My wife and I enjoy watching period movies and TV series. Recently, we stumbled across yet another British-clergy-as-crime-fighter TV series on PBS called Grantchester. The series takes place during the 1950s and 60s in the eponymous real-life village close to Cambridge University. Its protagonists are an Anglican parish vicar and a hardened police inspector who develop an unlikely… Read More »
So far in this series, we’ve explored the concepts of critical thinking and a hindrance to it, cognitive biases. In this article, we will discuss a second hindrance: “logical fallacies.” What is a Logical Fallacy? Again, let’s define some terms: logic reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity fallacy a mistaken belief, especially one based… Read More »
In the previous article in this series, we defined and discussed the term “critical thinking” and why we Christ-followers should care about it. In this installment, we’ll discuss the topic of biased thinking. Bias is easy to grasp because we’ve all encountered them in others, especially those of us who are not Caucasian, though we all tend to… Read More »
Introduction We Christ-followers are constantly bombarded by hostile narratives. They are proclaimed by those trying to sway public opinion in support of their theological and/or political ideologies. Their positions are often presented with a total disregard for rational thought and/or reality and/or biblical morality. Regardless of how altruistically their agendas are portrayed, the consistent sticking point is frequently:… Read More »
The Holy Spirit had been urging me to write this article for a week or so before I started it and frankly, I’ve struggled with this article over a period of a couple more weeks after that. Why? Because I desperately don’t want this article perceived as an angry diatribe judgmentally lashing out at everyone who doesn’t “measure… Read More »
One of the most effective ways to pray and be completely confident we are praying in agreement with the will of God is to pray Scripture verses. Why? Because by definition, His promises are His will, period, full stop, end of story. The following is a prayer I felt led of the Lord to compose so my fellow… Read More »
A couple of phrases have arisen of late within modern pop culture and political discourse. Those phrases are “speaking your truth” and “speaking truth to power.” So let’s dig into the concept of “truth” and see what we discover. Objective Truth The subtitle here is actually repetitively redundant. Truth IS objective. There is no “my” truth or “your”… Read More »
I’ve been praying over the last few days about how the Holy Spirit wanted me to conclude this series. The answer came when my now-former-pastor, close friend, and fellow contributor here, Ron Merrell, began one of his sermons with the following quote from Proverbs: My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,… Read More »
