On the way home yesterday I was thinking about the word "irrational" and the negative connotations that go along with it. Rarely is it considered good or beneficial to be irrational. I have had eyes rolled at something I have said because it was considered irrational. Logical thinking is prized in our society. We're taught in school to have logical arguments-reasons for what we think . . . and believe, for that matter. Now, I'm not saying logic is bad. Logic is good. Logic is important. But, where did we get the idea that just because it is good to be logical it is bad to be illogical? Who has commanded that everything has to be logical? What if it isn't always bad . . . and what if it is sometimes necessary (and even good) to be irrational?
I would like to point out that the action that allows us to be Christian was completely irrational. A holy perfect Being becoming a man and facing pain and death just to be with us? Highly irrational behavior on the part of that Being.
So, here's "the sprout": Perhaps there is a time and place for "irrational" and "illogical". Perhaps ration and irration are not opposites as we have made them to be but are complimentary-both good and useful.
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5 comments:
Hmmmm...very interesting. This entire writing is very logical, very rational. Ah! A perfect example that logic and illogic, ration and irration, are not opposites, but complimentary to eachother. It requires ration to discuss irration and logic to progress the thoughts of illogical topics. Thus, both are "good" and "useful", as you so eloquently put it. Until we meet again--The Giggleman
Illogically speaking, I think irrationality is most essential. Logic is just the human attempt to understand the universe (and beyond) in which we live. The funny thing is, we can't. Not fully. No matter how hard we try to make things logical, there will always be the illogical, because logic isn't everything. There is much more to life than a musing human saying, "ah, it makes sense."
There is more to All than us. (I believe fully in NONsense--all it means is that there's "immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine").
Ooo, I like that-"more than we can ask or imagine". You and Giggles have made some very helpful points.
You can't throw the baby out with the bath water. I like the word "beneficial" as used in 1 Corinthians 6.
Joe, you are going to have to elaborate because I'm not getting your point. It perhaps related to the comment before yours that was deleted by the author before I got a chance to read it?
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