{"id":29872,"date":"2015-05-14T06:42:48","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T10:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=29872"},"modified":"2015-05-14T06:42:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T10:42:48","slug":"uncertainty-is-uncomfortable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/uncertainty-is-uncomfortable.html","title":{"rendered":"Uncertainty is Uncomfortable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\"Uncertainty<\/a><\/div>\n

On a related note,\u00a0Roger Olson had the following to say in a post on \u201cThe Problem of Irrational, Unteachable Christians\u201d<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Anti-intellectual obscurantism is a persistent problem among Christians. The ideal of the \u201choly fool\u201d endures among us\u2026People who appeal to belief against logic, who revel in irrationality, are unteachable. Nothing anyone says to them about their belief can cause them to ponder, to reflect, to think again\u2014which is what being teachable means. People who appeal to belief against logic, who revel in irrationality, also give Christianity a bad name\u2014making it appear unintelligible to inquiring minds. \u201cCheck your mind at the door\u201d (of the church or Christian school) is the message. To be a Christian you must sacrifice your intellect is the message\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

A person who admits his life and worldview, his philosophy or theology, contains logical contradictions cannot expect others to take his life and worldview, his philosophy or theology, seriously. Some may, but that just demonstrates they are not thinking people. They, too, are unteachable. Being teachable requires being open to correction. Being open to correction requires commitment to logic. Refusing to bow to logic is retreat from all understanding into sheer obscurantism. I would go further and agree with Karl Barth who said \u201cFear of scholasticism is the mark of a false prophet.\u201d Whatever Barth may have meant by \u201cscholasticism\u201d in that quote, it surely included logical thinking about revelation and faith.<\/p>\n

Anyone who says \u201cBelieve what I say even though it is illogical, ridiculous, nonsensical, and foolish!\u201d is a demagogue (at that moment) and people within hearing range should run away as fast as possible.<\/p>\n

Anyone who claims his or her belief system, worldview, theology, philosophy is\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>illogical must remain open to correction and\u00a0if<\/em>\u00a0it can be shown that two or more of his or her beliefs are contradictory he or she must make adjustments or risk being ignored.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read the whole thing. I think that one or more parts of the post probably deserve to become meme images. Let me know which ones you think are particularly worth highlighting and circulating!<\/p>\n

Of related interest, see Ethan Clendening\u2019s recent post\u00a0\u201cOn Escaping Fundamentalism.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a related note,\u00a0Roger Olson had the following to say in a post on \u201cThe Problem of Irrational, Unteachable Christians\u201d: Anti-intellectual obscurantism is a persistent problem among Christians. The ideal of the \u201choly fool\u201d endures among us\u2026People who appeal to belief against logic, who revel in irrationality, are unteachable. Nothing anyone says to them about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":29871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[1697,6670,10016,10513,12304,13092],"class_list":["post-29872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-religion","tag-certainty","tag-logic","tag-reason","tag-roger-olson","tag-teachable","tag-uncertainty"],"yoast_head":"\nUncertainty is Uncomfortable<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On a related note,\u00a0Roger Olson had the following to say in a post on "The Problem of Irrational, Unteachable Christians": Anti-intellectual obscurantism\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/uncertainty-is-uncomfortable.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uncertainty is Uncomfortable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On a related note,\u00a0Roger Olson had the following to say in a post on "The Problem of Irrational, Unteachable Christians": Anti-intellectual obscurantism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/05\/uncertainty-is-uncomfortable.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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