Illogical Logic

Sometimes, when I hear the rationales being put forward for certain policies, I just have to shake my head in disbelief. The logic is so illogical. One of the best cartoonists for pointing this out is Bruce Tinsley. Here are a few examples.

There seems to be a tendency in liberal circles to spend a lot of time ignoring evil. Well, there is some evil identified in liberal ideology, but it’s always somehow attached to America in general, and conservatives in particular. And their sense of what needs to be punished is also logically incoherent.

The whole concept of a hate crime is unconstitutional. Government’s job is to protect the innocent and punish those who commit crimes. Whenever government decides to penalize people for what they might be thinking, it has stepped over the line. Punishing people for not liking others is ludicrous—that’s God’s realm. As long as no outward crime has occurred, government has no role. Besides, as I often tell my students, if someone murders someone else, it’s probably because there was hatred in his heart all along. How can you add an extra penalty for murder? What are we going to do, execute the murderer twice?

The illogical logic carries over to international affairs as well. We’ve been part of the United Nations since 1945. We were the prime movers in setting it up, inspired by a belief that this organization might be the key to avoiding future wars. So how has that worked out? Feel safer? Yet we continually get grief from the other inhabitants of the asylum.

What a great deal! It takes a special type of logic to love this. Unfortunately, that special logic is now calling the shots.

Why do we think as we do? It all comes back to a rejection of Biblical principles and infatuation with man-made, man-centered solutions. Those kinds of solutions are never solutions at all.