ben….please, read the thread. we’re not discussing college in general for parnosa. that’s a machlokes – some held it was allowed (rav elchonon, the rogotchover), some held it was flat out assur (rav baruch ber) some held it’s assur for people who are successful in learning (rav moshe, rav aharon) and others held it was ok even for them, bedieved – none of that has to do with the issues being discussed here.
here the poskim say that you are not allowed to study secular subjects in a set manner.
This means you cant study it because you enjoy it. You certainly cant study it bekevius if you believe in it ideologically, that it makes you a more refined person, or smarter.
If a person weak-minded individual and it takes years to master the definition of Pi in order to understand a piece of gemara…that’s a nebach, and the torah would have made him smart enough not to need such things, but “hypothetically” i think such a thing would be allowed, because it’s for the sake of torah.
you can read all about niflaos haboreh casually – like reb E posted; I read that in 1 minute. I did not have a seder in the topics he wrote about.
Let’s summarize:
casual learning = okay, and maybe even a mitzvah of recognizing Hashem
Course learning, set learning, organized, or any kind of “kevius” = assur in general, machlokes if allowed for parnosa.
EVEN then, you’re not allowed to learn apikorsus or from books that contain it. That’s clear. What people did in their youth doesn’t change the halacha.