The problem with EVC

An early mentor always insisted to me that you don't really understand something until you can explain it to a bright child.It's a pretty good test.

All the children are above average.

Hi, Faith.This former English major and creative writing grad student qualifies as a product of several fine humanities programs. I took courses in logic as well as literature, history, philosophy, etc.Logic and reason are not the special preserve of science or the liberal (conservative, now?) arts.Shame on any liberal arts major who didn't tackle at least one term of basic logic and who doesn't understand that logic is a formal, rigorous method of thought; to say so is not to appeal to a "specific technical sense" but to recognize the essential meaning of the word.True, many words are used casually with less or other than their full meaning.Are we being casual here?"That was quite an operation!" can be said about everything from military sorties to housecleaning, but in the hospital we take it as surgery.Besides, can anyone of the Mr. Spock generation think logical is equivalent to reasonable? When someone explains to me why something is logical, I expect logic, not reasonableness. There is much that is reasonable that is wrong--certainly our reasonable intuitions about time and space are wrong.In casual conversation I might remark that Bush's plan to stop Islamist terrorism by invading Iraq and inflaming the entire Middle East isn't logical, by which I would mean it is unreasonably stupid.This seems to me to be a case of "When in Rome...": in discussions about science, faith, and philosophy, requests for logic should elicit the full formal monty, not casual usage. I have seen requests "for the logic" that outline the formal structure sought--surely anyone reading that would realize that something more than reasonableness is being requested.If communication was tripped up over the meaning of the word logic, the fall has been on all sides.I'm sure we have our share of snobs at EvC but expecting closely stepped logic at a forum that tackles evolution, cosmology, religion and cosmogyny is not evidence for it.P.S. Thanks for the CDs. I'll let you know what I think.

love.

I haven't had this much fun since Dark Shadows went off the air.