Logic: Part 1

Today, thinking is a lost art:

"5% think, 10% think they think, 85% would rather die than think.” - Anonymous

In a day when spin, propaganda and social manipulation are taught in universities under the headings of political science, modern communication, and marketing strategies, the ability to think logically is a necessity. After working on an advertizing campaign for a large company in England, author and educator, Dorothy Sayers went home and penned her now famous essay; 'the Art of learning'. Below she muses over the need for good thinking

we let our young men and women go out unarmed in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects....We have lost the tools of learning, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it [1]

When most people hear the word "logic," they conjure up the picture of an old dusty professor with a high forehead, bad jokes, smokey tweed jackets, condicendingly teaching things nobody can understand, or nobody wants to understand. That's not the logic I'm talking about. Let me introduce you to logic from a christain perspective, in terms of how you might find it useful.

I. Logic is God way of thinking: we can understand it as right thinking.

  "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD. Isaiah 1:18 - God asks His people to reason logically with Him about their sins and their need for salvation.

8 aspects of Logic

1. Christ himself is represented as wisdom, logic, or right thinking.

• Scripture says, "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God." Jn. 1:1. We will look at Christ's example in part 3.

2. Logic is an attribute of God. God is not subject to logic in the sense that he is beneath it, nor is logic an "invention" of God. God is always utterly logical, because logic is part of who he is. When God does not seem logical to us - it is our ignorance not God.

• Romans 11:33. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" - God's knowledge and wisdom are far more deep than we can comprehend. We can not systematize and understand many of God's ways.
• Logic as an attribute of God is connected to His Holy Character. God's Act and God's character is never at odds for he always acts like he is. He can not act contrary to His character, this is the logic of God in action.

3. For Humanity - Logic is the set of rules understood from God's nature as logical. Rules we must follow to think rightly. As a academic discipline, Logic is the study of how to take statements which you know are true and put them together to come up with a conclusion which you can understand as true.

• Proverbs 2:6. “For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” - God gives the gift of good reasoning.
• Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” NASB - God is the source of good understanding, it doesn't come natively from ourselves.

4. Logic is part of how creation was made. God made cration to be obseraable and disiginshable as to show inteligance and his Character.

• Proverbs 3:19-20. “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens. By His knowledge the deeps were broken up And the skies drip with dew.” NASB - God made the universe with logical principles.  

5. Logic is propositional. All thinking begins from a point. The proper point should be God then you would from that foundation proposition.

6. Logic undergirds truth. Otherwise, we can make no distinctions between truth and error.

7. Logic undergirds morality. Otherwise, we can make no distinctions between right and wrong.

8. Logic is covenantal. God himself holds us accountable for thinking rightly, because we are his creatures made in his image. One aspect of biblical wisdom is logica or the abliity to think clearly and acuretly about a given sicuation.

• James 1:5. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” - If you are humble in admitting your lack of wisdom, God will generously reward you with more than you desire. GOD is willing!
• Colossians 1:9. “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;” - Paul desires that God would give Christians an understanding of what His will is. He is quick to grant us virtue that will spur growth in his will. God Is able!

 God is willing and able to give wisdom.

   

II. Example of Logic in Action

As Christians, God has put it in us to desire to obey. But we cannot obey if we do not know and understand God's word. Therefore, God has written His commands in the Bible and given us a mind to understand His commands. Now what is our duty?

• Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord. - Ephesians 5:17.
• And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. - Romans 12:2.
• For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;- Colossians 1:9. 

God commands us, not only to know His commands, but also to understand them – to understand their logical implications and to apply them to our life.

How we recognize the logical implications of God's commands? We will use the issue of abortion. Nowhere does the Bible explicitly say killing unborn children is sin, but we can deduce this command by comparing scripture with scripture.

• Murdering living persons is sin. Exodus 20:13. Matthew 19:18.
• To unlawfully kill a person with premeditation is murder. Deuteronomy 19:4, 11.
• Pre-born children are living persons. Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:41.
• Abortion is killing a living pre-born child
• Therefore, abortion is murder and a sin.

The logic is clear, no one can deny it. The conclusion is true, if you believe the Bible.

Further Scripture Referances

• Deuteronomy 6:5
• Matthew 22:37
• Romans 12:2–3
• 1 Corinthians 1:18–2:16
• 2 Corinthians 10:5
• Colossians 2:3–8
• 2 Timothy 3:16

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[1] Dorothy Sayers, speech at Oxford, 1947, Quoted in "Trivium Pursuit," by Roy Maynard (World, October 8, 1994), p. 13.