Black and White Thinking
Are you a Black and White thinker? Do you always call a spade,
a spade? Do you think in terms of absolutes? Is everything either right
or wrong? If you don't know if something is right or wrong, do you find
someone who does?
If this is you, you need to realise that you have plenty of company.
Many atheists and fundamentalists are Black and White thinkers. Science
writers are often in this catagory. Even big name scientists have this
problem, although they should know better. All followers of dictators are
Black and White thinkers. Politicians;? I don't know what they are.
The problem seems to be basically a human problem. We all have a tendancy
to be this way. Where did it come from? Part of the problem is our reliance
of the Scientific method that we borrowed from the ancient Greeks. In
school we all learnt in our Geometry classes that if A is true, and B is
true then A+B is also true. Right? No, Wrong! The problem with this whole
series of logic ideas is that they don't work.
Why? When you look at A+B you need to realise that you assume that A+B is
all that exists in the Universe and you don't have to worry about C,D and E
because if they existed you would know about it. This seems to be true in
Geometry but it tends to fail everywhere else. Science seems to be built on
these simple geometric concepts and has been proven to work better than having
nothing at all, but when our little human minds apply Science to Absolutes,
the process all breaks down.
Now what? Does that mean that Black and White Absolutes do not exist? No;
Not really. What it means is that we, using our weak example of Ancient
Greek logic are not capable of figuring out what those Absolutes are.
For several years now, our TV oriented media has been trying to push their narrow
black and white viewpoints in regard to Religion on the rest of us. They are
constantly trying to push the idea that their Science proves that God does
not exist. If he did, their Science should be able to prove it. What they do
not see, is the fact that there is plenty of evidence that God exists, just not
in the form of Scientific proofs.
The book of Romans states the problem in this manner:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known
about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation
of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been
clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are
without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him
thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the
immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals
or reptiles.
Early in the first century, the Apostle Paul ran into the same group of Greek super
thinkers with their fancy logic and arrogant opinions:
Also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and
some were asking, “What does this foolish babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems
to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” (They said this because he was proclaiming the
good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So they took Paul and brought him to the
Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming? For
you are bringing some surprising things to our ears, so we want to know what they mean.”
(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time in
nothing else than telling or listening to something new.)
So Paul stood before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are
very religious in all respects. For as I went around and observed closely your objects of
worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore what
you worship without knowing it, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and
everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human
hands, nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself
gives life and breath and everything to everyone. From one man he made every nation of
the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed
limits of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps
grope around for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him
we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too
are his offspring.’ So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is
like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination. Therefore,
although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere
to repent,because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in
righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by
raising him from the dead.”
The conclusion of the matter is that our Scientific logic can not discover God simply
because he does not allow it. It is up to every individual to search for him on their
own power and there by find him. When you have done this, then God will find you.