Systematic Theology

Here's a new question: Why do things happen the way they do? Everybody wants to know how God works. Well, maybe not everybody. The atheists want to know how fate or the universe works. Whether it's God, the gods, nature, science, statistical probability, or some combination of these, everyone wants to find patterns and explanations. Yes, I've heard of existentialism. But let's not go there. I don't believe that anyone is truly an existentialist in the core of their being. Our brains are hardwired to find patterns, whether they're visual, auditory, or logical. So people look for patterns. We're logical. So what?

So this. I think that every aspect of human nature is flawed. Corrupt. There's bad code in our hardware, and it's pervasive. This means that we get sick, we get old, we die. Our desires and tendencies are broken - we want to do things that lead to bad consequences. Guess what else is flawed? Our reason and logic. People have made very logical decisions with horrible results. Genocide, for example, has been a logical decision to solve a problem by killing off a group of people who are, arguably, causing the problem. Genocide is a bad decision, however, ethically and practically. This serves only to illustrate that logic doesn't always lead to truth.

This is what I have so far: People want to know why things happen the way they happen, and logic is not infallible. So, logically, like everyone else, Christians should be careful when using logic. Yet Christian logicians abound. They're called theologians. What they practice is theology or systematic theology. They all use logic and reason, but they don't all come to the same conclusion. Forget what those conclusions are. The point is that they're different. Is this because some are more proficient at logic than others, or that some are smarter than others? It could be, but there are multiple practitioners of the divergent brands of theology, so I think that the playing field is fairly level.

Perhaps we need a big debate showdown to find the truth. Whoever is right will win the debate, right? I don't think so. Being better at logic, being a better public speaker, thinking more quickly on the feet, and knowing the Bible better in its original language do not guarantee getting closer to truth or to God. Even so, many Christians rely heavily on theology. Not only do Christians rely on theology, but I often sense pride in theology: a tendency to look down upon or immediately dismiss the ideas of Christians who have not studied systematic theology and don't know what terms like dispensationalism and hermeneutics mean.

Yes, I know that God gave us minds and we need to use them. I don't think that ignoring reason leads to wisdom and a closer relationship with God. I do think that intellect needs to be balanced by spirit and feeling, and all of these need to be led by scripture. I'm not good at this; I tend to fall out of balance all the time. I'm just so weary of Christians accusing other Christians of having a wrong understanding of God for esoteric theological reasons.

This isn’t the end of my train of thought on this issue, but I feel like I need to post this or it will never get posted. I’m starting a new job tomorrow, and I’m going to be continuing to do work for my business, so I’m going to be busy as hell for a while.