Knowledge of religion is often portrayed as “wisdom”, and memorizing religious verdicts is often referred to as “studying”. However, the real attitude of religion towards true studying is like a double-edged sword. This is true for many religions of the world, is in particular true for the big Western ones, namely the various trends of religious Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

And it’s not just the obvious intentional ignoring of evolution or certain aspects of astronomy. It’s much more than that. Some Orthodox Jewish verdicts explicitly forbid learning things that might be in conflict with the religious belief. Learning those is considered heresy. Moreover, the concept of “truth” is defined by many religious scholars in a totally different way than its scientific definition: “True” is what brings you closer to the religious belief.

Skepticism is a no-no, asking difficult questions is badly treated, and modifying past conclusions is not welcome. In this atmosphere it’s somewhat strange that one of the leading Orthodox Jewish groups is named after “wisdom” — the name ‘Chabad’ stands for nothing less than “wisdom-intelligence-knowledge”. Perhaps this is the appropriate time to add that ultra-Orthodox groups in the modern state of Israel don’t teach their children much more than religious stuff, and they do so with the formal support of the government, due to their political pressure. No math. No English. No science.

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In these days of Corona, the government has issued instructions for remote-learning, to be exercised by children and teachers. How is it possible to learn remotely when you have no computer, no Internet, and no contents to learn?