Why Think? Part 1

"Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well." - Robert Heinlein

First of all, why does anyone need to read an article about thinking? Don't we all naturally do it everyday? From the moment we awake to the time we doze off to sleep, our minds are constantly thinking thoughts. We think about all the tasks which must be done, about all the things we want to do, and about those things we dread doing. Our thoughts concern how much or how little we may like a certain thing, whether it be another's clothes, a new food or drink, our jobs, the person we just met, or how much we like a car. We think all the time. "Why do I need to think about thinking when I have so many other thoughts to think? I certainly don't need to be taught to think, since I seem already quite adept at that task," one might object.

But thinking involves more than the random ideas which flood our minds everyday. Thinking is a process we use to form opinions and make decisions. Thinking correctly will lead us to truth. Our opinions will match what actually exists in reality. Many of the decisions we make are not monumental. A great deal of the choices we make will make little difference years from now. The choice of wearing my blue pants over my grey pants today probably will not affect my life nor that of anyone else to any great degree. If I have chicken instead of fish tonight for dinner, it will not make the evening news. However, many of the decisions I make will shape my life and the lives of those I love for years to come. Thinking about the values, ethics, and morals upon which I base my life means everything. Has my thinking led me to believe in God or not? Do I think there are absolutes by which we live or do I think that all choices are relative? Does my thinking lead me to make moral choices or immoral ones? I believe thinking and thinking correctly is fundamentally necessary to living one's life well.

I must say unfortunately that I tend to agree with the opening quote attributed to Robert Heinlein, a science fiction writer of the twentieth century. Most people can't think. I don't mean that their heads are totally devoid of thought (although there have been times I have questioned if this was the case for some individuals). I mean they do not know how to think correctly. If we think incorrectly, we are much less likely to come up with the correct answer. One may, by sheer accident, arrive at the proper conclusion, but most of the time that is not the case. The majority of people in America simply do not know how to think. No wonder people find themselves in all sorts of undesirable predicaments. No wonder society as a whole is faced with monumental problems. Unfortunately, Christians are no better at this task than those who do not believe. Christians, as a whole, have shut off their brains. This they have done for a number of reasons. One such reason is that some are taught that it is somehow antithetic to faith to think. Among many churches, including many that I attended as a youth, there is an anti-intellectual bent. This is some times overt, and sometimes more subtly displayed. Independent thinking is routinely frowned upon. Another reason is that many people just don't want to think. This is due to many factors. Sometimes we are just too lazy. Sometimes there are social influences that keep us from thinking. Sometimes it is too costly, for it might require change on our part.

It is my hope that this website will inspire my fellow Christians to want to think, it will give them the tools they need to think correctly, and that it will transform their lives and the lives of those around them, because they have dared to think. Thinking is not anti-Christian, nor is it optional for the Christian. Thinking is essential for a Christian.

I Thessalonians 5:21 (ESV) states, "But test everything; hold fast that which is good." Albert Barnes, in his Notes on the New Testament explains this verse thusly:

Verse 21. Prove all things. Subject everything submitted to you to be believed to the proper test. The word here used (\~dokimazete\~,) is one that is properly applicable to metals, referring to the art of the assayer by which the true nature and value of the metal is tested. This trial was usually made by fire. The meaning here is, that they were carefully to examine everything proposed for their belief. They were not to receive it on trust; to take it on assertion; to believe it because it was urged with vehemence, zeal, or plausibility. In the various opinions and doctrines which were submitted to them for adoption, they were to apply the appropriate tests from reason and the word of God; and what they found to be true they were to embrace; what was false they were to reject. Christianity does not require men to disregard their reason, or to be credulous. It does not expect them to believe anything because others say it is so. It does not make it a duty to receive as undoubted truth all that synods and councils have decreed; or all that is advanced by the ministers of religion. It is, more than any other form of religion, the friend of free inquiry, and would lead men everywhere to understand the reason of the opinions which they entertain.

Hold fast that which is good. Which is in accordance with reason and the word of God; which is adapted to promote the salvation of the soul and the welfare of society. This is just as much a duty as it is to "prove all things." A man who has applied the proper tests, and has found out what is truth, is bound to embrace it and to hold it fast. He is not at liberty to throw it away, as if it were valueless; or to treat truth and falsehood alike. It is a duty which he owes to himself and to God, to adhere to it firmly, and to suffer the loss of all things rather than to abandon it. There are few more important rules in the New Testament than the one in this passage. It shows what is the true nature of Christianity, and it is a rule whose practical value cannot but be felt constantly in our lives. Other religions require their votaries to receive everything upon trust; Christianity asks us to examine everything. Error, superstition, bigotry, and fanaticism attempt to repress free discussion, by saying that there are certain things which are too sacred in their nature, or which have been too long held, or which are sanctioned by too many great and holy names, to permit their being subjected to the scrutiny of common eyes, or to be handled by common hands. In opposition to all this, Christianity requires us to examine everything--no matter by whom held; by what councils ordained; by what venerableness of antiquity sustained; or by what sacredness it may be invested. We are to receive no opinion: until we are convinced that it is true; we are to be subjected to no pains or penalties for not believing what we do not perceive to be true; we are to be prohibited from examining no opinion which our fellow-men regard as true, and which they seek to make others believe. No popular current in favour of any doctrine; no influence which name and rank and learning can give it, is to commend it to us as certainly worthy of our belief. By whomsoever held, we are to examine it freely before we embrace it; but when we are convinced that it is true, it is to be held, no matter what current or popular opinion or prejudice may be against it; no matter what ridicule may be poured upon it; and no matter though the belief of it may require us to die a martyr's death.

Glen Miller on Christian-Thinktank.com translates this verse, "Critically examine everthing. Hold on to the good." The caricature secular society holds for a Christian is one of a fanatical, illogical, unreasonable, uneducated, irrational person. For too long, the church has aided the perpetuation of that caricature. I am writing this book for those who do not believe that being a Christian means throwing your brain out the window. It is possible to think...and be a Christian. In fact it is not only possible, but commanded in I Thessalonians 5:21, as well as in other passages which will be examined later on. We are not fulfilling our responsibility as a Christian unless we think. Those who do not think are enslaved to influences of secularism and materialism, as well as to religious influences which lead to false beliefs.