Article of Faith: Learning Obedience, by Femi Aribisala

What men call knowledge is actually ignorance.

Have you ever been in a situation where you told a child to do something, and they asked you why? "Why?" is one of the children's favorite questions. You tell a child to do something, and he asks, “Why? If you give him the reason, he will ask you "why?" again.

Indeed, what is the reason you gave the reason you gave? For every answer you give, he might just keep asking you "why?" until you are fed up, refuse to answer him, or ask in turn: "why not?"

"Freddie, you have to brush your teeth in the morning and the last one before you go to bed." And Freddie asks, "why?" "Why do I have to brush my teeth?" What do you do in such a situation? Do you explain to him why he has to brush his teeth? Or do you just say to Freddie, "Because I say so?"

Often the two are combined:

"Freddie, you have to brush your teeth first thing in the morning."

"Why?"

"Because if you don't brush your teeth, your mouth will smell and your teeth will decay."

"Why?"

"Because the bacteria in your mouth will attack your teeth and develop cavities and you will end up at the dentist."

"Why?"

"Because the bacteria will eat away at your teeth, expose the nerve cells and you will feel a lot of pain."

"Why?"

"Because I say so."

No reason

Sometimes the only way to stop the "why?" "Why?" "Why?" is by insisting from the start that the reason Freddie has to brush his teeth is because you say so. But some parents worry that this approach will make their children ignorant. We believe that if we don't give them the reasons for our instructions and make them understand why they should obey us, we become dictators and not good parents.

However, the good parent gives their child no reason beyond saying, "I want you to do what I say because I say it." There is a big difference between a discussion of hygiene principles and instructions about hygiene. The two should not be confused.

When it comes to a discussion, we can tolerate as many questions as possible. And even then we risk getting tired of it quickly. But if we teach our child what to do, we shouldn't entertain questions. We should just tell him what we want him to do.

If we don't accept any questions, we train him to be a man under authority. But if we have to explain to him the reason why he must obey us, then we train him to disobey. A child should obey his parents and not his parents' reasons or logic. A child must be trained to be subject to authority.

Under authority

Can you imagine a boss asking a subordinate to photocopy some documents and asking why? He wouldn't do the photocopies until the boss could convince him why he should do them. If so, he'll probably be looking for another job soon.

As a child, I hated that my parents answered my many questions with "because I say so". To me, that meant they had no valid reason to tell me to do something. And because they had no good reason to instruct me, that meant I had no good reason to obey them.

This approach is dangerous for several reasons. It assumes that we can understand why we should do what we are told, and that is rarely the case. Often we don't even understand the consequences of our actions.

The parent tells the child not to put their hand in the fire. The child wants...