I am sure that everyone who reads lookjed is familiar with the concept of Daas Torah. I would imagine that the majority of the readers are troubled by the idea that ideas need to be accepted because of who said them, regardless of whether there is compelling evidence to back up the assertion.
It seems to me that a troubling parallel phenomenon is starting to take hold, one which (if I may coin the phrase) might be called Daas Mada. This approach blindly accepts whatever the current thinking is in academia, on issues like literary theory, post modernism and the like, which are not provable, and then asserts that we need to make our torah values fit that way of thinking. I believe that anyone who rejects Daas Torah should, at the very least, as strongly (but I would hope much more strongly) reject Daas Mada. The beliefs of academicians should not hold greater weight for us than the beliefs of Torah figures who are steeped in learning.
