The proof that we are primarily irrational in our thinking is evidenced by the strategies of business and government to change our opinions. Both use advertisements that sound ridiculous at first, but eventually we start believing them, when exposed to them long enough. The other major motivator for us to change our opinions are major life experiences. This is achieved on a national scale, by having a major war every decade.
This makes sense, because, if we changed our minds whenever someone who had the most skill debated us or explained things to us, we would not be very intellectually stable. This way of seeing things goes against one of the major changes the Enlightenment brought with it. The Enlightenment is the philosophy that, along with the Industrial Revolution, the Little Ice Age, and the technology that allowed navigation of the open ocean that started the modern world.
Many people think the ideas of the American constitution are based on Biblical concepts, but this is only partially true. Certainly the Bill of Rights promotes kindness to a great extent and that is a Christian virtue. The concept of rights comes from the Enlightenment, not the Bible.
According to the Bible, we have committed high treason by committing any sin. We then choose to be a slave to God or a slave of the devil. There is no assumption of anything like rights in the Bible. Christ died and rose again, to pay the penalty for our sins, so we could by reconciled with and spend eternity with Him. God saves us by His grace, which is by definition undeserved. All we do is accept His offer, while God is the one in primary control of the entire situation.
Capitalism is just assumed to be part of the country, despite it not being mentioned in the American Constitution. This is exactly the same thing as what the Majority World or Global South calls Imperialism.
After World War II, The British realized that with the strain their empire felt, because of what they did to win the war, they accepted the idea that their empire was not sustainable. This willingness to leave voluntarily is what made countries like India more stable than ones like Algeria and Vietnam, because the French tried to hold onto their empire. The British trained our soldiers and spies and essentially handed over what they saw as their mission to civilize the rest of the world.
Capitalism is based on getting cheap labor and cheap natural resources, but making most of the money in advertising and distribution, so that the empire gets wealthy and the victim country in the Majority World remains poor. A big part of the coercion is done via soft power, so the empire can plausibly deny they actually own other countries.
This is manipulative and is not based on being equal before God, as we are to be as Christians. Exploitive financial arrangements that make life more difficult for the poor and weak, especially those supported by religious leaders, sounds eerily like what Christ accused the Pharisees of doing.
Greed is not a value of Christianity but a sin. Exploiting the fact that people are prone to sin is not what we are called to do as Christians. We are to do the exact opposite of this. We were given salvation freely and we are now to treat others as we wish to be treated. The Sermon on the Mount uses even more vivid language and calls Christians to a much higher standard than what I am staying here.
So this idea of rational persuasion is also not what Christ exemplified either. Very deliberately, at the worst possible time and knowing He would by receiving the worst possible outcome, Christ remained silent during the torture at the end of His life. Saying even a few words could have gotten Him out of the entire crucifixion.
Christ describes very eloquently and simply how Christians should interact with our governments: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and Give to God what is God’s. God desires to be reconciled with us and the government wants its tax money. We as Christians should obey the government and pray for the politicians, but we are never encouraged to get ourselves any political power, especially not at the expense of the poor and the weak or at the expense of becoming corrupt.
God isn’t trying to get us to accept that He is real. He doesn’t need to convince anyone. In fact, we Christians play a very minor role in salvation. Even in evangelism, God brings people to Himself and we are but His hands and feet. It is not our Church but His.
Debate does not convince, but instead gets people angry and divides them. The people who win debates are not those with truth on their side: they are merely more skilled than those who argue the opposite side. The way Christ talked was more like the ancient Greek Cynics than that of the famous Platonic philosophy of that same time period. The Apostle Paul talks about the foolishness of God that He says is greater than people’s wisdom. Paul says that he desires to know no more than Christ crucified.
Democracy is based on Greek wisdom, not Biblical truth.
-- November 2025