[TriamiCaw]

Putting aside the narrow-mindedness that people have about Deeni Knowledge I heard the Sheikh of Deoband say that it is the Fitra of people to have admiration for 3 things:

1) beauty
2) Intelligence
3) Favourtism i.e. ehsan on you

In regards to the second point who gave the example of a Doctor and the intelligence, qualification, expertise, etc a Doctor has. It is again fitra [natural inclination] for one to have admiration when you walk into a surgery and the Diagnosed something and provide a medicine that cured you. Likewise if you are arrested for a crime whether you are guilty or not and the Lawyer is able to follow a process that keeps you out of jail, you alongside with your family will have admiration of that person.

Conclusion: Do not be predujuice against something that is the Fitra of the human condition. Most of the examples provided have there own caveat and are a reflection of peoples attitude in comparing the Deen and Secular education. I know of non-religious people in the sense we understand it that are extreme civil and intelligient and would not make these comparisons and would be thoughtful if whatever choice you made in live even if it was to become an Imaam and live a life percieved by society as meaningless however they would see the meaning and value in that choice and would dwell further into understanding why you made that choice without jumping to conclusion.

Question is whether the problem in becoming educated or becoming educated within an infastructure that is designed to put people in silo's, classes, develop predujuices, etc. many religious and non-religious or even non-muslims have in the past and currently in this period do maintain character that is worthy of marvelling at, granted it is rare but you can not really afford your time or energy with people who lack character are uncivilised, lack intelligence, humility, thoughtfullness, insight, etc although have a claim to be 'educated'. Education comes from the latin root word edu-ca-cus which means 'from within'. Thus an educated man was considered so because literacy taught him to be a better person and not the accumulation of information.

historically when you got a BA [bachelor of Arts] or a MA [master of Arts] you masters the 3 arts i.e. Grammer, rethorics and logic.

Grammer to construct sentences.
Logic to construct the thought process of those sentences
Rhetoric to express the thoughts and sentences in a manner that did not require violence or the need to attack, humiliate, belittle, etc another person. You couteous, factual and pleasant in your ability to convince.
Our scholars of the past were beautiful at this. Abu Hanifa and imaam malik argued all night in this manner and Imaam malik comes out sweating at fajr marvelled at the intelligence of Abu Hanfia.