In the U.S., 60% of adults questioned responded that Homer is the main character of the TV show The Simpsons and only 20.5% knew that he is in fact an ancient Greek poet, author of The Iliad and The Odyssey.
Scholars at the University of Michigan conducted research and came to the conclusion that only 28% of Americans, 14% of Europeans, and 5% of Japanese can be considered “scientifically literate.” Under their system, in order to fall into the category of “scientifically educated” a person needed to understand, for example, what is a molecule, a neuron, a nanometer, DNA, and other such “complex topics.” According to their research, 70% of people living in the United States are unable to understand even an article published in the “Science” section of The New York Times. Remember that this is not a scientific journal, but a newspaper, intended for the general population, where all materials are prepared with the mindset that they will be read not by scholars, but the simplest of U.S. citizens.
The results of all research clearly point to the fact that the majority of people in the world possess a very low level of general knowledge. The level of knowledge about the soul and the meaning of life is entirely negligible.
We earlier mentioned the sad statistics about divorce, which draw a gloomy picture of family life for the majority of wedded couples. As it turns out, people’s ignorance is primarily to blame for this, an ignorance based in lack of knowledge about elementary issues in the sphere of sexual relations. Dale Carnegie’s abovementioned book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, presents convincing arguments which support this point of view:
“Dr. Paul Popenoe, as head of the Institute of Family Relations in Los Angeles, has reviewed thousands of marriages and he is one of America’s foremost authorities on home life. According to Dr. Popenoe, failure in marriage is usually due to four causes. He lists them in this order:
1. Sexual maladjustment.
2. Difference of opinion as to the way of spending leisure time.
3. Financial difficulties.
4. Mental, physical, or emotional abnormalities.
Notice that sex comes first; and that, strangely enough, money difficulties come only third on the list.
All authorities on divorce agree upon the absolute necessity for sexual compatibility. For example, a few years ago Judge Hoffman of the Domestic Relations Court of Cincinnati – a man who has listened to thousands of domestic tragedies – announced: “Nine out of ten divorces are caused by sexual troubles.
“Sex,” says another specialist, Dr Butterfield, “is but one of the many satisfactions in married life, but unless this relationship is right, nothing else can be right.
“Sentimental reticence must be replaced by an ability to discuss objectively and with detachment attitudes and practices of married life. There is no way in which this ability can be better acquired than through a book of sound learning and good taste.”
One of the authors of this book, Valeria, worked for twelve years (1980—1992) as Head of a Section of the Civil Registry Office in Leningrad (modern day Saint Petersburg). During this period tens of thousands of couples came through her office registering important events in their lives: marriages, births and divorces. Here is Valeria’s personal opinion on the matter:
“The majority of marriages that I registered occurred because of love. Because of this, almost all these young people sincerely believed that this feeling alone was enough to create a strong marital union. If this was combined with good living conditions then perspectives truly seemed bright. But most of these people didn’t have the slightest idea about the rules of family life. Their comprehension of the sexual side of married life came exclusively from practice; they didn’t even suspect the existence of special books on this topic. And very often, as a rule within the third year, they showed up in front of me again to file for divorce. I know with surety that the underlying reason for this sad end was sexual maladjustment, ignorance of their partners in the realm of sexual relations.”
In the meantime, a precise and simple recipe for harmonization of sexual relations was revealed around the middle of the ‘50s. But none of our acquaintances and students had even heard of it. Having learned of this knowledge gap, we immediately included the topic “Methods for the Mastering of Sexual Energy” in our School’s program, along with a detailed study of the aforementioned formula. Just one month after this, we received a message that several dozen married couples (!) had drastically improved their relationships. Some even reported a return to the sort of relationship that was characteristic during their honeymoons! And all they needed to do was attend a three-hour long class! Incidentally, all these sexually-harmonized people’s successes in business also took a sharp turn upward. We promise to return to the formula for harmonious sex in chapter 9, where we will examine many practical recipes for improving one’s life.
And so we see that there are more than enough reasons for human suffering. Great minds have exhausted themselves thinking on this question throughout the history of mankind. And simple people have, in the meantime, always searched out their own, common methods for relieving stress. Sociologists have revealed which “stress medicines” are used by modern people:
– Television – 46%
– Music – 43%
– Alcohol – 19%
– Food – 16%
– Medication – 15%
– Sports – 12%
– Sex – 9%
– Yoga, meditation – 2%
These numbers add up to more than 100%. This means that some of the participants in these surveys chose not one, but two or more answers, for example, drinking generous amounts of alcohol and going to a rock concert. The end result of this sort of “medication” we already know from the World Health Organization’s reports on the turbulent rise of stress, psychological disease and suicide.
But along with ignorance, that is a lack of knowledge, a large part of humanity possesses deep misconceptions regarding many of the processes and phenomena in our lives; they live in a system of false conceptions, i.e. are possessed of false knowledge. Modern society is rife with myths and misconceptions. There are so many of them, that just a short description of them took up five volumes, The Encyclopedia of Delusions, released by the Russian publishing house EKSMO in 2004 [8]. In the West a similar book was written by famous author Steven Fry, titled The Book of General Ignorance.
“Many facts that we consider irrefutable are actually downright fabrications, and much of our knowledge is erroneous. We live in a world of universal ignorance and general misunderstanding, but we’re too ashamed to admit it,” asserts the author of this book, and we could’t agree more [9].
However, we must make an important note: far from all ignorance is dangerous, and not all misconceptions lead to tragedy for people. Could our lack of knowledge about the inventor of rubber boots or the myth that the color red will enrage a bull actually affect our happiness? In truth bulls are colorblind. These things fall within the category of benign misconceptions and harmless ignorance.
But then there are other questions. Ignorance or fallacious conceptions about such questions rules out even the possibility of finding happiness. These questions are precisely those that we have come to regard as the eternal questions of mankind:
• Who are we, a product of evolution or God’s creations?
• Where did we come from when we entered the world, and where do we go