Back to Back to Basics

Picking up where I left off earlier, one of the most needed areas in Christianity is a tune-up in our thinking skills. This became apparent once again as I read several Christian non-fiction books recently.

A thorough introduction (is that an oxymoron?) to principles of logic would help preachers avoid some of the interpretive fallacies into which they are oft prone to fall. It would strengthen the apologetics skills of the men and women who go into the frontlines of the secular workplace every day. And it would put a much-needed end to some of the wacky non-issues that burn up so much pulpit time. A great little primer on the subject is Norman Geisler's Come Let Us Reason.

I think a good place to start is by recognizing that every argument must stand on two legs: it must be both true and valid. Absent one of those two legs it does not stand. Let's start with a standard argument (syllogism) as an illustration:

If it is raining, the street outside is wet. (major premise)
It is raining. (minor premise)
Therefore, the street outside is wet. (conclusion)

It must be true. That is, the premises must conform to reality. For example, if I claim that it is raining outside and it is not, in fact, raining outside, then the argument fails.
It must also be valid. That is, the premises must be free of fallacies, of errors in the way we have reasoned. For example, let's re-cast the illustration this way:

If it is raining, the street outside is wet.
The street outside is wet.
Therefore, it is raining.

This argument doesn't stand. Why not? Isn't it saying the same thing as the first illustration? No -- there are a lot of reasons that the street could be wet. Perhaps someone's sprinklers are running; perhaps I've just chased my sons around with my Super Soaker. This is a fallacy called "affirming the consequent". We've switched the "if" and the "then" and twisted the argument out of shape. And once again the argument fails.

This isn't hair-splitting. This is a fallacy that popped up a number of times in the arguments of several Christian books I recently read. And when you are witnessing or defending the faith in the workplace or preaching a sermon, that is the WORST time for the sloppy thinking that too often discredits the Truth by presenting it as an irrational thing.

Tighten up your thinking, Ambassador.