Understanding Logic: What is Logic?

Logic is the study of the principles or methods used to distinguish good reasoning from bad reasoning, or valid arguments from invalid arguments, or correct critical thinking from incorrect critical thinking. We are intimately aware of reasoning, since we engage in reasoning everyday. Consider, for example, the following reasoning or argument:

1. If the Bible is the authoritative Word of God, then I should study and obey it.

2. The Bible is the authoritative Word of God.

3. Therefore, I should study and obey the Bible.

We frequently engage in reasoning similar to the above. Of course, we usually do not mentally (in our minds) list out each line in an argument when we reason but, rather, our reasoning faculties or capabilities allow us to reason in a type of subconscious way that is not always as neat and tidy as when written out. Nevertheless, we, as human beings in general, have the ability to reason and understand logic. Is this not amazing? We have been blessed with the ability to reason (and improve our reasoning skills). Our reasoning faculties are an incredible blessing from God. Indeed, we should be utterly grateful and thankful to God for creating us with the ability to reason. So, the next time you come up with a clever argument, praise God and not yourself! Now, why should you study logic? Well, one obvious reason is that studying logic may help you improve your reasoning. If you have a good understanding of logic and know how to avoid and spot logical fallacies, then your reasoning and arguments will be better than otherwise would have been the case. Another obvious reason is that studying logic may help you spot errors or mistakes or fallacies in the arguments of others. For example, if you have a good grasp of logic and hear someone bark: “Christians are so annoying and they make me mad; therefore, Christianity is false”, you will immediately notice that their argument is invalid because the conclusion (“Christianity is false”) does not follow from the premise (“Christians are so annoying and they make me mad”). A third reason you should study logic is, surprisingly, because good reasoning skills may help you avoid or overcome anxiety and depression. Anxiety is

the exaggeration of the probability of a terrible event or the degree of the terribleness

. In other words, anxiety is fear in the absence of real danger. Related to anxiety, depression is that terrible and hopeless feeling you may get sometimes, usually after losing something. Now, in his books

Telling Yourself the Truth

and

The Good News About Worry

, the psychologist, William Backus, explains that a powerful way to help avoid or overcome many types of anxiety and depression is the following three step process:

1. Identify the false things you tell yourself.

2. Stop telling yourself these false things.

3. Replace these false thoughts with the truth.

The best way to go through the above process is to

argue or reason with yourself

. So, for example, suppose you are flying in an aeroplane and you start feeling that dreaded anxious feeling that something bad—really, really, really bad—is going to happen. You should stop and ask yourself: Which thoughts, scenarios, or images that I have allowed in my mind are causing my anxiety? You then realise that you have been picturing the aeroplane crashing. Not only that, you have also been telling yourself that it is

highly probable

that the aeroplane will crash (exaggerating the probability of a terrible event) and that it would be

very, very terrible

if the aeroplane crashes (exaggerating the degree of terribleness). You should then remove these false thoughts and replace them with the truth. You do this by arguing with yourself: tell yourself that it is highly unlikely that the aeroplane will crash and that,

even if

the aeroplane crashes and you die, that would—in all honesty—not be terrible because you would be with the Lord. Indeed, it would be wonderful to finally be with God! However, in order to successfully argue against your false, fear-inducing thoughts or beliefs, you need to be good at arguing; and in order to be good at arguing, you need to be good at logic and reasoning; and in order to be good at logic, you need to study logic. So, why don’t you go through a good introductory book on logic, such as Harry J. Gensler’s

Introduction to Logic

or William L. Craig’s book

Learning Logic

? It will be fun, and you will (most likely) not regret it.