House of Eratosthenes

As an adult convert (at the age of 30) who went to a regular liberal arts college and learned the art of critical thinking and discourse, I have been regularly appalled at the lack of critical thinking that I see amongst the brethren and sistren. It is why so many are now so bitterly disillusioned with President Bush. Those of us who are critical thinkers saw him for who he was back in 1999; a charlatan. But most Christians only heard what they wanted to hear in 2000 and again in 2004. Having done that, and been so badly burned they seem unwilling to trust any politician again.

I noted there was an enormous gap here — you vote for Bush, therefore, you aren’t thinking critically — and chose to give her the benefit of the doubt, inviting her to fill in her thought process for me.

I agree wholeheartedly on the bit about critical thinking, and am interested in your definition of it. I think I’m solid on the “you’re thinking critically if you agree with me and you’re not if you don’t” part, but it looks like there’s something more to it than just that, something more structured. At least, that’s the impression I get. Can you fill in the empty spaces?

Note the presumption: The gap, dear Sonja, I’m going to presume is in your narrative of the thinking through which you have gone — not in the thinking itself. You say you’re a critical thinker, and to me that would appear to mean…

Critical thinking gives due consideration to the evidence, the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making that judgment well, the applicable methods or techniques for forming that judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the nature of the problem and the question at hand.

Meaning, in sum: Layer your assumptions. Know why it is you think the things you think. “You supported George Bush, therefore you are not a critical thinker” is quite a gap, and it does not give “due consideration to the evidence, the context of judgment, the relevant criteria,” et al.

Therefore, I presumed something was left out.

And politely asked her to fill it in. Politely, to a fault, I thought.

Good heavens, what a whallopin’ I got.

Morgan – your arrogance astounds me. You seem to have missed the bit where in accusing me not thinking critically because I want everyone to think like me, you are doing the same thing … because I do not reach the same conclusions as you. You are correct … I’ve left some big holes here, just to trip people like you up with your assumptions. Guess it worked. When you can find your own assumptions and work through them, we’ll be ready to have a conversation.

Silly me. The huge logical gap was left there just to trip me up! By taking note of it, and politely asking her to fill it in, I tumbled right on in. Dopey ol’ me!

Seriously, you know what my critical thinking tells me: Sonja belongs to some kind of “snotty bitch club,” and if she deals with people who disagree with her, individually or en masse, with what are found to be inadequate levels of acrid condescension, she gets spanked with a wooden paddle and she doesn’t like it.

How else do you explain all that pressure she seems to feel.

Update: Completely off topic, with regard to everything, save for the title of this post. I was watching Dave Allen at Large reruns last night, and the Irish comedian was describing how he had learned the Catholic blessing at his uncle’s funeral, at which point Mr. Allen was a very small child. He thought he heard the Priest say at the graveside service quite clearly —

In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and…into the hole he goes.

Audience laughs uproariously. Mr. Allen stares off into the back rows, deadpanning.

And I blessed myself that way for years!

Audience completely loses it.

What a piece of lost talent. We’re never going to see another David Allen, not in my lifetime.

Anyway. The thread is closed to comments at this time. I’ve probably been banned, along with several others who were participating without giving the original author the atta-girls she wanted.

She explains…

UPDATE: The discussion here got far too personal and filled with ugly slurs that are not becoming for those who claim to follow or be disciples of Jesus Christ. Because those who were participating in the conversation cannot seem to restrain themselves, I’ve closed comments. 7:30 EST July 23, 2008

I’d hate to think it’s my fault. I was less than delicate with her over here, but in there I thought, if anything, I should be guilty of treating her with kid gloves. My final remark was to Gerard, who demanded an explanation of why I was wasting so much time on delusional fools, or some such…and I replied, quite simply,

Matthew^9:11-13

And if that’s what pushed her over the edge, then I guess it pushed her over the edge. Her critical thinking just couldn’t take it.

Morgan, please, just leave the demented in the hole they wallow in.
- vanderleun | 07/23/2008 @ 15:59
That’s exactly what my parole officer keeps telling me.
- mkfreeberg | 07/23/2008 @ 16:13
Being one who did not vote for GW back in 2000 ( / Harry Brown /), and as one who knows that GW didn’t invent the concept of ‘badly burned’ & ‘unwilling to trust any politician again’, I’ll have a go at this.

“How else do you explain all that pressure she seems to feel.(?)”

It may have something to do with her gender, and the different brain she has from a male, but I want to give the ‘gentler sex’ more credit than that, for I have known many women to be quite formidable thinkers & doers along the ‘right’ path.

I prefer to catagorize this person as a ‘typical leftist liar’ or ‘faux-RINO stooge’ who ~claims a neocon perch on the right side of the road, but in fact, she is simply what the god father terms as a ‘seminar caller’ – akin to hillary’s infamous ‘potted plants’ – useful idiots for a cause (personal or professional) with the substantial pole polishing perk of booosh bashing on the side, just for grins.

And you’re correct: “she gets spanked with a wooden paddle and she doesn’t like it.”

Why? That ‘hole’ in her logic that has no hope of ever being filled up with anything like facts, or even a decent analogy.

A classic case of mild BDS. If left untreated, it will devastate her left side, and cause a permanent leftward tilt, and a leftward limp, complicated by a severe drool from the left side of her mouth.

My guess is she is running to the obamanator’s camp for a solution as I type.
- locomotivebreath1901 | 07/23/2008 @ 19:02
OK, first, make no mistake, I am certainly a practitioner of Common Sense equating to ideas I agree with.
Second, I HATE “registering” to comment on every Tom, Diane, and Habib, blog I
stumble upon-(In this case-initially via Pajamas, Insta-, Conservative GV, or similar, I don’t remember which.) but in the cases where I actually bookmark after review on the FIRST visit…
Third, I’m a Luddite. No “high speed”, video on demand, streaming blah blah blah,
so I tend to pass over “clips”. No need here because I believe I remember the
ephemera in question. Yeah, I’m THAT old.
Fourth. So far, the stand out winners in MY “special” award file are-(since about 07/21)
” I tremble for the seismic activity that shall ensue when the feminists discover Shakespeare.”
Global Warming Social Acceptance Pyramid was particularly masterful.
The jury’s still out on electrocution via. peeing on the third rail. Call me a skeptic on THAT one.

NOW, before I dig the hole deeper, I’ll actually look at
Items of Interest
- CaptDMO | 07/23/2008 @ 19:15
CaptDMO,

Hope you got some time on your hands. I’ve been here a while and I’m still working on getting thru them all. (No disrespect intended Morgan).
- tim | 07/24/2008 @ 12:23
Humm, looks like she closed them off and then cleaned the offending comments out.
- vanderleun | 07/26/2008 @ 14:20

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Fell Into a HoleWednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Fell Into a Hole
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008