In a sense, waves of change are opportunities to clean, redefine and make target in new educational objectives, getting rid of bad habits and arthritic practices from the past. However, in the Spanish context, this is happening without any renovation on the human teams that are going to perform this change.

The question simply is:

Who can expect that content change will happen in the hands of professors that have been teaching the same post-WWII doctrine during the last 30 years ?

Who can really expect that the focus on new educational practices -e.g. project-based leaning- can be driven by professors that stopped doing any real work 20 years ago ?

This is an anonymous letter written about 150 A.D. The author is describing early Christians to a distinguished and noble pagan gentleman (in some places it is said that the author is not anonymous but Mathetes).

The author of the letter writes,

“The Christians are distinguished from others neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe, for they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a particular form of speech. They follow the customs of the citizens of whatever country they inhabit in regard to clothes, or food, or the rest of their ordinary conduct."

Indeed I received the text of this Letter to Diognetus from my friend in an attempt to explain me what makes a believer different from a person that practices an ethics that is externally indistinguishable from that of the believer.

However, Diognetus's letter, considered just beautiful in some aesthetical scales, is pretty clear in this particular point: "you must not hope to learn the mystery of their peculiar mode of worshipping God from any mortal".

In a word, do not expect that they will be able to explain themselves.

So I think it is the time for increasing boldness and give a stronger, more open word on the very nature of their beliefs.

Let's start today with a quote of the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION TWO: THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
CHAPTER TWO: I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD
ARTICLE 3: "HE WAS CONCEIVED BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY"
....
485 The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and ordered to that of the Son. The Holy Spirit, "the Lord, the giver of Life", is sent to sanctify the womb of the Virgin Mary and divinely fecundate it, causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own.

Catholics believe that ghosts -however holy- can make women pregnant.

Incredible :-O

Women .... Shiver!

My students, as most sane people do, enjoy reading comics that make jokes from their very own activity. Laughing at oneself helps keep the feet on the ground.

A very interesting place is PhDComics where PhD students can see themselves as-of-the-real-thing-is.

A recent comic analyses the very role of the professor: to profess.

I have been pondering around for some time, the nature of knowledge and in particular the nature of scientific knowledge. In the desire for a scientific approach to our dwelling in the world, I usually criticise religious positions as lacking any hint of reasonableness. Some of my believing colleagues tried to make a remark on this position: science is another form of religion.

Obviously it is not for any sensible definition or "religion" and "science"; but in any case, a question remains: is it necessary to have a minimal dose of unjustified belief to build a mind upon?