The self destructing mind

Orthodoxy
That peril is that the human intellect is free to destroy itself. Just as one generation could prevent the very existence of thenext generation, by all entering a monastery or jumping into the sea,so one set of thinkers can in some degree prevent further thinkingby teaching the next generation that there is no validity in anyhuman thought. It is idle to talk always of the alternative ofreason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It isan act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation toreality at all. If you are merely a sceptic, you must sooneror later ask yourself the question, "Why should ANYTHING go right;even observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be asmisleading as bad logic? They are both movements in the brain of abewildered ape?" The young sceptic says, "I have a right to thinkfor myself." But the old sceptic, the complete sceptic, says,"I have no right to think for myself. I have no right to think at all."

GILBERT K. CHESTERTON