![\"\"](\"http:\/\/media.tumblr.com\/acb2c87448b05c11d516097e8c279ad9\/tumblr_inline_msmzouurMQ1qz4rgp.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For as long as I have been a Christian, there has always been a wrestling match going on between faith and reason.\u00a0 As a young believer, doubt was looked at with suspicion, even with disdain and shame.\u00a0 I remember hearing sermon after sermon that put \u201ccarnal\u201d labels on thinking, reasoning, and questioning.\u00a0 I know; I preached many of these sermons myself.<\/p>\n
How do we learn?\u00a0 How do we grow?\u00a0 It is not through having answers; it is through having questions, lots of questions.\u00a0 Critical thinking takes for granted that we will ask questions, good questions.\u00a0 People who think clearly are healthy people, but they are also people who are not afraid of a good argument.<\/p>\n
I have had a copy of this little book for years. \u00a0Paul and Elder\u2019s work is spot on.\u00a0 It does not mince words.\u00a0 Quickly and succinctly, the authors dive into their main point:\u00a0 If you want to be successful in life, you have to learn the craft of thinking clearly and critically.<\/em><\/p>\n I love the emphasis on \u201cintellectual humility\u201d (p. 14) in this little manual; this set the tone of the book for me.\u00a0 Those who are unreflective are unaware of their need to think in new ways.\u00a0 They are content with the way things are.\u00a0 Right is right and wrong is wrong.\u00a0 There is no middle ground, only polar extremes.\u00a0 Fr. Richard Rohr calls this either\/or thinking (Rohr, 2009).\u00a0 Again, there is never room for compromise, never room for any possibilities outside of the conventional paradigm.\u00a0 \u201cIt is right because it has always been right.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s just the way it is.\u201d\u00a0 Truth, then, becomes subjective.\u00a0 It is not based on logic or reason; it is based on emotion alone. Innate in this kind of thinking is a swarm of logical fallacies including \u201cdogmatism\u201d and \u201chasty generalizations,\u201d not to mention one \u201cnon sequitur\u201d after another.\u00a0 But those who think unreflectively don\u2019t give a damn about truth; they only care about being right, even if the evidence suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n In my experience, Christians are often comfortable with the possibility that some of their beliefs might not be well thought through.\u00a0 In fact, they often give pat answers that are more statements of ignorance than statements of true faith.\u00a0 If we do have the truth, why then are we then afraid to enter into debate with those who take a contrary position to ours?\u00a0 This is where good, critical thinking skills come in.\u00a0 The authors laud the traits that are apparent in wise men and women and implore their readers to practice them religiously.\u00a0 Without these traits of \u201cintellectual humility, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, confidence in reason, and fair-mindedness\u201d (pp. 14-15), I would have never begun a doctoral program.\u00a0 How could anyone ever be an intellectual who is not open to others\u2019 views?\u00a0 It would certainly be a miserable three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For as long as I have been a Christian, there has always been a wrestling match going on between faith and reason.\u00a0 As a young believer, doubt was looked at with suspicion, even with disdain and shame.\u00a0 I remember hearing sermon after sermon that put \u201ccarnal\u201d labels on thinking, reasoning, and questioning.\u00a0 I know; I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,290],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-elder","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2943,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions\/2943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}