August 26, 2003
open-mindedness
I had my first Practical Reasoning class this evening. I knew that going into it, the class was going to be difficult. As Christians we have values, principles, and commands from God Himself that must be obeyed and cannot be contravened by man's reason. My first class was about the fair-minded, critical thinker. The instructor gave us an essay that he had written and that he uses as an introduction to his course.
There were many things in this essay that I could agree with, but most I have to hold at arms length and examine them in light of Scripture.
I hope that you will engage me in this topic that was very prevalent in Mr. Hilton's essay: Open-mindedness.
I simply want to ask some questions, and perhaps get some responses back.
Two of the essay's definitions of open-mindedness are
receptive to new ideas,
a willingness to be persuaded.
How receptive can a Christian be to new ideas? Or should I say, how receptive should a Christian be to the new philosophies of the World? How does one define receptivity? Is receptiveness an attitude of freely listening?
Should a Christian be willing to be persuaded in any argument? How do we draw the line? How do we discern which arguments we can be willing to be persuaded on and which we cannot before we hear the argument?
As you can see this is an interesting question. I hope you don't think I am floundering. I am not. "But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14 KJV). So please ponder this and answer or ask more questions.
jmb
Micah, this really had me going this morning! I will be as short as I can in my answer.
According to Webster, being receptive is "having the quality of receiving or admitting what is communicated." I think Christians should be aware of the world and it's philosophies. Actually we really can't help but be aware since we are bombarded with it in the media and society. What makes us different as Christians is what we do with the imformation once we receive it. We have The Absolute Truth to examine all other philosophies by. 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; I Corinthians 3:19 are some examples. We know what is correct, pure, pleasing to God, etc. by looking at His word. If we seek to please God we discard those ideas that go against His word. If not, we follow the world's ideas and should be prepared to suffer the consequences. This is where Faith comes in because there are times when God's plan doesn't seem to make much sense to us but He tells us to trust in Him and not our own understanding.
The other definition, a willingness to be persuaded, gives me the impression that the professor does not have respect for those who have convictions and hold to them. I might allow you to persuade me to have a chocolate ice cream cone instead of vanilla, but my ideals the principles that I live by are not so easily bargained.
I think you need to keep your eyes opened and your spirit strong in this class. Satan is the master of deception.
Posted by: Mrs. Sweede at August 27, 2003 12:40 PMMicah,
Thank you for sending me this message. What a great thought. As a Christian it is hard to think that there are people out there who think that their whole ideoligy is correct. As a beliver who has a personal realtionship with my heavenly Father, I do not get much room to be receptive to new ideas. I beleve that God wants us to beaware of our suroundings but not to adhere to the ones that He has not giving permission to us to use. He alone is our ultimate guid.
As for the second question, I think that it should be changed to willingness to be reasoned with. Just beacuse I am a Christian does not mean that I am always complete right. Sometimes it takes other people to interven on God's behalf when I do not open the line of communication with Him.
No answer to the questions, but I heard someone talking about this just last week. They pointed out the value of balance here, just as in many areas of life. They pointed out that the analogy of a parachute and the mind(it only works when it's open) could better be a glass and the mind (one end has to be open if you're going to put anything in it, but if they're both open everything's going to flow out.) you may not like analogies (or particularly these ones), and they definitely fall far short of something solid to hold onto, but unfortunately that's all i have at the moment.
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