I made the following comment on someone's blog, and it took me so long that I decided to post it here as well. It was about reason and emotions, and the relative logic of both. I wonder if it will make sense out of context? We shall see...

Well, I am primarily a writer, but math comes far more easily to me than I deserve. So I tend to think with both my gut and my mind at once. My gut tells me that a "logical" argument is one that "makes sense." That is what most people mean when they use the word. My mind then gets involved by analyzing why anything makes sense - because God put meaning into the world, the same way we communicate meaning through spoken words. The whole world's order is God's language. The same word, LOGOS, stands for all the world's meaning - Jesus, who holds all things together at all points in time - and for the words we use. We image God that way. So when we are being "logical," we are communicating order and truth.

That was complicated. The others are easier.

Reason = the power of thinking, especially in an orderly way. Good enough.

Logic = the science of thinking. Good enough, especially when you understand that the Latin word scientia just means "knowledge." Logic is the knowledge of how to think well. It is not something we have created, but something we have discovered existing in the universe. It is part of the LOGOS, the truth, the connecting power that holds everything in order.

Emotions - now those are more complicated yet. What are they? I think we err when we categorize them apart from thinking. God gave us every part of ourselves for a reason. It is an Enlightenment thought that says the only useful part of thinking is the rational part. Especially in human situations, it is neither necessary nor possible to divorce emotions and reason. I think emotions are an essential part of the individual soul. If you render a thought down into its most basic elements, I can reproduce it rationally for myself. However, I can never reproduce the associated emotions. You cannot even communicate them. Only God understands that language and speaks it to each individual in return.

Conclusion: The LOGOS is the universe's truth and order. A logical statement is therefore truthful and orderly. We can use our rational faculties to illuminate the order, the logic, inherent in the statement. We understand the truth, however, on a gut level prior to reason. Why should we believe truth exists anywhere, at all? That is where "emotion," something other than reason, comes in. It is communication straight from God to every human being, "so that we have no excuse." You can give the most rational argument possible for God's existence, but you will not convince anyone until they believe God exists.

You hear a lot about the "simple faith" of women throughout history. Perhaps the thing we call "emotion" is the answer.  ¶ 9:14 PM