One of my pet peeves, but also one of the things I fall short in is the ability to think. Wait…wait…wait. Before you get out your “I agree” signs, please hear me out. 🙂 I left out a word.
DEEPLY.
I fail to think deeply.
What I mean by that is I am not blessed with a mind which goes deeply into things. For example, I believe in God…wholeheartedly. But please don’t ask me to debate that. I believe in the Trinity, but please don’t ask me to go into the nether regions trying to explain or understand it. I yawn and nod off while trying to read books which are deeper than 6 feet. (However deep that is I am clueless). To a fault, I tend to take things at face value.
However, I can think. I can reason. I can make decisions on whether to believe or not believe. My bone of contention is with those who take things as “gospel” without investigating or hearing the issue out. I dare say we would not have the whole health-and-wealth ungospel if people were thinking Christians. We are often like a dog-and-pony show. Follow the latest trend. Saddle up to the latest hot prospect in the media. He/she plays a tune on the flute and we follow in lock-step.
I found this post to be both insightful and full of honesty and good stuff. It is also a thinking man’s post. I hope you will take the time to read it. More than that, I hope you will decide to be a thinker. Don’t just take something as “gospel” because someone said it.
Are you a thinker?
You can’t take ownership of something without careful and critical consideration.
True.
We are all thinkers. Even my dog thinks, tho not very deeply. Thinking without evidence is the same as believing. Thinking with evidence is knowledge. I find inquiring and discovering evidence for thinking something is true is far more challenging than just believing something is true.
Anything can be true or truth if a persons thinking doesn’t require facts to lead to conclusions.
If you can believe a 600 year old man put 3 million animals on a boat then it is pretty easy to believe anything. Thinking with evidence requires a little more thinking.
I have this feeling as though you think I am shallow. I am not. I know people who think so much deeper than i do and can figure out the nuances of this or that. More power to them. That is the type of deep thinking I am writing about. I do think (and someone personally wrote me) deeper than I think I do. I like to check out the ins and outs of things but my intellectual ability stops at a certain point. As for Noah, yeah I believe it is possible and one day it will proven. I do understand Jeff what you are saying here though.
I don’t think you are a shallow thinker. And you said you are not a deep thinker. So the correct answer must be somewhere between deep and shallow. I am not even sure what deep or shallow thinking means. Some subjects I enjoy, study up on and think about. Other subjects which don’t interest me I don’t think about.
If Noah is possible then I suppose anything, including the health and wealth promises, are also possible. At that point anything is possible. I prefer to believe it was written as fiction and someone along the way decided to call it factual and it will never be proven one way or the other. But I am open minded. I will consider any evidence that such a thing has ever happened.
I love exploring the deep things. I’ve noticed I get blank stares from some people when I talk about what I think, study and read about. I used to think that made me better until I realized we’re all just wired differently.
I try to avoid those blank stares. Maybe that is why I stop at a certain level. 🙂
I am a thinker and my pet peeve is that whenever I start to think deeply, I end up with more questions that I started with. Drives me nuts! (Because then I feel like I have to analyze all the new questions, which multiply faster than bacterias in a petri dish.) Besides, my friends and hubby complain at times that they have lost me because I just went on a thinking spree. Also, I tend to overanalyze (which was a problem when I lived on my own, especially, because I kept overanalyzing myself, for the lack of other “subjects”…)
But while sometimes I wish I could turn off my thinking, I hate it when it turns off (like when it happened after the violent attacks in Kyiv). And I do like to analyze what I believe in.
After corresponding with you for a couple of years now I know you are a thinker Zee. I applaud that. I don’t often go off topic but i do that when i speak. 🙂 I take too many rabbit trails. Overanalysis has never been something I have been accused of. lol
I often think too much, to deeply, which lends itself to distrust and doubt at times. Still I think it’s good to ask questions, debate, and ponder.
I like to ask question. I like to talk to people and be challenged. Sometimes it goes too deep and my eyes glaze over. I admire those who can.
That was a good post. Jesus isn’t lost, the world is.
I probably think a bit deep sometimes. It’s always fascinating when you do and dig to find that someone else has had all these thoughts long before any of us.
Chuck Swindoll has been quoted as saying, “There are no original thoughts.” True words. Good word about that other post.
I think I’m a thinker, well, at least I used to think that. But now that I think about it, I think that I thought wrong. I think thinkers should come up with answers, after all, isn’t that what thinking is all about? Answers? I rarely come up with answers, just more questions to think about.
So having thought further about it, I think I’m more like a ponderer. A ponderer doesn’t think, he considers deeply, and considering doesn’t require a single answer it tends towards options – I think. Wait! Then I have to think about the the best option … I’m so confused. Let me think on it some more … 😉
I often have more questions than answers. yikes! I will sometimes ponder things since I need time to decide. Not on all things but on some. Keep thinking David. I give you permission. 😛
I got so busy thinking about my “thought provoking” (… gag …) answer that I forgot to mention the post you linked us to.
… I thought it was good … 🙂
More seriously though, I tend to WAY over think a lot of things. I think (no pun intended) that I often use over-thinking as a defense mechanism to NOT act on things.
Overthinking can become a problem for just the reason you mention. Keep thinking and I don’t have to act.
I like to think, learn, get down to the nitty, gritty but then I move on to the next thing and forget the last, once I figure it out. That is what I like about the Bible… I am never going to figure it all out but each time I get in it, something new pops out and makes me wonder…hmmmm.
I do get really mad at all the garbage on the web and how it draws people in with ridiculous headlines. Then it is spouted as truth, after all, I read it on the internet…..bonjour. …but maybe, as Jeff notes, I might have been inclined to discount the guy that built the boat and put 3 million animals on it, if I had read it on the internet. I guess we have to keep an open mind and chew on some of it a little more, seeing if it fits in the scheme of things. After all, if it’s on my plate, I must have ordered it…
Well said Nancy. Learn and then move on. Some like to beat a dead horse. Your comment about the net made me chuckle…French model. 🙂
Yes, Bill – I think it is safe to say I think as “deeply” as I can. 🙂
As others have noted in their own way, that can at times lead to “analysis paralysis”. Think, Think, Think is plastered all over the walls of the meeting rooms of A.A. for a reason – we frequently only think we’re thinking something through, and need to think again.
I question Jeff’s assertion that thinking without evidence is the same as believing only because many people, with evidence galore, will still refuse to think through to logical conclusions because they insist on keeping their own biases.
Rick you said it as well as could be said. I am writing about people that think without evidence ( and I really mean people that come to conclusions without evidence)and you are writing about people that come to (in your opinion)the wrong conclusion with plenty of evidence. Those are the believers(or the biased ones.)
I think Rick you are right about thinking as “deeply” as we can. Some were made for going much deeper than others.
Bill, I read the link…solid stuff. It would not let me leave a comment though. But I am going to “think” more about the post since I copied and pasted into my Word file for further use. When I was young I just acted upon ideas without thinking much. A lot has changed, thank God since I grew up, especially since I came to know the Lord personally. I quote often James, Swift to hear and slow to speak. When I am operating in the mind set I have some pretty profound deep thoughts. God loves to take the simple to the deep…shows His power. Good post brother.
Not sure why it wouldn’t let you leave a comment. I had trouble with that once and told Dan. Even though my math was right (and that is always dubious). James’ words are very appropriate.
Pardon me for noting it, but a blogger just claimed not to be a deep thinker. Isn’t that what blogging is? Not only thinking deeply but writing your deep thoughts for others to think about? Then he asked a biased audience of avid blog readers whether they are thinkers. I had to chuckle.
In answer to your question, I also think, and probably over think faith, politics, our education system, church structure, raising children, ….
….and, most of the time, when I have time, I think I enjoy thinking.
I suppose I ought to say “Guilty?” I honestly had no idea I was doing that. 🙂 MS you made me chuckle with that last line.
Well Now You know