Posted on by Abe Austin

You Do Not Understand Others

If you cannot fathom or see the sensibility in the beliefs of another, then the failure is almost certainly in your understanding, not in their intelligence or reason. More often than not, people have logical and coherent reasons for believing what they believe. More often than not, your difference in view simply comes down to them having underlying presumptions that are different from your own. But if you did share their presumptions, more often than not you might very well come to the same conclusions as them.

It is maturity to seek first what those presumptions are, to see the reason and logic that follows from them, and to appreciate that your brother or sister is an intelligent being trying to do their best with what they have, just like you.

Furthermore, in many cases those presumptions are both unprovable and unfalsifiable. Thus, your brother or sister may indeed be wrong, and the conclusions drawn from them wrong as well, but you’ll never be able to demonstrate it by logical argument.

Most arguments around differences in belief are therefore a complete waste of energy. Most debaters will never extend the grace of acknowledging the reasonability in other’s conclusions given their background, nor address the actual presumptions on which everything depends. Instead, people tend to argue on a surface layer for positions that the other cannot accept, and no meaningful change occurs.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Subject of Debate

People love to debate theological differences. Members of different Christian denominations argue the fine points of their faith, members of different religions argue about the true nature of God, and members of different belief systems will argue about the nature of reality or whether there even is a God at all.

It’s a bit of an interesting concept, given that all of these are truth claims, and the truth is immutable. It cannot be defined or changed by the debate; it just is what it is. Truth is unassailable. Even if someone wins a debate arguing against the truth, the truth remains the same and the debater still remains wrong.

Thus, debates about the truth are merely an exercise in opinion, with nothing of substance altered by the outcome. So, what truly is being contested in these sorts of debates? What really is at stake? Only the image and ego of its participants.

Is it any wonder than that these debates so often become emotional and heated? The passion with which many argue suggests that they realize that in reality is their own intelligence and reason that are on the line, that if they cannot prove their point then they have been beaten personally, even if their stance was the correct one.

For this reason, I believe that much of debate is a vain and shallow exercise, one that says much about the participants, and little about the underlying truth.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Solemnity and Joy- Ecclesiastes 7:6, Doctrine and Covenants 88:69

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.

Remember the great and last promise which I have made unto you; cast away your idle thoughts and your excess of laughter far from you.

COMMENTARY

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool
Cast away your excess of laughter far from you
Thus far we have considered the worthiness of both joy and solemnity, the different times that call for each. It also seems worthwhile now to mention the inappropriate application of each. Today we will look at inappropriate laughter.
There is nothing wrong with being happy, enjoying a moment of good feelings, smiling, laughing, and pleasantly being with those we love. But I’m sure we can all think of situations where others or ourselves have taken it too far. Consider, for example the screeching, forced laughter of someone trying to get everyone to look at them at a party.
That behavior reminds me directly of this verse from Ecclesiastes. It is an older expression, but the crackling of thorns is in reference to how throwing thorns on a fire would result in an immediate and loud blaze, which quickly consumed all of its fuel and then died out without providing any lasting heat. It was flashy, but it was worthless for heating whatever you had in the pot.
True joy means something, it bubbles out in warm laughter that has a real depth beneath it. But raucous screeching has nothing of substance behind. It comes only from a place of desperate vanity. It flashes, it crackles, it calls for attention…and then it evaporates into emptiness.