Recently, I came across a Facebook Philosophy page…. I don't spend a lot of time scrolling Facebook so I’m not even sure how I got there, but there I was. Soon enough I found myself in the comments section, entering into a couple of conversations.
The first comment I read was by a woman making a throw away statement that I often hear people trip off their tongue. Every time I hear it, I wonder if they actually think about what they’re saying?
It's such a contradiction in terms and makes no sense yet but because it sounds tolerant and self-righteous people seem to love it.
"Everyone has their own truth."
Respectfully, no way.
Everyone has their own perception, yes. Reality, perhaps in a sense. But truth?
Truth isn’t an opinion.
It’s like saying the world is flat while someone else say’s it’s round. Who’s truth is true? Obviously, the person who says it’s round. Can I form my own opinion that defies that? Sure I can – but it doesn’t make it true. Something isn’t a truth just because I want it to be.
Truth is an absolute whether I like it or not.
Then I read another comment from a man asking if that (philosophy) site was about “religion and stuff”. He stated reason and faith could not co-exist. He claimed the bible had no reason to it at all. I find it interesting that philosophy usually ends up in a discussion about God.
Well, again, I was compelled to reply. It went along these lines although I'm expanding here.
If faith is based on a person (Jesus Christ) it’s very reasonable. In fact, I believe it’s the only way philosophical reasoning can be truly profitable.
Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.
That scripture has reason and faith built into each other.
If we start reasoning and making decisions in life based on Jesus Christ and His Word, how different our lives look. God is love and God is for us. When our reasoning and decisions are based within that foundation we can’t go wrong. We perceive & think differently than when our reasoning is based on our fears, our jealousies, our insecurities, our personal ambitions or pop culture (temporary and too often thoughtless) and then our experienced reality shifts.
The bible is chock full of reasoning and it is stable; it doesn't shift and change. From Ecclesiastes and Proverbs to the new testament, many of the books are reasoned arguments about why we should believe in God, explains who God is (the trinity, His nature and His works) and specifically why Jesus Christ needs to be the cornerstone and foundation to our reasoning and faith.
Here's an interesting verse that tells us we overthink and philosophise to our own downfall.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 (GNT)
This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.
Philosophy is a fascinating subject to me, but it quickly reveals reasoning and our own pursuits as a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
If we focus on ourselves we get into all sorts of conflicts. If we don't focus on ourselves, what is there to focus on? Something bigger than ourselves.
1 John 3:1 (NIV)
See what great love the Father has lavished on us…
If we make our choices, and reason out our lives within the quilt of a good Father’s pure, undiluted love being lavished on us (through the gift of Jesus Christ His redeeming
Son and the Holy Spirit - i.e. the trinity), could we see our circumstances in a different light? Yes, even circumstances that are difficult to fathom, although it takes a lot of growth to get to that place.
Our reasoning is beneficial when it is based on the assurance of a loving, merciful, all-knowing God but it can become crazy bad without His foundation. The absolute truth is, our lives are a product of a greater design. That’s where we find fullness of faith and the treasure of hope.
Romans 5:5 (NKJV)
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
There is so much more to life than this earth and reasoning towards our own limited, changing truth, that is not really truth at all.
Comments