Fall[acies] Upon Us; Sands Upon Rocks
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| “Anyone who falls on this Stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” - Matthew 21: 44 |
Here is a list of fallacies with their definitions.
Reading these, you'll realize how phony (or ignorantly false) much of people's ideas are, or can be.
The world's people swim in fallacy.
Faulty ideas and arguments built on sand that consists of some true ingredients, with many other ignoble materials not useful for building (falsehood and incorrect ideas).
A solid rock foundation is a proper place to build something long lasting.
Sand is not a good place to build anything to last a long time, but only short term (think of a tent overnight).
Any structure built to weather storms, fires, earthquakes, and people's swaying attitudes must be built on solid ground; rock.
Notice that sand is rock broken down.
Sand is broken apart, fragmented, made up of many grains...and must be mixed with other materials to make any use of it; concrete or similar.
Notice, however, that eventually concrete also breaks down...why is this?
Because sand is one of its materials.
It would be wiser to build upon a rock...a single large rock.
Fallacy (sand) is found in marketing, in commercials, and especially religious ideas.
Religion (sand) desires to explain truth (rock).
In a college philosophy class, I recall the professor tasking us with looking at any and all advertising in newspapers and magazines we could find and identifying the fallacies.
She said each and every ad most likely had at least one fallacy, sometimes more.
I couldn't believe it.
Sure enough, after the entire class shared their findings we realized with surprise the striking results.
Fallacies are a part of our language.
It can be discouraging.
It can also be an opportunity to learn, to correct and to clarify.
It is so easy to be wrong, almost effortless.
It is not so easy being right, or to learn to be right...it takes work.
Falsehood is easy, a lie so convenient.
Truth...may cause you or others pain, or make life more difficult...because truth is not always recognizable.
A legend can be true, or false...or partially true and partially false, or having moments of truth while being incorrect (mistaken) overall.
Someone can purpose falsehood (knowingly desiring to build on sand), while someone can repeat something that is false while believing it to be true.
In debate, a good debater can take either side of any argument and, using proper logic (hopefully not repeating fallacy), can argue both sides successfully (convincingly).
Sand is sometimes argued as rock (or just as good, think concrete), and some people cannot tell the difference.
Politics convinces people's minds using proper argumentative skills...but can be dead wrong as history teaches us.
Man's logic, although making great efforts to discover truth, fails to find absolute truth (Absolute Truth).
Many things in the world have been repeated as 'true', but have been proven false or unprovable.
At the same time, many people have come to realize something as 'true' when they were previously thoroughly convinced it was false.
We see the first example in all aspects of life, the second rarely in religious circles...usually because fallacy (sand) has always been their 'truth' (sand perceived to be rock).
The person unaware of illogical (fallacies) manners in others, or the manner their language is tainted, is apt to believe almost anything argued to them as 'true'.
Truth is relative.
Truth is absolute.
How can truth be both relative yet (and) absolute?
Isn't this a fallacy?
It is a paradox.
There are sometimes more than one answer to any question, instead of a 'yes' or 'now'.
Sometimes an answer is 'yes and no' (a third answer) and further needs to be explained in such an answer.
Truth is a paradox that is understood, or comprehended, not by all people.
This is where logic (and identifying fallacy) assists the thinking mind to separate the false from the true...yet man in his wisdom has yet to qualify truth to its final degree.
Man's logic, no matter how sound and free from fallacy, still resembles sand more than stone.
This is where and why 'truth as relative' is mentioned in philosophy.
Read 'relativism' and the church's stance on how it can be dangerous.
I see it not so much 'dangerous', but simply revealing that not all people will recognize the Truth (rock) from perceived truth (sand) while they walk the earth.
Not because they are ignorant, or unwise, or unlearned...but for another reason.
The space between truth and falsehood isn't the space between wizards and illiterates, or kings and peasants, or geniuses and imbeciles.
A silly person lacking a formal education can have a rock solid foundation of truth in their heart...regardless of the other things they may believe to be true.
The vast fields of information on earth are filled with, as you may have found from that definition of fallacy, partial truths and badly mistaken ideas.
What qualifies someone to find out the truth if, as this article is partially mentioning, a typical earthly education is limited in finding all things true?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
- Proverbs 9: 10Who is this 'Holy One'?
“What do you want with us, Yeshua of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!”
- Mark 1: 24How did the Holy One come to be 'known'?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...
...The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...
- John 1: 1, 14In what other manner is Yeshua?
Yeshua answered, “I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
- John 14: 6Yeshua is the Holy One and is also the Truth.
What or 'who' else is Truth?
Sanctify them by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.
- John 17: 17Not all people understand, or perceive this Truth, and cynically retort when confronted with Truth's simplicity.
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Yeshua answered, “You say that I Am a King. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the Truth. Everyone on the side of Truth listens to Me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against Him.”
- John 18: 37-38Telling the Truth from the (many) lies.
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the Truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the Truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Yeshua is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
- 1 John 2: 20-23The parable of the Sower and His seed goes further into describing the manner the Truth, the Word, doesn't penetrate certain soil (hearts).
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