwell’ written on his face as plain as it is written on that omnibus.” And to all this my friend the publisher made this very deep and effective reply, “Well, if a man is not to believe in himself, in what is he to believe?” After a long pause I replied, “I will go home and write a book in answer to that question.” This is the book that I have written in answer to it.()
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