Once a belief has been accepted both intellectually and emotionally as truth, any challenge to that cherished tenet is liable to almost automatic rejection. The very human desire of all of us to conform to the group which has nourished us and the lifetime patterns of thought learned from sincere teachers we trusted and respect tends to create barriers which secure us against all objections and can blind us to the most obvious truths. When those deeply held beliefs are challenged, we naturally feel threatened and defensive.
An excerpt from a creationist magazine, The New Scientist in a short piece entitled “You Can’t Argue With That” further illustrates the situation:
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Author: Paul Pursell
Keywords: Reasoning together, Reason, Logic, Conversion, Prejudice, prejudiced, bigot, bigotted, Debate, Reasoning, Analyze, Analytical reasoning, Defensive, Dismissing evidence, Dismissive, Debating, Defensiveness, evidence, argument, dispute, disputing, objective, objectivity, relativity
Bible reference(s): Isaiah 1:18, Matthew 13:15, Matthew 18:3, John 12:40, Acts 17:11-12, 2 Corinthians 3:14, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 4:18, 2Ti 2:15, 1Ti 1:4, 1Ti 6:4, 2Ti 2:23, Tit 3:9
Source: “Come, Let Us Reason Together,” Shofar (Poncha Springs, Co.: Shofar Publications), May/June 2001, pp. 62-65.
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