Descending Into Irrationality
Posted by Pastoral Musings on May 9th, 2012
It seems that we are descending into irrationality.
Professing Christians, the very people who should be guarding rationality as something to treasure, are often the guilty ones in this area.
Here are a few examples for you:
1. These days we are told that there is such a thing as non-factual truth. Somehow this is supposed to mean that Scripture is not inerrant, and should not be taken literally. The real question is, “What is truth, if not factual?” To embrace non-factual truth is to embrace a contradiction.
2. We often here the refrain, “Truth is not abstract, objective, propositional truth statements.” What is the problem with that statement? Well, the person making that statement is making an abstract, objective, propositional truth statement while denying the very existence of said truth statements.
When I pointed out the fallacious nature of the comment, the statement was made that I was accusing the commenter of being hypocritical. The reality is not that I was calling the commenter hypocritical; but that the commenter violated the law of non-contradiction. When that was pointed out, the response was to ignore the logical fallacy and to commit another logical fallacy. (I’m neither linking to the comments, nor naming the person, because this is not about personalities; it is about truth, logic, and reason.) That logical fallacy was the ad hominem fallacy.
In one online conversation I’ve recently been asked to refrain from calling a fallacy a fallacy. Yet, clear speech and clear reasoning make for good communications. Somehow it is seen as un-irenic to mention to a person that he has committed a logical fallacy and thus has no standing for a particular statement that he has made.
What is the reason for this? I am convinced it is because we have forgotten the source of truth. We have forgotten that truth is unchanging. We have forgotten that our true God is unchanging, and so truth is not malleable.
You see, Scripture itself is quite logical. It tells us that no lie is true (1John 2:21). That is an affirmation of the law of non-contradiction.
Oh. You don’t want to bring God into the discussion of logic and knowledge? You mean that you don’t wish to discuss Scripture as truth? Therein lies the problem. To reject God and His Word is to begin the descent into irrationality. There is no knowledge or truth apart from God. Apart from God there is no rationality, nor is there any standard of truth. And apart from God’s Word there is no standard of religious truth.
To deny these things and to deny logical discourse is to speak incoherently and irrationally.
May 11th, 2012 at 12:24 am
Jason -
I’d probably respond to points 1 and 2 like this:
1) Truth can be non-factual. A poetic song using metaphor, etc. A storied account, like we find many times in Scripture (we call them parables, allegories, etc).
2) I would word your statement this way – Truth does not have to be abstract, objective, propositional truth statements.
To give non-objective statements is not necessarily false or wrong. The gospel writers have Jesus dying on different days. It’s right there in the text. We compare details between Samuel-Kings and Chronicles, and we see differences in the reporting. This moves it in some form or fashion into the realm of non-objective. Again, this doesn’t make it wrong or error, because we note the intent of the inspired authors. But it shows us that non-objective truth does exist and can carry power, authority and God’s imprint.
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May 11th, 2012 at 10:58 am
ScottL,
1. Non factual truth has to be explained in factual terms. We even think of songs and poems and their meanings in factual terms. Thus propositional truth is inevitable.
2. Is a poor treatment of the texts. We are both aware that there are very good and reasonable treatments of these alleged discrepancies. I shall remind you of Warfield’s words:
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May 11th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
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May 12th, 2012 at 1:20 am
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May 12th, 2012 at 9:24 pm
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May 14th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
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July 25th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
I like your approach and tend to think along the same lines myself, even though my starting-point is diametrically opposite to yours. I don’t see that truth can be non-factual. Maybe what Scott is getting at is that one can be reminded of the truth (as one sees it) in non-factual and poetic ways: for instance, if I read Shelley’s “Ozymandias” I am reminded of the vanity and evanescence of human vainglory – but I would have to believe in the impermanence of this human ostentation already for the poem to have this reinforcing effect
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July 25th, 2012 at 2:23 pm
me again – I have only looked at a couple of your explanations of alleged scriptural inconsistencies. The problem for me is that in some cases you seem to be appealing to the possibility of different meanings in the words used. This of course is a tempting way out, but once one starts on this course there is no end to it in principle: any contradiction can be abnegated by some claim that the words do not mean what they seem to mean. To me this falls into the trap of unfalsifiability: the texts can always be interpreted to mean something new, so that it is in principle impossible to question their consistency with one another.
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July 25th, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Peter,
Since moving this blog to a new server some posts have the comments turned off. I am not sure why. Leave a link to the ones uou think are problematic in a comment here, if you cannot comment on a particular post. I find it difficult to keep track of discussions that aren’t on the relevant posts.
I apologize that I have this issue with these older posts. I am not sure why it happened, but Ican open them back up.
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