Conversation – additional thoughts
After reflecting on my posts from January a bit more, here are a few other things that come to mind…
1. It is difficult to have meaningful discussions when we can’t agree on common terms or definitions of words. Words like mother, father, marriage, love and even truth are now being twisted so that reality is redefined by how I want to see the world and how I require others to see the world.
2. It is difficult to have meaningful discussions inside a social construct of emotivism. Social media especially is mostly about getting attention and this must be done with images or ideas that grab emotions and usually avoid critical thinking or self-reflection. Any explanations or real discussion is avoided if I can just have the last word in the argument. An additional layer of complexity is the fragility of our emotional state that requires others to acknowledge my imagined reality (or assumed identity) on my terms for me to “feel good about myself”.
3. It is difficult to have meaningful discussions when history is only viewed in the negative as what should always be left behind and never as a way of remembering the noble and enduring or as a means of understanding our current reality. This is further damaged by requiring every previous society to have the same understanding and values as our current society, judging them by our standards, and an ethnocentrism that assumes others must think the same way as us.
These are complex topics and I will need to develop each of them better in the days to come. I’m currently reading Carl Truman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. This is an academic treatise on the history of how we arrived at our current socially accepted standards of expressive individualism. It is a fascinating and informative work, revealing the gradual progression from acceptance of our identity and role within a social structure to complete rejection of socially integrating concepts and even biological definitions of humanity on which a flourishing society can be built.
Let me just make a few comments about the first point. In our conversation (covered in the last 9 posts), Derek and I could not agree on several terms nor even on how to use logic as a foundation for reaching meaningful conclusions. But why is the use of words so important? Why do we depend on words for logic? What is the relationship between words and numbers or symbolic language and is one more useful or precise than the other? Dr. John Lennox has something to say about this topic as a professor of mathematics at Oxford. His recent discussion with Jeff Myers is helpful.
“Albert Einstein was sufficiently bright to be amazed at the fact that mathematics works.” Math actually does explain reality and does this in terms that can be understood by the human mind. This is because reality is knowable and real numbers have real meanings. There are only 2 explanations for this phenomena that I can find. The first is that a mind that uses words to describe reality and order the physical universe has brought everything into existence and also created us with the same capacity to know, to evaluate and to describe that reality with words. The other is that numbers just happen, by chance, to have enough meaning and relation to reality to make some partial sense of things. But if you know anything about math, you know the 2nd option is really not an option at all. There is just too much that math is able to explain.
We must also acknowledge that math is just another form of language. Granted, it is more precise language because it deals with quantities and variables, but it is still language because it uses symbols to describe real things that we can touch, see, hear, taste, smell and quantify. Moving away from math, the language of logic can function in a similar way when the terms being used have specific meaning. The less meaningful the terms, the more difficult it is to express reality. This is part of the conflict when we cannot find an agreeable definition of basic terms.
In my recent study of Isaiah (God’s words through Isaiah), there are beautiful patterns in God’s warnings and promises to His people. They continue to rebel and trust in themselves and others rather than in God. But He also reminds them that the punishment for their rebellion also has an end and He will be faithful to restore His Kingdom. Part of this restoration involves words and meanings. Isaiah 29:17-21 is a good example. Won’t it be “just a little while” until we grow, know, understand and rejoice in the Lord? This will be the end of those intent on doing evil. Their evil consists of a twisting of words and of meaningless arguments that ensnare the judges of the people (gatekeepers).
Words do have meaning and God is the One Who speaks them, breathing life into all that exists, maintaining reality by His Word and even speaking Himself into our world to bring us back to Himself and restore our (yours and my) meaning and purpose through Christ’s death and resurrection. Those are powerful and beautiful words! “They will sanctify My name; indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel” Isaiah 29:23. Jesus says in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.” His Word, the words of the Creator, set the foundation for reality, the full scope of human history and beyond into eternity.