Why Johnny Can’t Think – Pt. 8
In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has a senior demon (Screwtape) instructing an apprentice demon to keep his human victim’s mind off the plain antithesis between true and false.
To the chagrin of his professorial colleagues, Lewis understood the transcendentals of life as antithetical – if something is right, then the opposite is wrong; if virtue is good, then a lack of virtue is not.
“Stigmas are the corollaries of values. If work, independence, responsibility, respectability are valued, then their converse must be devalued, seen as disreputable.” (Gertrude Himelfarb, The De-Moralization of Society)
Secular thinking believes we’re here for our pleasure; sacred teaching says we’re here for His pleasure. The former jests, “He who dies with the most toys wins!” The latter suggests that it profits a man little if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul.
One worldview touts life as material, random, accidental and purposeless; the other grounds it in intelligent design, human dignity, meaning and purpose. The distinctive of the former is the “survival of the fittest” while the perspective of the latter is the “protection of the weakest.”
The law of non-contradiction states that no statement can be true and false at the same time and in the same relationship, yet that fundamental bit of logic is lost on some of our (so-called) best and brightest. Inexplicably, during the 1991 Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, one famous senator who sat on the judiciary committee at the time actually wondered if Thomas and Hill weren’t both telling the truth, even though they were each testifying to the exact opposite!
One group says the woman has a right to choose; another group says the baby has a right to live. To the relativist, though, it really doesn’t matter because life is ultimately seen as meaningless and reason is deemed futile. But if truth is absolute, then it is also antithetical, and only one view (choice or life) is tenable.
Enter the cries against intolerance. Is this just more dogma being imposed by one group on another? The answer lies in how one views the nature of truth. If a particular perspective on any given issue is rooted in the timeless, moral laws of “nature and of nature’s God,” then accusations of intolerance amount to little more than a defense mechanism. Diss the moral law, disregard the Moral Authority behind it.
Are teachers being intolerant when they reprimand students for being disrespectful? Not if they value respect. Are parents intolerant when they call out dishonesty in their child? Not if honesty is one of their core virtues.
Moreover, the intolerance thing always gets nailed by its own boomerang if a little logic is followed: The word “intolerance” presupposes a value system, hence it makes a judgment. But if there is no ultimate truth as a category, then there can be no real value system by which to judge anything. Thus, “intolerance” has no meaning. Only a position rooted in self-evident truth can use words like tolerant or intolerant with any intellectual integrity.
Besides, as G.K. Chesterton said, “In truth, there are only two kinds of people; those who accept dogma and know it, and those who accept dogma and don’t know it.” Johnny can’t think because he’s been carefully moved from one to the other.
The plain antithesis between true and false was summed up succinctly by statesman Henry Hyde once with these words: “We’ve all heard it said that America today is in the midst of a culture war. We may shy away from that imagery, but however we describe the reality, it’s there … Either you believe that the legal definition of marriage should be extended to homosexual couples and to any other configuration of adults sharing living space and access to each other’s bodies, or you don’t.
“Either you believe in teaching ‘Heather Has Two Mommies’ to first graders, or you don’t. Either you believe in the ‘politically correct’ restriction of free speech on campus or you don’t. Either you believe in unregulated abortion-on-demand, or you don’t.”
The clay says, “Do your own thing.” The Potter says, “Do My will.” Screwtape says, “There’s no conflict here!” And ill-equipped Johnny buys it – hook, line and sinker.
That’s why he can’t think.
Brian Schroeder is the former Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction, an ordained minister and founder/president of The ChrisCorps Commission (bschroeder081858@gmail.com)