(An updated version of this concept may be found here)
It seems as though everywhere I turn I find people speaking about how we “shouldn’t make assumptions.” And there is a certain validity to this, in that poorly structured assumptions can make a perfectly logical person produce false conclusions.
But I think we can all acknowledge that we have certain things, call them assumptions, presuppositions, axioms, fundamentals, or what have you, that we use fairly automatically in looking at the world around us.
So in the interests of fairness, I thought I would put my assumptions out here for all to see. These are things I use in my thinking. That doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to talk with people who disagree with me on these things. That doesn’t mean I can’t step out of my assumptions to look at things from other angles when I want to. In fact, if someone convinces me that any of these things are false, I’ll drop them. I’m not putting them in this post as some sort of ultimatum against all those who don’t thing like me, but rather as a bridge, so that when we talk we can be conscious of each other’s differences, which will help us to talk sensibly and respectfully. Here’s some of my assumptions in religion, science, politics, etc.
(1) There is a God–an all-powerful, loving, just being who has given us principles of right and wrong, good and evil, to live by.
(2) Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I have what is considered a pretty Orthodox view of who he is and who God is as a Trinity. Let me state this clearly: the Jesus I believe is fully God and fully man. Period.
(3) The Bible is the word of God. It is inerrant in the sense that nothing in it is really a mistake. That doesn’t mean we have to simpleton’s when looking at it, though.
(4) Science is an excellent set of tools for analyzing the world around us. Scientists and scholars and general are to be trusted as authoritative generally, unless their opinions are being swayed by a need to conform their findings to their worldview, or if they are doing their research with obvious conflicts of interest. And even if they are being honest, scholars can be wrong.
(5) Biblical miracles actually happened, and when the text of the Bible is recording what looks like history, it is.
(6) Unless serious evidence exists to the contrary, I tend to base my view in textual matters on the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament and the the New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Byzantine Textform as edited by Robinson and Pierpont. Yeah, I know that seems arbitrary, but it’s because as I see it, their textual reasoning makes sense where others don’t.
(7) People are profoundly depraved. Even when people do good things, all too often it’s based on calculation of personal benefits to them. In a pinch, they turn utterly wicked for the most part. That’s why I’m so capitalist, even though I personally have no desire to be a business tycoon. I just think that social engineering will always fail under the weight of evil people sucking the system dry.
(8) Despite (7), I lean hard away from Calvinism. Hard. I just don’t think that reflects a just God. If you want to go ahead and tell me that’s putting myself in judgment of God, go for it. I’ve got a response to that, and an actual conversation about it with a real live Calvinist may help me test whether what I think actually makes sense.
(9) The world, despite the appearance of chaos, is ruled by systems of orderly cause and effect in every area, from physics to theology to economics to social trends to climate to whatever. Period.
(10) Thinking about things is good, and by doing it really carefully we will, by the grace of God, come to a better understanding of the world and our place in it.
(11) I don’t like copyright laws. I realize they’re there for a reason, and I even obey them, but I don’t like them. And so I’m always looking for good free-use resources. I prefer them, and quote them a lot, while generally ignoring a lot of perfectly good copyrighted stuff, often because on my limited income (and whose isn’t?) I can’t just go buying every fascinating $180 book out there.
5 Comments
Thanks for the gracious disagreement. To be fair, I don’t have a full understanding of how God works (nor do I know of anyone who does), so I realize I could be wrong on this. And so it’s more of a friendly disagreement than anything else.
And the reason I say I “lean” away from Calvinism is that I realize how ignorant I am of God’s ways.
I don’t think it’s fair at all but am convinced it’s Scriptural.
That’s a remarkably honest assessment of your stance on it. My take would be that Scripture is so clear on the fairness of God that any belief in God’s unfairness must be based on some sort of misunderstanding.
If you ever want to discuss more specifically how we’ve come to our various viewpoints, I’d be more than happy too–not so much because I want to “convert” you, but more just so that we can understand where we’re coming from.
God bless,
Mitchell.
(8) Despite (7), I lean hard away from Calvinism. Hard. I just don’t think that reflects a just God. If you want to go ahead and tell me that’s putting myself in judgment of God, go for it. I’ve got a response to that, and an actual conversation about it with a real live Calvinist may help me test whether what I think actually makes sense.
I lean hard towards Calvinism but I would NEVER say that’s putting yourself in judgment of God. Anyone who does has something wrong with them.
I came to it kicking and screaming btw, so to speak. I don’t think it’s fair at all but am convinced it’s Scriptural. Not saying this to argue, just a couple other points.
Jeff
I’m not usually one who likes to get into long discussions on these things.
I’ll say that my meaning of ‘fair’ is from a human standpoint and also from a democratic/republic standpoint. I don’t believe God works under those paradigms (Is. 55:8-9) but He certainly is a God of justice as you say.
Jeff
Fair enough. Long discussions often solve nothing anyhow. We both agree, however, that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and that he is a God of justice. And that’s certainly worth something even without all the details discussed out.
Indeed.
One Trackback
[...] the past, I wrote this post on assumptions, presuppositions, basic belief, whatever you want to call them — the basic [...]