Category Archives: Why learn logic?

Biblical Defining

Introductory Logic, Why learn logic?,

Some people believe that Jesus’ command to love your enemies is an absurd requirement because they are defining love to mean ‘believe the other to be a nice person,’ when in fact they know their enemies to be quite wicked and depraved. But biblically, love means ‘to treat the other person lawfully from the heart,’ which is to be our behavior toward all men. If this definition is made clear, the people may still think that the command is impossible, but at least they no longer should see it as absurd.

Defining Terms

God Cares How We Define

Introductory Logic, Why learn logic?

I recently read a Tweet from a friend quoting a respected theologian, saying, “Definitions are never a matter of life or death.” While given the explanatory context I agree with the claim, taken out of context (a perennial hazard of Twitter, and social media in general) this could be dangerously misunderstood.

For example, how does one define a person? Is an unborn fetus a person?  As such, do they have a God-given right to life? Consequently, should elective abortion be defined as a species of murder? Or consider the key terms fought over in the Civil War. When it was declared that “all men are created equal,” how should man be defined? Was a slave property? Which is correct grammar: the United States is, or the United States are?

I discuss this issue in this 30-second clip from my Introductory Logic video, Lesson 1, on “The Purposes of Defining Terms.”

My point is that definitions are not purely academic. God cares how we define our terms. And sometimes it is a manner of life or death.

Logic as a moral imperative

Classical Education, Logic, Why learn logic?

When we claim that a false statement is true or that a true statement is false, this is a moral wrong, called lying. But if we refuse to draw the proper conclusion of a valid argument, I do not know of a similar verb in English, a word that will make clear the ethical nature of such bad reasoning. But that it can be an ethical issue seems undeniable. This appears to be the failing of the Jewish leaders in John 5:39-40, who refused to accept that Jesus was the Christ, and of those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness in Romans 1, who are said to be “without understanding.”

I’m Just a Bill

A logic challenge: Symbolize the antecedents to a bill becoming a law. Below is the applicable excerpt from the U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7.

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall become a law.… If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.