The Show-Me State

Academia is devolving into an arena for truth claiming.  By this, I primarily mean that students are taught that the only valid statement is one that you can support with evidence.  On the surface this sounds like progress, not progressiveism.  In many venues, this is a good thing.  However, when we train kids to think that every statement must have accompanying evidence, we are doing a disservice to them, society and ourselves.  If I have to provide evidence that lying is morally wrong before someone agrees with the statement, we have a 'Show-me Syndrome' on our hands.  Many things do not and should not require a court case in order to be accepted as reasonable or as a fact.  When we raise a generation to require winning a debate with evidence for any and every statement, we are steering culture into a reality that excludes aspects of life for which there is no evidence.  What is love?  What is morality?  What is conscience?  What things are immeasurable? What is faith?  The Show-Me Syndrome is dangerous because demanding proof for something that is not provable.  The lack of proof does not prove something is not true.

Here are a few links I have found so far:

http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/PHIL_of_RELIGION_TEXT/CHAPTER_5_ARGUMENTS_EXPERIENCE/Burden-of-Proof.htm