In
recent years, people connected with the church, have made active
attempts to change how they think and speak. Specifically, they
advocate for the replacement of “either/or” logic (statements and
questions) with “both/and” logic.
This need comes from key motivations
- To prevent contradictory statements of faith
- To pay attention to parts of God’s word ignored, overlooked, not focused on enough
- I am passionate about this, therefore I must be right
- I am angry about this, therefore I must be right
However, there is a problem with this desire:
- To claim only “both/and” statements exist is bad-logic because to do so we must accept that both “both/and” and “either/or” statements are possibly, while
- To claim only “either/or” statements exist is also bad-logic because to do so is to accept either a “both/and” or “either/or” statement could be appropriate to a situation
The other problem with this desire is once it is put into practice. For example:
- You are either male or female. You cannot be both.
- All living creatures are either alive or dead. They can never be both.
- God either exists or He doesn't. We cannot claim God both exists and doesn't.
- Salvation is either by by faith or not. We cannot claim salvation is both by faith and something else.
- And yet, Jesus is both man and God.
- Also, you can be both a parent and a child.
In other words, it is possible to have “both/and” logic and “either/or” logic depending on the situation.
