Blog

Why would a Christian study Aristotelian logic? That designation, “Aristotelian,” is just what we call classical or traditional logic that uses his basic rules. The principles are much older, of course. It is “traditional” in that it has a long history in the language arts for training people to reason properly in preparation for rhetoric, training people to reason persuasively. Christians interested in theology, apologetics, exegesis, and homiletics have certainly benefitted from this tradition over the centuries. Peter himself calls us to be “ready to make a defense (apologia) to everyone who asks you to give an account (logos) for the hope” you have in Christ (1 Pet 3:15 NASB).

But Aristotle?! Well, don’t we trust Pythagoras’s theorem when surveying the church’s properties, why not Aristotle’s logic when doing the church’s ministries. I admit I am being flippant, for it is by knowledge of the Word and the filling of the Holy Spirit that we live our lives and fulfill our callings. The point, though, is that if All truth is God’s truth, as we say, then it matters very little what means God may use to get that truth into the world. Yet someone might object that people have been led astray by Greek thought, and I suppose that has happened. But, to my mind, that is not the fault of logic any more than deaths due to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) or illicit drugs are the fault of chemistry.

Speaking of Greek thought, have you ever wondered why Western civilization always goes back to it to explain the history of ideas? It comes from what we now call “the Problem of Thales” (pron. THAY-leez). Your Wikipedia search tells you that he lived in ancient Greece and believed that ultimately, everything is made of water! No, that was not Thales’ “problem.” His problem was in resolving the dilemma that everything known to us changes, and if that is true then knowledge about what anything really is would be impossible. Look at a frog, how do you know it’s not an enchanted prince? Put another way, everything is made up of component parts, or at least is divisible into sections. If that is true, how do we know what one thing it is?

Such a magical world makes for great fiction—Harry Potter, with a wand and an incantation can change anything into anything. Yet this would be a world without any natural order. In fact, it would be a world of chaos! Thales rejected this magical/mythological worldview by insisting that something must exist underneath, or in, all things to make all changeful things knowable, to make all dividable things still one something. Yes, Thales took it a step too far by suggesting that substance that unifies all is water, and yes, that is a problem (bless his heart). But, more importantly, the point of it was that human minds can know the world as it is, by observation, investigation, reason, and analysis. This set western civilization on a path: reasoning minds investigating a knowable world find truth.

The Bible says the same thing. Reality is knowable, and so absolute truth exists as that which corresponds to the reality that is, God’s reality. Thus, we observe, we investigate, we reason, we analyze. This is the way that God has made humanity to operate. That is why God calls us to reason with him about sin and what he can do about it (Isa 1:18). That is why the prodigal son (Lu 15:11-24) “came to his senses” (v. 17) and undertook a cost/benefit analysis of his situation. That is why the Bereans were “noble” in that they were eager to believe Paul’s message, yet would not accept it as true until they analyzed it against the text of Scripture (Acts 17:11). That is why Paul speaks of the Greco-Roman world in Romans 1:18ff., as unrighteous, yes, but nevertheless as able to know truth about God by observing creation (v. 19). It speaks “clearly” about God’s existence and “his eternal power and Godhead” (v. 20). That is not the same as trusting in Christ’s atoning death, yet Paul is quite clear that these Gentiles were not ignorant of God. What they could know, the could know truly, but their downfall was in not wanting the God that they could know. The point seems to be that the ability of the human mind to know truth is a precious gift of God’s grace to all. That is why we, as Christians, consider it so important to prepare a defense (an apologia) of the gospel as truth and thereby give a reasoned account (logos)—the logic of it to all. Not to do so is indefensible, unreasonable, and illogical.

By Steven W. Ladd

Can 2 + 2 = 5 for God? At one time I admit that I would have answered “Yes!” and quite confidently. Then, I read Isaiah 5. In that passage is a searing judgment from the Lord against sinners. What changed my thinking on the issue at hand was when I realized how the passage was describing those sinners. Verse 18 says that they bring with them their iniquity wherever they go “with the cords of falsehood.” In verse 20, those using falsehood are condemned: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

It is not God, but sinners, who revel in contradiction! Sinners say “good” is “evil” (i.e., good = non-good); sinners equate “bitter” and “sweet” (i.e., bitter = non-bitter); sinners confuse darkness and light (i.e., light = non-light). God is not that way, for he is the standard of what is: God is good; God is light; God is sweet—there is no contradiction in him. It changed my thinking, for I had thought it glorifying to speak of God in self-contradictions! Now it seems absurd, even frightening, to put such thoughts into words.

One medieval Christian known as Dionysius the Areopagite succumbed to this very kind of theo(il)logical hyper-talk. He claimed, with all good intentions, I am sure, that God does not exist—God is beyond existence![1] To my mind, however, this is no deep spiritual insight; it is simply nonsense. Obviously, God’s existence is unlike any other thing’s existence in the way that he exists. As we say in theology, God’s Aseity makes him the uniquely Necessary Being. All else is contingent upon him. Yet it is foolish to say God’s existence is non-existence! If contradiction is “truth,” then we can know nothing and express no statement that corresponds to reality as it is.

What shall we say, then? I would suggest that even for God, 2 + 2 ≠ 5. Why? Because, in God’s created order, God’s rule has been established: 2 + 2 = 4, and triangles have 3 sides, but darkness is not light, and bitter is not sweet. Most important of all, the truth of God’s rule has established that Jesus is the Way and there is no access to the Father but by him. So, if God is truly sovereign, then God’s order prevails and God does not equate the contradictory, sinners do. We go with the truth, then, believing that it is truth that all can know, including those who suppress it, reject it, lie about it, and oppose it. What else can we do? Yet, even in its temporary rebellion this world is God’s world. And so, we go into it rejoicing, knowing that our proclamation of God’s truth can reach those who need it most. Let us go prepared, therefore, with the whole truth, thinking rightly.

[1] Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Names 1.1, in which he says God “is the Universal Cause of existence while Itself not existing, for It is beyond all Being.”

One of the great joys I have in academic life is teaching an undergraduate course in traditional logic. It is also called formal, predicate, term, or syllogistic logic, but because Aristotle’s method for making valid arguments was the earliest treatment of the subject (Prior Analytics and De Interpretatione in Aristotle’s larger work Organon), his method developed into the traditional version taught for centuries also known as Aristotelian logic. All refer to the same discipline, however, and it has generally been taught to young people (middle school age) as the way to develop clarity in the reasoning process.

Nothing could be more relevant in the twenty-first century, especially for Christians seeking to engage a world increasingly hostile to the worldview found in Scripture. But logic does not teach a Christian worldview directly. Aristotle was by no means a believer in the God of the Bible. Yet academic disciplines, say, geometry or cartography for example, are not directly “Christian” subjects even if they can train a Christian in useful ways. In other words, to be more educated provides something in your life that the Lord can use to make his name magnified in the earth. Training in traditional logic provides a way to form sound arguments and recognize fallacies of thought in our own, as well as others’ arguments. Consider offering that for the Lord’s use!

What concerns me most is that without logical thinking many Christians are pressured into our culture’s favorite method of argumentation—statements of preference, often just asserting what one likes or dislikes. Consider the effect this can have on the Christian whose witnessing encounter devolves into, “I follow Jesus, you follow Buddha, so let’s just agree to disagree.” The pressure to make this kind of “argument” is reinforced by the idea that the highest virtue to attain is tolerance, where no view is wrong, no argument is invalid, no conclusion is unsound—you don’t want to be a “hater” do you! Yet, how does the Christian who succumbs to such pressure understand John 14:6, where Jesus made it quite clear that it is only in him that we come to the Father, for all other ways are wrong? The Christian who thinks she must be “tolerant” and avoid making any “argument” has succumbed to the culture’s desire to get guidance from a spinning compass—pointing in every direction, never just one (but thereby useless).

Consider God’s own invitation: “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord” (Isa 1:8). No spinning compass from him. So, consider learning logic. And here’s why:

1. Reasoning is uniquely human (separates humans from animals).
2. Thinking things through is good/positive (consider the alternative).
3. Sound arguments can guide us to make good choices (emotions are reactive).
4. It is a rational step to see “long-term benefits” or “the greater good.”
5. Cognition is how we learn about the world, by being instructed, seeing demonstrations, and organizing the data we observe.
6. Any argument missing a logical appeal is typically defeated by one that does include it.

Logical thinking helps us reason past the myriad preferences and emotions that flood our minds and may lead us astray. It is the power of logos, reason, sound argumentation that I pray more believers will desire to learn.

Photo by After Lysippos – Eric Gaba (User:Sting), July 2005., CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=295872