The Conquest
of Thought
L
AST SUMMER my 17-year-old son took part in a medi-
cal internship for rising high-school seniors. It was a
great experience for him, except in one instance.
“We had a lecture on ethics today. The man said you really
can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.”
“Really? What else did he say?”
“People who base their ethics on some holy book aren’t
thinking critically. That’s just circular reasoning. We need to
base all of our thinking on human reason and science.”
“Hmm,” I said. “I wonder how he proves that idea?” My
son gave me a confused look.
“I wonder how he proves that reason and science are the
only way to prove something? If he says that it’s proved by
reason and science then he has engaged in circular reason-
ing—the very thing he faults the Christian for doing. If,
however, he says it is proved in some other way, then he
has refuted the statement itself—he’s admitted that there
is something other than reason and science that you base
arguments on.”
By Dr. Bryan Smith
The Challenge We Face
If you had difficulty following that conversation, don’t worry.
My son did too. Only after we talked through it several
times did he get what I was saying. My point in sharing the
conversation isn’t for all of us to follow it carefully. My point
concerns how parenting is different now than it used to be.
In order to help my son, I had to lead him through a
discussion that was pretty philosophical. But if my son
had been in a medical internship a hundred years ago (or
even thirty years ago), I doubt we would have needed that
discussion. That’s because the person assigned to lecture on
ethics probably would not have leveled such a bold attack
against Christian thinking—at least, not to high-schoolers
in Greenville, South Carolina.
But things are different now. Why? Because Satan is
always improving. He has at his disposal vast resources
of intelligence and creativity that he diligently deploys to
ensure he is more successful in this generation than he has
been in previous generations.
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