0:00:00 - 0:00:22 I wanted to record some quick thoughts on ideas about reason and argumentation. Um All beliefs are a mapping between cause and effect and it's really important to help other people see where you're coming from and also to see where other people are coming from. Unfortunately, instead of sharing where 0:00:22 - 0:00:42 we're coming from or the reasons why we hold a certain belief we usually lead out with and leave it to our conclusions and we'll just sort of spatter off some conclusions. We'll never share our reasons. Maybe we don't even have reasons, we don't care about what the other person's reasons are. This isn't 0:00:41 - 0:01:06 a way, an effective way to increase an understanding and come to a unity of the best beliefs possible. So, um I just want to sort of illustrate some things to consider here. So first off this mapping between premises and conclusions, every single piece of it could be lacking somehow they could be incorrect 0:01:05 - 0:01:23 , they could be incomplete meaning there's something better or there's something else that you don't know about. And it's really important to be careful about all of this, any belief you have, you can go back as you uh encounter other people or other experiences and you can sort of reinvestigate these 0:01:23 - 0:01:42 things and take them further and uh improve them, replace them with something better, et cetera. So, for example, it's really important to think about are the set of premises that I've thought about. Are they the only ones that, that exist for this particular idea? So for example, if you had never seen 0:01:41 - 0:02:03 a black swan and every single swan you'd ever seen was white, you could conclude that there are no black swans and that's a very reasonable conclusion. But the second you see a black swan, this is no longer reasonable to believe. If you continue believing something that's been adequately disproven to 0:02:03 - 0:02:20 you, that's called delusion, it's bad, right? Because it means you're intentionally not going to the best place you have the capability to go to, you're missing out on something. So another question is, are the premises that you have, are they correct because they're all subject to interpretation? So 0:02:20 - 0:02:43 what we perceive is not reality, it's reality, that's, that's interpreted. And so it can, it can be close or far away from what is really true. So for example, um you can hang on to this idea of Paul said, we're saved by faith, not works. And um and, and then say, therefore all it takes to be saved is 0:02:42 - 0:03:01 to say, we believe in Jesus and there are millions of people who believe this. Ok. But you can look elsewhere in the Bible. And see that James teaches very clearly, that works actually matter. And uh you can't be saved by saying you believe in Jesus if you're, if you do not align your life with that 0:03:01 - 0:03:20 belief uh as well, and it's not just James, if you look at the other things that Paul said, this simplistic, this oversimplified uh taken out of context idea that he said were saved by faith, not works. It's, it's not consistent with everything else. He said, it's very clear, all you have to do is read 0:03:20 - 0:00:00 other things that, that he wrote and, and you can't hold this position anymore. OK. But, but if you do this and you oversimplify it, you can hold to a belief that that's not true, right? So it's, it's important that uh your, your premises are consistent with each other and with what's out there. So, 0:00:00 - 0:03:58 um the other thing that you need to do is think about this mapping between the premises and conclusions and ask yourself, is this the only possible relationship? So, are there other potential conclusions that also map to these premises? And are they better substantiated? So, for example, here's a really 0:03:58 - 0:04:20 common one. people will present their interpretation of one or more Bible verses and say, well, the Bible is the word of God. Therefore, I'm right. Ok. Uh Does anyone else interpret those verses differently? And um, if so, do they have a reason for that? And how does that reason compare to yours? So 0:04:20 - 0:04:41 you can believe that the Bible contains God's word and, and realize that that does not imply that what you think the Bible says is actually what, what God would would say if you could ask him directly? Hey, what, what is your understanding of this? Maybe it wouldn't match what you think that that verse 0:04:41 - 0:05:05 says. So, uh this is very important, is this the only possible outcome for this premise or conclusion for this premise? So finally, uh we need to be very careful with our mapping of premises to conclusions if um you know a lot of what you encounter out, especially in social media. It's, it's just this 0:05:05 - 0:05:28 laundry list of random observations that are not thoroughly thought out. They certainly don't represent any, anything close to the full spectrum of premises of evidences that are out there and the mapping doesn't make any sense to the conclusion. And uh the conclusion is very questionable. Um This is 0:05:28 - 0:05:46 not a good, a good approach. I call it the kitchen sink approach. It's just people rattle off a bunch of random things and squeeze 10 different arguments into 11 comment. You gotta take things one at a time and it's important to see the big picture. But you know, if you're dealing with serious things 0:05:46 - 0:06:06 , you, you gotta break it down. So here's some takeaways, big claims, you better have some big evidence for big claims. If you have serious ideas, you sh should probably discuss them seriously. So if you disagree with some, somebody about something that's, that's a really big existential question or 0:06:05 - 0:06:26 a really big belief question, you should not assume that you're just gonna change their mind with one sentence or two sentences or that, that you could adequately display why you believe what you do on that topic with one sentence or two sentences. So if you're not willing to engage in serious conversation 0:06:25 - 0:06:46 and probably lengthy conversation and open minded honest discussion, don't even march into that. Don't pretend like you're doing due diligence by just sort of spouting stuff off and then running away um the things of import that you probably can't just discuss them over social media comment, you know 0:06:46 - 0:07:09 , or a Twitter tweet. And that's a huge problem with society today and why so many people operate, they, they have beliefs that uh where their zeal far exceeds their knowledge, they're, they're very worked up about beliefs that they s they just have not done their homework on. And um that's not good 0:07:08 - 0:07:26 or they think they know everything there is to know about something because they read a headline that's not good. The fact is that there are, there are few, but there are people floating around who spend immense amounts of time thinking deeply about things and living deeply and reflecting on their experiences 0:07:25 - 0:07:48 . You know, if, if you met, um if you meet an angel who actually dwells in heaven and you treat that angel like most people act on social media, bad things are gonna happen. I mean, that angel knows a lot and you cannot treat that angel like, like they're just some Schmo off the street spouting off nonsense 0:07:47 - 0:08:05 . Uh Even though you might be some Schmo off the street spouting off nonsense. And if that's true for angels, the question is how close to that can a person approach in life, a mortal person? Because there are people who dedicated their lives to the search for truth and you should not come up to that 0:08:05 - 0:08:19 person and just start spouting stuff off. That's, that's just gonna hurt everyone. It's gonna hurt you because you're gonna miss out on the opportunity to learn vastly more than you could ever encounter in life because you don't dive that deeply into stuff like that person does. It's gonna hurt them 0:08:19 - 0:08:38 because you're gonna absolutely waste their time. They have a duty to presume that every person might take what they have mined out of life seriously. And um they're gonna waste an abundant amount of time dealing with you when you actually couldn't care less about what they believe. You're never going 0:08:38 - 0:08:56 to change your mind about anything and it's just a waste of time. So if you're in that boat, just leave those people alone, just go about your merry way and leave those people alone. But if you do want to find these people and you do want to help other people understand things that you have invested 0:08:55 - 0:09:17 your due diligence in learning and living then take these things carefully, not flippantly. Um It's not good to think, you know, everything that's worth knowing. Um There is that is worth knowing. Um And, and when you go around acting this way, you do a lot more harm than good. When people read the things 0:09:17 - 0:09:36 that you write, they're going to ignore the things that you believe that do have value because you're going to act like a person who has no idea what they're talking about and should just be ignored because you, you, you treat things with a lot less, um, care and, uh, detail than they deserve. And that's 0:09:35 - 0:09:55 a shame because everyone has something of value. And don't you want to share that with people? So be careful about what you say and how you say it. Um, but also probably doing even more harm. You know, Christians have a reputation in this world for being low information. People, there are, uh, sincere 0:09:54 - 0:10:13 intelligent people out there who happen to be atheists who would believe in God if there were fewer Christians around loudly professing what they've never bothered to look into. Really. Um, so these people can detect low information Christians from a mile away and it gives a very bad reputation. And 0:10:13 - 0:10:27 that's unfortunate because, because there are people out there that would believe if they had a better reason to and it's clouding the waters. So you're better off just sort of backing away and thinking a little more carefully about what you believe and presenting it more carefully and not just sort 0:10:27 - 0:10:46 of responding to say, a two hour very careful presentation by spouting off one or two sentences of, well, this is all wrong because whatever just, you know, try to up the ante a little bit and put as much effort into it as the other person did or something approaching that. And uh come at it with an 0:10:46 - 0:11:06 open mind because you might come away learning something and they might too, but they won't if you don't package it better than you, you are. So those are just things to, to think about um closing this out with some scriptures. So Peter tells us, uh be ready always to give an answer to every man that 0:11:05 - 0:11:24 ask you a reason of the hope that is in you have your reasons. And he also says with meekness and fear. So do it carefully, do it humbly and uh do it with an open mind because you never know. You might be presenting ideas to someone who has much better ideas than you. And this might be the very vehicle 0:11:24 - 0:11:44 that God has arranged so that you can, he can reach you with something that you wouldn't otherwise have. Um, final thought. Uh Paul is accosted by a lady just sort of flippantly while he's out there ministering and he accuses her of having an evil spirit and he cast it out of her proving he was right 0:00:00 - 0:00:22 I wanted to record some quick thoughts on ideas about reason and argumentation. Um All beliefs are a mapping between cause and effect and it's really important to help other people see where you're coming from and also to see where other people are coming from. Unfortunately, instead of sharing where 0:00:22 - 0:00:42 we're coming from or the reasons why we hold a certain belief we usually lead out with and leave it to our conclusions and we'll just sort of spatter off some conclusions. We'll never share our reasons. Maybe we don't even have reasons, we don't care about what the other person's reasons are. This isn't 0:00:41 - 0:01:06 a way, an effective way to increase an understanding and come to a unity of the best beliefs possible. So, um I just want to sort of illustrate some things to consider here. So first off this mapping between premises and conclusions, every single piece of it could be lacking somehow they could be incorrect 0:01:05 - 0:01:23 , they could be incomplete meaning there's something better or there's something else that you don't know about. And it's really important to be careful about all of this, any belief you have, you can go back as you uh encounter other people or other experiences and you can sort of reinvestigate these 0:01:23 - 0:01:42 things and take them further and uh improve them, replace them with something better, et cetera. So, for example, it's really important to think about are the set of premises that I've thought about. Are they the only ones that, that exist for this particular idea? So for example, if you had never seen 0:01:41 - 0:02:03 a black swan and every single swan you'd ever seen was white, you could conclude that there are no black swans and that's a very reasonable conclusion. But the second you see a black swan, this is no longer reasonable to believe. If you continue believing something that's been adequately disproven to 0:02:03 - 0:02:20 you, that's called delusion, it's bad, right? Because it means you're intentionally not going to the best place you have the capability to go to, you're missing out on something. So another question is, are the premises that you have, are they correct because they're all subject to interpretation? So 0:02:20 - 0:02:43 what we perceive is not reality, it's reality, that's, that's interpreted. And so it can, it can be close or far away from what is really true. So for example, um you can hang on to this idea of Paul said, we're saved by faith, not works. And um and, and then say, therefore all it takes to be saved is 0:02:42 - 0:03:01 to say, we believe in Jesus and there are millions of people who believe this. Ok. But you can look elsewhere in the Bible. And see that James teaches very clearly, that works actually matter. And uh you can't be saved by saying you believe in Jesus if you're, if you do not align your life with that 0:03:01 - 0:03:20 belief uh as well, and it's not just James, if you look at the other things that Paul said, this simplistic, this oversimplified uh taken out of context idea that he said were saved by faith, not works. It's, it's not consistent with everything else. He said, it's very clear, all you have to do is read 0:03:20 - 0:00:00 other things that, that he wrote and, and you can't hold this position anymore. OK. But, but if you do this and you oversimplify it, you can hold to a belief that that's not true, right? So it's, it's important that uh your, your premises are consistent with each other and with what's out there. So, 0:00:00 - 0:03:58 um the other thing that you need to do is think about this mapping between the premises and conclusions and ask yourself, is this the only possible relationship? So, are there other potential conclusions that also map to these premises? And are they better substantiated? So, for example, here's a really 0:03:58 - 0:04:20 common one. people will present their interpretation of one or more Bible verses and say, well, the Bible is the word of God. Therefore, I'm right. Ok. Uh Does anyone else interpret those verses differently? And um, if so, do they have a reason for that? And how does that reason compare to yours? So 0:04:20 - 0:04:41 you can believe that the Bible contains God's word and, and realize that that does not imply that what you think the Bible says is actually what, what God would would say if you could ask him directly? Hey, what, what is your understanding of this? Maybe it wouldn't match what you think that that verse 0:04:41 - 0:05:05 says. So, uh this is very important, is this the only possible outcome for this premise or conclusion for this premise? So finally, uh we need to be very careful with our mapping of premises to conclusions if um you know a lot of what you encounter out, especially in social media. It's, it's just this 0:05:05 - 0:05:28 laundry list of random observations that are not thoroughly thought out. They certainly don't represent any, anything close to the full spectrum of premises of evidences that are out there and the mapping doesn't make any sense to the conclusion. And uh the conclusion is very questionable. Um This is 0:05:28 - 0:05:46 not a good, a good approach. I call it the kitchen sink approach. It's just people rattle off a bunch of random things and squeeze 10 different arguments into 11 comment. You gotta take things one at a time and it's important to see the big picture. But you know, if you're dealing with serious things 0:05:46 - 0:06:06 , you, you gotta break it down. So here's some takeaways, big claims, you better have some big evidence for big claims. If you have serious ideas, you sh should probably discuss them seriously. So if you disagree with some, somebody about something that's, that's a really big existential question or 0:06:05 - 0:06:26 a really big belief question, you should not assume that you're just gonna change their mind with one sentence or two sentences or that, that you could adequately display why you believe what you do on that topic with one sentence or two sentences. So if you're not willing to engage in serious conversation 0:06:25 - 0:06:46 and probably lengthy conversation and open minded honest discussion, don't even march into that. Don't pretend like you're doing due diligence by just sort of spouting stuff off and then running away um the things of import that you probably can't just discuss them over social media comment, you know 0:06:46 - 0:07:09 , or a Twitter tweet. And that's a huge problem with society today and why so many people operate, they, they have beliefs that uh where their zeal far exceeds their knowledge, they're, they're very worked up about beliefs that they s they just have not done their homework on. And um that's not good 0:07:08 - 0:07:26 or they think they know everything there is to know about something because they read a headline that's not good. The fact is that there are, there are few, but there are people floating around who spend immense amounts of time thinking deeply about things and living deeply and reflecting on their experiences 0:07:25 - 0:07:48 . You know, if, if you met, um if you meet an angel who actually dwells in heaven and you treat that angel like most people act on social media, bad things are gonna happen. I mean, that angel knows a lot and you cannot treat that angel like, like they're just some Schmo off the street spouting off nonsense 0:07:47 - 0:08:05 . Uh Even though you might be some Schmo off the street spouting off nonsense. And if that's true for angels, the question is how close to that can a person approach in life, a mortal person? Because there are people who dedicated their lives to the search for truth and you should not come up to that 0:08:05 - 0:08:19 person and just start spouting stuff off. That's, that's just gonna hurt everyone. It's gonna hurt you because you're gonna miss out on the opportunity to learn vastly more than you could ever encounter in life because you don't dive that deeply into stuff like that person does. It's gonna hurt them 0:08:19 - 0:08:38 because you're gonna absolutely waste their time. They have a duty to presume that every person might take what they have mined out of life seriously. And um they're gonna waste an abundant amount of time dealing with you when you actually couldn't care less about what they believe. You're never going 0:08:38 - 0:08:56 to change your mind about anything and it's just a waste of time. So if you're in that boat, just leave those people alone, just go about your merry way and leave those people alone. But if you do want to find these people and you do want to help other people understand things that you have invested 0:08:55 - 0:09:17 your due diligence in learning and living then take these things carefully, not flippantly. Um It's not good to think, you know, everything that's worth knowing. Um There is that is worth knowing. Um And, and when you go around acting this way, you do a lot more harm than good. When people read the things 0:09:17 - 0:09:36 that you write, they're going to ignore the things that you believe that do have value because you're going to act like a person who has no idea what they're talking about and should just be ignored because you, you, you treat things with a lot less, um, care and, uh, detail than they deserve. And that's 0:09:35 - 0:09:55 a shame because everyone has something of value. And don't you want to share that with people? So be careful about what you say and how you say it. Um, but also probably doing even more harm. You know, Christians have a reputation in this world for being low information. People, there are, uh, sincere 0:09:54 - 0:10:13 intelligent people out there who happen to be atheists who would believe in God if there were fewer Christians around loudly professing what they've never bothered to look into. Really. Um, so these people can detect low information Christians from a mile away and it gives a very bad reputation. And 0:10:13 - 0:10:27 that's unfortunate because, because there are people out there that would believe if they had a better reason to and it's clouding the waters. So you're better off just sort of backing away and thinking a little more carefully about what you believe and presenting it more carefully and not just sort 0:10:27 - 0:10:46 of responding to say, a two hour very careful presentation by spouting off one or two sentences of, well, this is all wrong because whatever just, you know, try to up the ante a little bit and put as much effort into it as the other person did or something approaching that. And uh come at it with an 0:10:46 - 0:11:06 open mind because you might come away learning something and they might too, but they won't if you don't package it better than you, you are. So those are just things to, to think about um closing this out with some scriptures. So Peter tells us, uh be ready always to give an answer to every man that 0:11:05 - 0:11:24 ask you a reason of the hope that is in you have your reasons. And he also says with meekness and fear. So do it carefully, do it humbly and uh do it with an open mind because you never know. You might be presenting ideas to someone who has much better ideas than you. And this might be the very vehicle 0:11:24 - 0:11:44 that God has arranged so that you can, he can reach you with something that you wouldn't otherwise have. Um, final thought. Uh Paul is accosted by a lady just sort of flippantly while he's out there ministering and he accuses her of having an evil spirit and he cast it out of her proving he was right 0:11:44 - 0:12:00 . And so you should be really careful when, when you approach people in the wrong spirit, you should, you should think about whether you're serving God or someone else and uh think about benefit and improvement and how you can carefully present your ideas.