Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking

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Summary: This is spiritual warfare.
Review: Anti-intellectualism is one of Satan's strategies that have made the church ineffective. Geisler's book combined with a good textbook on biblical hermeneutics will enable the Christian to recognize and combat deception and fallacies, and appropriate God's truth.

By reading this book, you'll know what a "straw man fallacy" is. Accusing Geisler with something he didn't say is an example. Geisler in the book mentions paradox, but does he ignore it (See a review below)? Geisler only says that what is not paradoxical in theology should not be considered so. [The trinity is a mystery but NOT a paradox or a contradiction because it does NOT say 1 is equal to 3. God is 1 in an aspect (essence) and 3 in another aspect (person). Anybody who says Christians believe a contradiction is again guilty of straw man attack.] The reviewer also insinuates that Geisler holds that all truth is derivable from logic. However, Geisler is an evangelical and holds to truths revealed in the Scripture, not just truths derived from reason.

You'll be able to recognize what a "faulty dilemma" (also called "false dichotomy") is. Saying that being human and God at the same time is contradictory is an example.

And what is "dicto simpliciter"? It's the fallacy that applies a general rule to circumstances not included in the rule. The general rule that "Cretans are always liar" does not apply to Epimenides, so Paul is able to quote him and assert that "This testimony is true" (Titus 1:13).

You'll also learn from this book what an "argumentum ab annis" is. It's the fallacy that says because a concept is oudated, it must be false. (Sounds familiar?) What does age got to do with the truth value of a proposition?

You'll also become familiar with what "argumentum ad verecundiam" and "ignoratio elenchi" are. Appeal to Godel's Incompleteness Theorem is an example because it does not speak of the utter futility of logic to arrive at a truth, only that given any finite set of axioms, there are propositions that cannot be proved or disproved from this set alone. And saying that if a proposition cannot be proved then it must be false, or if it cannot be disproved then it must be true, is "argumentum ad ignorantiam."

Our adversary's strategy is always deception. As Christians, it is our task to unmask those lies and fallacies. So, my suggestion: "take up and read" (the Bible with a good book on hermeneutics, and a good book on logical/critical thinking like this one).

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Summary: In an Age of Information Thinking is Life!
Review: Norman Geisler and Ronald Brooks have written a fantastic textbook on how to think using Logic. They dare to focus on students within their own Christian faith, demonstrating that you can think and be Christian! Even with the faith based examples they refrain from preaching in any way, so this work is a great introduction to Logic for anyone who wants a taste of how to examine their thinking. The book is worth buying just to read the contrast it makes between inductive and deductive reasoning. I am glad to see this book still in print!

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Summary: Don't leave your brain at the Church Door!!
Review: The church is permeated with people propagating pious notions of anti-intellictualism. While the intellect is not the be-all-end-all of the Christian life it is one of the most often neglected aspects of santification. The mind in scripture is the only thing that we renew. God supernaturally gives us a new heart, but gives us the enormous and exciting responsibilty for the renewing of the mind. Logic is one major aspect of this renewal. While emotions are central those emotions must not be irrational. Geisler and Brooks provide the framework by which we can decern the fallacies of foolish thinking and grasp the essential role of Logic in the life of the Christian. This book along with J.P. Moreland fine work "Loving God with All Your Mind" will serve as an antidote for our neglect of the mind.

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Summary: A Great Primer On Logic
Review: This book is an excellent introduction into the basic formulas and terminology of logic. All basics are covered: Syllogism, inductive, deductive, dilemma's, and so on. The reviewer from Vancover, WA, who unfairly rates this book low, brings up that Godel and Brouwer have demonstrated the inability of logic (paraphased);But didn't they use logic to reach that conclusion? - yes they did. Without logical thinking, all our statements and beliefs become nonsensical! Either logic is used or abused.

Geisler and Brooks have written a great text and its only real (possible) flaw is that it is written from a conservative Christian viewpoint. Myself a Christian, I do see problems with people who will unfairly rate this book low or not give it a fair reading because of the overtly Christian stance. With that said, this is also the book's strength, because many Christians need to learn logic and may turn to this book because of the Geilser and Brook's religious position.

The chapters on "informal fallacies" and "scientific thinking" are extremely well written for the primer level. This book is great from start to finish.

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Summary: One of Only Two
Review: Truly philosophically minded introductions to Aristotelian logic (the other is Peter Kreeft's _Socratic Logic_). I now do work in advanced mathematical logic, but the good old syllogism is still the most useful logical tool on a daily basis. My favorite two parts of this book are the early parts on Logic and God. It should be required reading for modern Christians. Also, the chapter on Uncovering Logic in Literature is very very good. I have taught from this text in Classical High Schools and have found it ideally suited for that purpose. It also works very well for a self-taught course. There are answers to exercises in the back. I should add that the exercises are largely drawn from philosophy and theology which makes them much more interesting than conventional logic texts.