Do theists believe in logic?

[edthecynic]

In Eden there would've been no problems. As for your example of how to get an apple out of a tree, in Eden one would always be within arm's reach. So the only way I can buy your argument on this point is if I thought it actually takes logic to extend your arm, pick the apple and proceed to eat it. I don't.

I am hungry.That apple is WAY over there, on that tree... how can I solve this problem?

If Adam was a logical problem solver, like a Cynic, he would have eaten from the Tree of Life FIRST, and then from the Tree of Knowledge afterwards.

 

[Ravi]

So God is just like the Matrix?

 

[del]

So God is just like the Matrix?

she's got better pr people

 

[manifold]

So God is just like the Matrix?

she's got better pr people

Surely you're not referring to bible thumpers like JBitchema.

 

[JBeukema]

If Adam was a logical problem solver, like a Cynic, he would have eaten from the Tree of Life FIRST, and then from the Tree of Knowledge afterwards.

Noone said that the character in that little fairy tale was smart

Surely you're not referring to bible thumpers like JBitchema.

I'm not sure which makes you more retarded, the pathetic attempt to mock my name or that you can't tell an atheist from a bible thumper

 

[We Are They]

JB, one question: do you believe in logic?

 

[JBeukema]

Logic is not something one 'believes in'

 

[manifold]

Surely you're not referring to bible thumpers like JBitchema.

I'm not sure which makes you more retarded, the pathetic attempt to mock my name or that you can't tell an atheist from a bible thumper

I'm not sure about that either. However I am sure that your inability to discern sarcasm makes you the most retarded.

 

[We Are They]

Logic is not something one 'believes in'

So a) what are you doing in this thread? Have more free time at the firm?

and b) That's what I thought!

 

[JBeukema]

logic is something smart people are capable of, and which 'WaT' is not

 

[We Are They]

logic is something smart people are capable of, and which 'WaT' is not

?

 

[Big Black Dog]

Alliebaba - I was born stupid. I still have most of it left!

 

[garyd]

Knowledge without wisdom is like a Farari without gas.

Wisdom is the ability to apply logic.

And J I gave youm other possibilities.

Human beings are not now nor have they ever been perfectly logical. If they were there would be no leftists.

 

[JBeukema]

Anyone ever read up on epistemology?

 

[garyd]

furthering Jb's ealier point, asking if one believes in logic is like asking if one believes in hammers in that both are but tools, but any tool can be misused. Logic based on my time here on this board and upon other such is simply misused much more frequently than are hammers.

 

[JBeukema]

furthering Jb's ealier point

I made a point? That doesn't sound like me

 

[garyd]

Get your tongue out of your cheek, I don't need one of the very few logically minded non believers on this forum to bleed to death because he stuck his tongue to far into his cheek for safety.

 

[JBeukema]

But I cut my gum on a chip, and now there's this flap of skin* and i can't stop messin' with it...

*flesh?

I don't like you hammer analogy. Hammers may or may not exist- they are physical items and to discuss their existence is rather straightforward. Numbskull's question is far more revealing, for it raises the question of just what logic is and how strictly we should use the term.

the branch of philosophy that analyzes inference

Would the use of inference be logic, or merely the analysis of how it works- which, in turn, is an exercise in reasoning? Oft, we seem to use 'reason' and 'logic' interchangeably, even though one's reasoning might or might not appear logical to another. The problem with language is that it is determined solely by use. Language is, in a sense, a form of social contract in which certain representations (be they audible or pictorial or in tactile) are understood to mean or communicate certain ideas or meanings. I'm afraid that my understanding of linguistics and the finer subtleties of my own native language are insufficient to properly address the questions raised by this line of analysis.

In any case, to continue as best I can with my original thought, one can say one believes hammers exist (to believe 'in' them in a loose sense) regardless of whether one believes they are appropriate for a given task. Logic, however, is somewhat different. Does not the determination of whether logic exists- let alone whether it is appropriate or is being used (let alone being used correctly)- itself an exercise in inference? Does that not make the existence of logic self-evident (no matter how flawed or fallacious one's reasoning may be in any given instance) and the question of whether one thinks they ought to 'use it' an invalid question?

 

[Polaris]

It would seem to me that if there is such a thing as "logic" at all, if logic is going to have any capacity for placing constraints on what we can speak of as "true," then there must be the possibility of contradiction. If there is no such thing as contradiction, there cannot be anything "true," as distinct from something "false."

To give an answer the question of this thread: I would say that theists do not, in fact, believe in logic. For theists, God created logic, and so God is not constrained by logic. God has the power to make the true false, and vice versa. With God, there is no possibility of contradiction, ultimately. "All things are possible with God." God can cancel the past, and do any manner of things that are not logical...

 

[JBeukema]

It would seem to me that if there is such a thing as "logic" at all, if logic is going to have any capacity for placing constraints on what we can speak of as "true," then there must be the possibility of contradiction. If there is no such thing as contradiction, there cannot be anything "true," as distinct from something "false."

Do you speak of mutually exclusive terminology and contradictory definitions, or only of mutually exclusive possibilities within the physical universe?

To give an answer the question of this thread: I would say that theists do not, in fact, believe in logic. For theists, God created logic, and so God is not constrained by logic. God has the power to make the true false, and vice versa. With God, there is no possibility of contradiction, ultimately. "All things are possible with God." God can cancel the past, and do any manner of things that are not logical...

I'll second that