Rose Colored Logic

Rose-Colored Logic

<= span class=3DmsoIns>By Wayne Slater-Lunsford

Antelope Vall= ey Church of C= hrist- Lancaster, California

One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions of faith is: “firm belief in something for which there is= no proof.” Christians defi= ne faith as “. . . being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we= do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1, New International Version, © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society) Clearly if any proposition were provable, it would n= ot be a matter of faith. I am frequently confronted with two mutually exclusive possibilities. If empirical evidence and deductive reasoning find each answer equally believable, there remains a decision as = to which is VIABLE. This is wher= e the Christian definition adds that very important and operative element of HOPE

The relevance of hope can be se= en in an incident related to me at U. S. Naval Air Station Cubi Point, in the Philippines. The = runway there was bounded by water on three sides.= A patrol aircraft took off and began to climb out over the bay. It had not yet reached cruise alti= tude when all four engines exploded into flames, and were immediately shut down. In the cockpit, both pi= lots and the Flight Engineer struggled to turn the dying aircraft back toward the runway, but it was obvious they would not make it. The calculations had already been done. They were going to land= in the water, and a P3 does NOT float. Nine of the ten sailors back in the "tube" instinctively cinched up their harnesses and helmet straps, and remained facing aft in th= eir assigned seats. The Navigator= tore off his helmet and swiveled his seat to face his map desk. He laid his head down and wept. His fellow crewmen had faith in the “ditching” procedures the Navy had developed for such emergencies. They had no abso= lute knowledge that they would or would not survive the event, but they chose the alternative which at least offered HOPE The water off the end of that runw= ay was only about six feet deep. The aircraft, with its landing gear still extended, settled to rest with the wa= ves lapping at its wings. The cre= w all swam to shore before the rescue team arrived. All except the Navigator who knew = he was going to die. The radar opera= tor dragged his body ashore, and later told me this story.

Faith uses hope to break the tie between two otherwise equally-balanced possibilities. As such, it IS a logi= cal solution. When two alternativ= es are equally likely by every intellectual test, the clear thinker acknowledges t= hem both as possible, but proceeds to one further test, choosing the assumption which offers more or better options. Of course, such faith can turn to folly if one totally discards the less-attractive alternative. = The discovery of new information or a new line of reasoning may vindicate a distasteful reality. The relu= ctance of some people of faith to consider new evidence and to entertain new possibilities has earned well-deserved contempt, which has often been incorrectly generalized to ALL of the faithful.

Faith is good sense, while being closed to logical discourse is superstition.

Faith in God, then, is a logical choice which allows for personal preference. If you can calculate it with certa= inty- if you can prove it, it's not an article of faith. If God is who the Christian Bible = says He is, no human will ever PROVE it, nor DISprove it. Faith in God is for those= who are open to the truth of possibility.

=	This work is licensed under a Creative Co= mmons License.