The "Fall" of Argumentation

Dan Phillips from PyroManiacs wrote an interesting post on their blog called When is an argument over? In this post Dan looked at the fact that even when all the facts are in, and the conclusion to the facts is quite evident, there are still those who will continue to disagree.


In order to keep his sanity intact, there are two things that comfort him: The judgement of God and The public nature of the exchange.


I would like to add a third point to Dan's two: The nature of sin.


When man fell into sin, the whole issue was "self". Instead of relying on the All-Wise, All-Knowing, All-Powerful God, Adam and Eve wanted to be All-Wise and All-Knowing. They wanted to be in charge of themselves. They no longer relied on God.


Then, what happened when they were found out for their sin?


The argumentation began. Who was to blame? Eventually, Adam blamed God for giving him the woman and blamed the woman for giving him the fruit, and Eve blamed the devil who didn't have a leg to stand on!


The thing is, sin is selfish. That will come through in debate and argumentation too. There are few of us who are really objective in our arguments and because of the sin factor we do not deal well with the fact that others argue with us about things we "know" to be true!


So, when we do bring forward answers to question in a thoroughly Biblical fashion with Biblically conclusive answers, we must expect that there will be those who will take us on and disagree with us.


I commiserate with Dan. It is not always easy dealing with the argumentative types, especially when it is clear how they are influenced by error.


However, as Christian who hold to Biblically orthodox doctrine, we need to stand firm and "to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."


Just thinking...