The Very Real Problem Of False Dilemmas

          Ready to have your mind blown? Well, look somewhere else, because I'm sick of people trying so hard to grow their platforms with gut punching challenges to traditional thought.

     I can’t help but assume that many of these teachers, preachers, politicians, etc are trying to be like the ultimate teacher. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used the formula “You have heard it said…but I tell you…” expertly. But let me tell you something extremely important - these people are not Jesus. 

     The goal, of course, is to get attention by saying something off-beat. They simply contrive some kind of problem with a saying or belief that has long been accepted. Shatter someone's concept of truth and get yourself noticed. Do it enough times and people begin to look to you for all truth.

     The easiest way to do this is by presenting a false dilemma. Tell someone that what they have been told all along can't possibly be true because something else is true. The human mind is not always readily capable of understanding how multiple truths can intersect and run parallel without actually contradicting each other. 

      What never seems to be considered is that sometimes two things are true and sometimes neither thing is true. We get so stuck on either/or that we don't even consider the option of both/and. We get so invested in dilemmas that we ignore dichotomies. I am not saying truth is subjective. I am not saying that truth is relative. I'm just saying that truth can be complicated.

      This obviously does not apply to all things. Some things are simply cut and dry. We don’t need to seek intersectionality at all costs. We don’t need to compromise or cave in to every whimsical thought that comes along. But we should struggle with things worth struggling with until we reach a reasonable conclusion.

      It seems, however, that the concept of dichotomy is lost on recent generations. I suppose the problem stems from our lack of creative thought. We have been bred to be consumers. We constantly ingest someone else's ideas and rarely come to our own conclusions. The end result is that we get caught in an infinite loop of circular reasoning.

      When a person establishes their authority based on the principle of rocking the boat, we need to ask ourselves whether or not the boat needed rocking. Perhaps sometimes it does need rocking. May I suggest that perhaps sometimes the boat was doing just fine, though? Maybe we need a slight course correction as new information comes to our attention, but that doesn't necessarily mean we have to upend the entire ship.

      When we throw the baby out with the bathwater, we lose something that was important trying to get rid of something that was not. When we listen to some new, insightful idea that seems to hold weight, can we not put it alongside truth we already know? Must we dedicate ourselves to the concept of progress at all costs?

      This particular problem has seeped into every part of our world. Our social media accounts have become echo chambers where we "like" whatever happens to agree with our viewpoint and "unfriend" whoever challenges us. Our churches are riddled with people who refuse to hear opposing doctrines. Our nation's capital is filled with politicians who plant themselves firmly on one side, never to meet in the middle.

      Why? Because we hold on to false dilemmas that tell us we cannot appreciate another viewpoint even if it does not violate our own. Enter the extortionist, who tells us that no two truths can possibly coexist if they don't fit neatly into a cultural, theological, or political box. Life is messy, folks, and we are fallible. Give yourself the grace to seek truth while knowing that you won't make sense of it all.

      It is possible that you and your friend on Facebook are both right and we still have a racism problem in America, but it's not every single white person's fault. Maybe both Calvinists and Arminians have some good points to consider and perhaps God is capable of simultaneously electing man and giving him free will. And it is not unreasonable to say that abortion is wrong, but we also need real solutions to women's health struggles.

      Common ground is not hard to find when we stop listening to impossibly divisive voices who tell us we must dig our heels in to one truth while ignoring another. I'm not saying we can all agree on everything, but we could accomplish a whole lot more if we didn't limit ourselves to only one possibility and allow others to exploit that.

      I understand the danger inherent with my line of thinking. Compromise is not always acceptable. But please understand, I am not recommending compromise. I am suggesting a refining of our thought processes. I am saying we can teach ourselves the difference between a real dilemma and false one.

    Truth is worth fighting and sacrificing for. Don’t give up on something you know to be true because someone challenges it. Do the hard work of figuring out what is a real dilemma and what is a false one. Learn to tell the difference.