Thinking Through our Points

We live in a contentious time. Arguments and debates are all around us. Unfortunately, we do not seem to be very good at it. The failure to think through our positions and to look into our own arguments creates many problems. I want to illustrate with two recent, non-theological, "arguments" I have recently encountered and then draw a theological point.

There has been a recent flurry of debate about paying college football players. Actually, there is not much debate, mainly I have heard the radio guys/guests pontificating on why they should be paid. Now it is the nature of talk radio to create 'buzz' and controversy. But it is still instructive to hear the argument.

• College football makes lots (millions/billions) of money.
• The institutions and coaches makes lots of money. The players are the reason people watch.
• Therefore the players should be paid.

The key point, repeated over and over, was that the players should get some of the money their sport generates. However, a corollary would seem to be that college sports which lose money should be held to the same standard. So those athletes should have to pay to play, right? No one mentioned that. I do not have a strong opinion about this, but I do know that college tuitions are impacted by decisions in the sports department, so I have a vested interest in this issue.

Last week the local Progressive Weekly contained an editorial. The author was demonstrating (in his mind) how stupid the people who do not believe in global warming are. He began with a list of summer events which, to him, obviously proved that global warming is real. There have been tornadoes, huricanes, droughts and an earth quake the last few months. What else could it be????? My first impulse is to recall the numerous tornadoes, floods, droughts and hurricanes which have impacted the planet every year for countless centuries, but I was not able to enter that argument at all. I was too stunned by the inclusion of the "earthquake." Earthquakes are not a strong arguing point for his position, and by including it it made me think that this guy is just an idealogue spouting his stuff because it is what his team (Team Progressive) is advocating. In general, it is a bad idea to say stupid things when you are trying to demonstrate how stupid the other side is.

Thinking through college football and global warming are important. The decisions made will cost, literally, billions of dollars and impact all of  us. The same is true for numerous other decisions we make. Theology is equally impacted by this phenomenon.

Recently I hear a discussion about thrill seeking. One man said it is dumb to put your life at risk to thrill seek. Another man said that he thought it was okay. I leave out much of a longer conversation, but wanted to identify his main pro-danger argument. "When God decides your time is up, your time is up."

That claim, that God decides when you die, is certainly one which most of us believe. But when you hear it used to justify life threatening thrill seeking it causes one to ask, what do we really believe? The world of "theological bumper sticker arguments" has not produced much fruit in the last couple of decades. The decline in faith has been accelerated by the way faith has been expressed. I am not sure I am a good example of thinking through my arguments, but I do recognize the need to ask, "If I think 'X' what follows from it?" That is where investigating our own thoughts and beliefs is vital.