Rationalizations are suspect. We know they are at the end of a wandering route of the mind and emotions related to some thought, action or object. The way to the rationalization may be cast to appear like rational, evidence driven, patterns for determining truth, but search is poisoned by non sequiturs, by emotions, by unreliable presuppositions, and assorted debris that makes difficult the route search for truth. On some occasions we hit upon things as they are, because common sense verifies the conclusion. On some occasions the matters are unimportant, so we can get on with our lives, principally as touched by numerous small factors of little consequence. The objection to rationalizations is that they are unworthy and ineligible to determine truth and the management of life. They may form excuses; ways of escape from duty and responsibility; disregard for human problem-solving competencies; accepting mind laziness toward knowledge; and turning from search for truth inside and outside the natural scheme of creation.
This last is my thought of the moment. Arguing from the natural facts of nature, science carries us along with considerable confidence. It is scientific to codify what is known, and from that to press on to what is unknown. We like to feel the process is verified (replicated) in nature. Nature relates to that which touches on the human being so to be measured by sight, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling. This last is the difficult one, and related to emotions in something of a different context than the other senses – which are also related to emotions in their context. Feelings, like sight or sound, inform us about preferences.
So, from the beginning of things we are already dealing with a compound, not an element. There is very little in life that can be called elementary. We speak of elementary education and know what we mean, starting with kindergarten, perhaps pre-school, and extending into the grades. However, since the child has already learned a great deal from his/her own experience, influence of family members, and others, the young student is already a compound of this and that series of elements in a young life. The child is a compound, a compound that has many possibilities for life. He or she will need some careful treatment so to learn how to use what: is known, is experienced, is true to self and nature, is inevitable and is not inevitable – so the story goes. Life and nature offer complexity. It takes some doing to work things out, to draw upon the good and true, and to resist the bad and false. This is not an easy matter. It means taking on the burden of knowing, extrapolating, applying, relating, working, serving the meaning of high status of humanity in the order of things. Those at one end of the continuum rationalize out of responsibility. Those at the other end shoulder responsibility, and learn how to deal with it. Some manage well, and some poorly even though they have a fairly clear idea of the discipline of life, meaning, mystery, aspiration, discovery. It is good for us to believe we can, if committed, manage in nearly any context afforded us.
A limitation of some of those who understand the place of mankind in nature is the belief that this natural process and application for compounded life is the only route to be taken. Faith based concepts, not subject to natural science, are shucked off as superstition, or as irrelevant, or too remote for consideration. Concepts are denied because they do not fit the tests of nature. So deity is denied in some way. Without deity there is no presumption of hope related to consciousness after death; no adequate explanation for the appearance of the nature that is under study; no authority for what is moral; and no demanding reason why mankind should advance in a universe that is expanding to the point of annihilation, perhaps to the dissipation of energy. Whatever the end, the Christian does not perceive nature or tragedy dictating final consequences. Aaron knew better than to report to Moses that the gold came out in the form of a calf. His failure was more vivid in that he was the High Priest. His work was not with chance, but with divine creativity and purpose. He knew that God could part the sea, that manna appeared in the mornings, and there was something special when he entered the Holy of Holies. As Christians we accept that the earth has to offer, without the final interpretation of the unaided human mind to manufacture answers and evade duty. Our dependence is on God, even when our explanations seem elementary. Several remarkable studies suggest that human thought is tangled when called on for conclusions. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020