A friend of mine was discussing some recent debates we’ve
engaged in and we came upon an intriguing topic. We were discussing the trend of Christians to
write off logic as a weakness and sign of an immature Christian. There is a continuous pattern of debates
where at some point the opponent accuses of me of being too intellectual and
caring too much about logic – often the opponent will label me a “head-thinker”
and not a “heart-thinker.” So after
numerous repeated offenses of this behavior I have decided to call out those
Christians who have a fascination with degrading intellect, and I will
breakdown the cause of these outbursts and the expose the fallacy of the
thought processes behind it.
The first thing to realize is that this is not a new
phenomenon. In fact, it is because of this
rejection of intellectual arguments that the church has fallen to the state it
is in now. A long history of embracing
emotional experience and rejecting logical thought has brought about the
subjective thinking and embracing of relativism. It could be traced back to Martin Luther, but
it is probable more appropriately assigned to the growth of the Pentecostal
movement. From the very origins of the
movement, to its growth in the later 20th century, the movement
emphasized the personal experience with the Holy Spirit in a baptism of the
spirit that was a confirmation of the believer’s faith. Christianity moved to an emphasis of the
believer’s experience and further away from the apologetics and theological
disciplines that were present in the 19th and early 20th
centuries. The great minds of C.K.
Chesterton and C.S. Lewis were replaced by the individual’s interpretation of
their inward experience.
There was a second event that really shifted the focus of
Christianity, perhaps it even had a greater impact than the internal focus of
Pentecostalism, and that was the release of Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Science had long been a part of the church,
but when science began to produce results that seemingly were against Christian
belief the church retreated at great speeds.
Rather than stand and investigate the evidence as to whether core
understandings should be scrutinized, the church ran far from it. It established a dichotomy, where some items
were simply of science and some were things of faith. The ability to even use reason to study the
world that the church believes God had created was not even considered by most. Science became an enemy and the church
retreated from the world of academia.
This move left the academic world to those of the non-Christians – a move
that would hinder the church almost irrelevant in the educated world.
Now to be fair, there are even more factors that have
contributed to this view than what I listed.
Much of the rebellious nature of Martin Luther and division of thought
into personal views began with the Reformation; my point was to draw attention
to some of the most damaging movements that specifically shaped the landscape
of Christianity today. There are still
Christian scientists and philosophers today and there are some Christian
schools and universities. Some of this
is in response to the absolute deterioration of the church and so is an attempt
to fix some of the wrongs. Nevertheless, my point is that I made some admitted
generalizations above and didn’t breakdown all the exceptions nor all the other
parts that led to the state of the church today. I only want there to be an understanding of
the founding principles behind many Christians today.
This brings us to a situation today, where there is a belief
that has been built up over centuries that have taught Christians that
intelligence is for the land of the unfaithful.
After all, science was an academic approach of reason and logic, seeking
to find explanations about the world around us.
Religion was the realm of the faithful that could protect people from
being distracted by following methodical approaches to understanding, because
those discoveries could lead us from religion.
Also, remember the Pentecostal movement’s speed of growth left many
people embracing many of the ideas behind it without necessarily becoming
Pentecostal. Churches now emphasize this
personal experience as a return to New Testament Christianity and act as if
something pure had been contaminated throughout the centuries as the Church
defined boundaries of thought, created detailed theology, and participated and
sponsored intellectual pursuits like science and philosophy. If science is evil and internal experience is
all the matters, then centuries of rigor from the Church had lost the heart of
New Testament Christianity.
So when a Christian today throws out an insult on logic they
truly believe it is true on some level.
Though simple analysis says, if they are so against logic and reason,
why do they attempt to argue using logic and reason? The real answer is that there are so many
background and foundational beliefs to Christianity today that they believe,
through matter of inheritance, that seeking knowledge and understanding is
dangerous. Many pastors today still
become all upset and disgruntled when a person begins asking them the hard
questions. Instead of being honest about
the questions, they go into Church retreat mode and offer consolation answers,
such as “All you have to know is Jesus.” And “You think too much. You’ve just gotta have faith.” It is really unsatisfactory for the curious
mind, but then again having a curious mind is thought to be a path to the land
of the non-faithful according to Christianity today.
Now in debates that take place, the person is always willing
to debate and offer logic and reason for a while. It isn’t until the person is put into a place
where their belief is exposed as being logically unsound and standing on faulty
premises that the person will retreat to the realm of religion. One can rationalize and debate only until the
person’s fallacies are undressed and the true nature of their weakness can be
seen by all. Certain topics can fast
track this process and lead to the opponent running to the “faithful.” For example, explain how Darwin does not
defeat Christianity and that evolution and even the Big Bang (an event that
Darwin didn’t hypothesize about) can actually both be true and STILL have God
as the creator and designer of the world today and watch the Christian call you
names and run away. Even though the
defense supports Christianity, it delves into the realm of science and that is
where Christians should never want to find themselves. Discuss church authority and the very
foundations of the Church and see them run away because, “You only care about
doctrine and being right. All a person
needs to know is Jesus.” And then, the proverbial nail in the coffin, well at
least they always think it is, is thrown out, “Remember, ‘For the wisdom of
this world is foolishness in God's sight’.” And with the quoting of 1
Corinthians 3:19, the matter is supposedly closed.
This provides a very simple analysis of how the average Christian comes about to embrace irrational faith rather than rational faith.
