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by Jennifer Bowman
When I was younger, I used to argue passionately about religion and politics with people on the Internet, people twice my age, and people who just didn't seem to get it. As I got older, I slowly began to learn that for the most part, arguing perpetually with people as stubborn as me (if that's possible) is nearly futile. I grew weary of the same old debates and the ever-changing statistics that just seem to fluctuate the right way of each person's argument.
In my world, faith comes before logic (I suppose I should state here that I am not saying that faith is illogical, I'm just that faith takes more understanding than mere logic can explain) and concern for others comes before concern for myself.
When others do not hold the same basic mindset as you, especially in regard to these areas, it is extremely difficult to ever "win" or convince someone that your point of view just might have something to it.
But the other day I saw a quote that really made me think of this exact same thing. "You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it." These great words of wisdom were spoken by a G.K. Chesterton, someone who I had never previously heard of until seeing him attributed to the quote. It turns out he was a writer, of mysteries and fictional, whimsical prose. He holds his place in history as a Christian apologetic, being admired by right and leftist Christians alike, as well as non-Christians.
The way he worded that is something I've wanted to express for a while now, but couldn't quite figure out how. The very idea of logic is something that rules everything now, because apparently the scientific society (or the majority, at least) is so dense that they wish to simply deny everything until it can be explained. It's at a different level of thought altogether. They can't accept the fact that a Christian would believe something that is unexplainable, especially now that there are "theories" of how the world came to be that now even Christians are being slowly pushed into believing, despite God's word otherwise.
How do you argue something without a scientific basis when that is all that anyone cares about anymore? My grandfather Bob O'Bannon is one of the few people I know who can manage to genuinely argue in favor of God and creation with the close-minded scientific community, and even win, in my somewhat biased opinion. But I don't think I can sit there and rattle off the same arguments - I'm not geared to think that way. Really. I can try to convince people of my point of view with catchy phrases and wording, but I feel like I'm preaching to the choir.
I'm not sure that my purpose in life is to directly inspire others into receiving Christ, (and maybe a good dose of Republican ideals) but perhaps to inspire others into doing the job for me. But it's not really doing the job for ME, is it? It's a job for Christ. I'm not sure if I'll fulfill that, exactly, but I can certainly do something about it, and I hope you all can too.
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