Be Reasonable

Xerxes, with enthusiastic agreement from much of his readership, has determined the original sin to have been reason: "I wonder if humanity’s original sin might be our obsession with labelling and categorizing our experiences.” One respondent characterizes this as a flaw of Western civilization. Another chimes in, “Judgement dams up the works! No sooner do I make a judgement, i.e., apply a label, then I stop considering alternatives and limit all the possibilities that might be realized by continuing consideration. Acceptance, on the other hand, permits flow, movement, discovery!”

This is a non-starter for Christians. One might point to Biblical verses like “judge not, lest ye be judged,” or the woman taken in adultery. But, importantly, these are about judging other people, not making judgments as such. And they themselves call for judgement—it is not that we must not judge others, but that we must judge ourselves first: ‘first, take the beam out of your own eye.’ ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’”

John 9:39: And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

As for naming things, God himself brings the universe into being, in Genesis, by his words—by calling it into being. Then, as if in echo of this divine act, he has Adam give names to all the animals. The implication seems to be that it is precisely in naming and clearly defining things that we are acting in the image of God, and in accord with the divine will.

Jesus is the Logos. He is judgement incarnate.

In sum, nothing could be less Christian—or more diabolical—than this postmodern doctrine of unreason.

Acceptance of everything requires acceptance of the Holocaust, the Killing Fields, and Charles Manson. This was precisely the philosophy Mason preached to his followers.