I have a cousin living down in deepest, darkest West Virginia. We don't see each other that frequently, but she visited here last summer.
I asked about her daughter who is now college age. She told me that Kelly had gone to Africa on a church sponsored missionary expedition. I asked if she went there to build schools or hospitals or roads or maybe dig some wells for fresh, clean drinking water.
"No," she began "she went there because in this particular part of Africa, witchcraft was more blatant than in any other part of the world."
"Witchcraft?" I asked.
"Yes!" she replied "She and her other missionaries set up a tent where those afflicted by witchcraft could come and be exorcised and cleaned of the unpardonable sin."
Of all the problems Africa has, they decided to conquer witches first. The hyper-Christian spirit knows no bounds, or priorities.
Not to split hairs here, but how can a missionary (who is a person) cleanse someone of an "unpardonable sin"? If God Himself won't pardon the person (remember "unpardonable sin"), then how can a person intercede on behalf of another when it's "unpardonable"?
You ask a perfectly logical, rational question. Can we apply logic and rational thinking to a group that sends kids to Africa to perform exorcisms?
I think that God wants us to be rational and logical. If He just wanted a bunch of drone followers who would do what He said when He said it and did it exactly as He told them to, then why did God give us free will?
We are free to follow Him or not.
I would like to think that the reason for free will is so that we wouldn't follow the okey doke and go out and research and learn things so that we could pass them on to others so that humanity would advance.
Free will kinda dictates that you SHOULD (not necessarily always will) use reason and logic in your life.