Once upon a time people used to think, reason, reflect, discern, and evaluate – they used the ol’ bean in other words. But such an ability is quickly becoming an endangered species in much of the West. Instead of actually thinking, most people today are emoting.
They are running purely on feelings and emotions, instead of critically evaluating and thinking things through carefully. And that is always a recipe for disaster. When we simply offer emotive knee-jerk reactions to things, instead of engaging in proper reflection and logical appraisal, we will fall for anything.
And this lack of discernment, this inability to actually think, and this refusal to use our grey matter is tragically not just a hallmark of the world around us, but of the churches as well. So many of our churches today have degenerated into feel-good entertainment centres where people are amused and their fancies are tickled.
Solid teaching and serious reflection on the Word of God and how it intersects with the issues of the day seem to be the exception to the rule. No wonder R.C. Sproul could say decades ago, “We live in the most anti-intellectual era of church history”.
Secular observers also note our decline in thinking. As William James once remarked, “Most people think they are thinking when, in fact, they are only rearranging their prejudices.” Yes, there is a whole lot of prejudice rearranging going on of late.
I get it on a daily basis. Being involved in an interactive blogsite means I get plenty of examples of this all the time. People who refuse to think but are happy to open their mouths anyway are a dime a dozen it seems. Not just on my own website, but elsewhere I experience this on a regular basis.
Consider this exchange which recently took place on another site. Someone had posted a piece on a petition about Islam. I forget the actual situation, but if I recall correctly, it pointed out how bad things are elsewhere with a non-integrative Islam wreaking havoc in the West.
I made a brief contribution to this post, and then things started to get interesting. Here is an actual exchange from this post:
Critic: I think the aim of the petition is to incite hatred and violence against muslims. Mohammad lived over 2,000 years ago when people died somewhere between 30 and 40 years old. So marrying 9 year olds was not considered abnormal. The muslims don’t worship him because of this act and to imply they do is blinkered, to say the least. I agree with Chris that this whole thing is being taken out of context. Don’t we have better things to do with our time than worry about this crap?
Myself: Umm no, he did not live over 2,000 years ago, and no people did not die between 30 and 40 then, and no making excuses for pedophilia is never acceptable, and yes creeping sharia is certainly something to worry about in any democracy.
Critic: Well, 1500 years ago Bill Muehlenberg – so I was not too far off, and people did have very short lifespans in those days. I am not making an excuse for pedophilia at all, I am saying that it wasn’t considered as such during those times, and judging people retrospectively is very closed minded.
Myself: So we should not judge Attila the Hun, Stalin or Hitler because “judging people retrospectively is very closed minded”? Sez who? And why?
I am not sure if this gal came back for more, and I assume she is not a Christian. But plenty of things can be pointed out about this short encounter. Notice how she managed to get just about everything wrong. Her facts were way off, her logic was non-existent, and her reasoning abilities were evidently on vacation.
This utterly clueless girl had Muhammad actually living before Jesus Christ! And being off by over 600 years (he actually lived 1400 years ago) seems to be no biggee to her. And given that Muhammad himself lived to be 62 years of age, where did she come up with this foolishness about folks dying at 30 or 40?
And taking a girl at 6 and consummating that relationship when she is 9 (as Muhammad did with Aisha) is normal? Sorry, but most people would take a different view of things. While Muhammad made it a common practice for himself and his followers, not everyone would have embraced this.
And of course the whole point of this is that creeping sharia and stealth jihad are very important things indeed to worry about. They are inimical to freedom and democracy, things which this not very rational gal is enjoying. She would not have the luxury of making such comments if Islam did indeed fully extend its reach to where she is living.
And what about that sheer inanity about not judging people retrospectively? What kind of warped cultural relativism is that? As I pointed out, by her twisted reasoning, we would then have no right to judge someone like Hitler. Indeed, going by her silliness, we would have no right to judge someone if they slapped her in the face last year, or called her a bonehead ten minutes ago.
Just where in the world do people come up with such utter nonsense? How can people be so badly misinformed, so woefully under-educated, and so clearly unable to think coherently and consistently? Sadly we already know the answers to these questions.
She undoubtedly is just a product of her secular culture and her dumbed-down education system. Both are inimical to thinking, analysis, and logical vigour. Both are turning out a nation of mindless zombies who will simply parrot whatever their ideological masters have told them.
They are slaves in other words – slaves unable to think, reason, or question anything. They simply take the PC slop they are dished up with and peddle it far and wide. No wonder the West is going down the tubes so quickly. These zombies are the perfect citizens for radical social engineers like Obama and others who would radically remake Western civilisation into their own corrupt image.
Big Brother would be so proud.
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