The Luxury of Cheap Melancholy

Every February, Oklahoma Baptist University celebrates Founders’ Day with a special chapel service. This year’s service was particularly special, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the school’s founding. The service included a reenactment of W.P. Blake and G. Lee Phelps kneeling in prayer on the site in Shawnee, Oklahoma that was to become Oklahoma Baptist University.

To be honest, I can now remember only a single sentence from either prayer, but it is a sentence that I don’t think I will ever forget: “Deliver us from the luxury of cheap melancholy.”

These words may be more relevant now than they were at the time of the founding of OBU. We find ourselves struggling to recover from a recession, embroiled in two wars, worried about the future of the environment, and burdened by spiraling health care costs. Melancholy, or depression, seems to be an unavoidable response. As Phelps said, though, it is both cheap and luxurious; cheap because it costs us nothing, and luxurious because it prevents us from doing what is truly costly. Giving in to the luxury of cheap melancholy is an acceptance of the status quo, an admission that we will simply do nothing.

The alternative is to remember who we are and what God has called us to be, people of hope and grace. I was reminded of this as I witnessed a baptism at church on Sunday. In our church, before the baptismal candidate leaves the water, she places a finger in a bowl of salt and then touches the salt to her tongue. She then receives a candle, which she carries out of the baptistry. We who are witnesses are reminded that we too are called to be salt and light, to reject the luxury of cheap melancholy, and go into the world believing that we can, by the grace of God, make things better.

May it be so.

Tradition and Bad Tradition

Recently, I posted a quote on the Tumblr page from Jaroslav Pelikan: “The only alternative to tradition is bad tradition.” At the time, I realized it needed some explanation, but posted it anyway. Some comments show that the quote is meaningless without some context.

John Mouracade pointed out that it looks like a false dilemma. A false dilemma is a fallacy committed when one asserts that at least one of two different alternatives must be true, but ignores other alternatives that might also be true. Now, if Pelikan meant to say that the only alternative to good tradition is bad tradition, then it’s clearly a false dilemma. Surely, some tradition is neither good nor bad. Pelikan didn’t say that, though. He said that the only alternative to tradition (unqualified) is bad tradition.

Is that claim a false dilemma? On the surface it looks like it is. The claim is that one is either bound by tradition or by bad tradition. What about breaking from tradition completely? Surely that’s an option. Pelikan has asserted two alternatives and ignored a third.

Of course, it were a simple logical fallacy, the claim wouldn’t be very interesting (and Pelikan probably wouldn’t have deserved that prestigious chair at Yale!). Notice that Pelikan has not asserted that one of two different alternatives must be true. Since every instance of bad tradition is an instance of tradition, they are not two different things. Instead, he has asserted simply that there is no escaping tradition. That may be false, but it’s not a false dilemma. If it were a false dilemma, then every false assertion commits the fallacy of a false dilemma. To say that either all roses are red or all roses are red is simply to say that all roses are red.

In the interview that I quote from (an episode of Public Radio’s Speaking of Faith), Pelikan is discussing the relationship of belief and church tradition. His claim is directed toward those who deny that tradition should play any role in our belief. A church could decide that tradition should play no role in the context of belief, or “We don’t let tradition determine what we believe, we decide ourselves.” Does this constitute an escape from tradition? In a sense, yes, but it really just constitutes the establishment of a new tradition. “It is our tradition not to pay any attention to past traditions….”

It is best to intentionally critically examine one’s tradition and keep the best parts of that tradition. There are two other likely alternatives, one is a break with past tradition that simply establishes a new tradition. The other is one that continues to hold on to the less desirable components of past tradition. Neither are likely to result in the best outcome. The latter keeps the things that we should be breaking from, while the former breaks from things that we should be retaining. So, indeed, the only alternative to tradition is bad tradition.

For philosophers, that means we shouldn’t stop teaching Plato and Aristotle. For Baptists, it means that we ignore the study of Baptist history at our peril. I guess the moral of the story is this: if you are a religion major and one of my advisees, don’t ask to be excused from that Baptist History requirement. Keep in mind, though, there’s no Baptist History requirement for a philosophy major.

Moved

I moved the blog to rlridenour.tumblr.com.

Stanford Encyclopedia Article on the Trinity

Dale Tuggy has a new article in The Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy on the Trinity. In my opinion, The Stanford Encyclopedia is the best reference work in philosophy, not simply the best online reference work in philosophy. I’ve been slowly working on a paper on the Trinity, so I’m grateful to have a nice summary of recent work on the subject.

Seven Deadly Sins

Back to the blog after a very long break. Geographers from Kansas State University have mapped out the distribution of the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride) across the United States. Interestingly, Oklahoma appears to be in good shape except for wrath.

Philosophy Club

The Philosophy Club will meet Tuesday, February 24, at 7:00 in the faculty lounge at the Geiger Center. Adam Goggins will lead a discussion on Science and Religion. Everyone is welcome!

Expectations and Grades

There’s an interesting piece in the New York Times today about student expectations and grade inflation. Apparently, there are students (at institutions other than Oklahoma Baptist, I’m sure) that believe that doing the minimal work that is required of everyone in the course should be sufficient to earn a B for the course. Either we have lowered the level of work that we are willing to consider average, or it really is true that in today’s society someone who manages to complete the minimum requirements really is above average. Either disjunct strikes me as disturbing. If you are in Critical Thinking, keep this story in mind. It is relevant to some of the topics that we will be discussing later.

Today’s News

Two stories in today’s news caught my attention. First, Britain’s The Independent reports on history’s most famous failed technology predictions. These include a claim from 1977 that no one will need a computer in their home.

The second story, in the Washington Post, is a harrowing account of an assault conducted by U. S. Special Forces soldiers and Afghan commandos on an insurgent stronghold in Afghanistan. Ten of those soldiers will receive the Silver Star today.

No Office Hours Today

I have meetings all afternoon, so there will be no office hours today.

The Monty Hall Problem

One of the assignments in Critical Thinking was to figure the probability of winning the prize in the traditional three-door Monty Hall problem. Remember that there are three doors for you, the contestant, to choose from, but only one has the prize. The host knows what door the prize is behind, and opens another door to show you that there is nothing there. He will open neither the one you pick nor the one that has the prize. Let’s say that you pick Door 1, and Monty opens Door 2. What’s the probability that the prize is behind Door 3? From class, you know the answer is 2/3.

What’s important is that the host knows where the prize is. If he doesn’t know, then the probability is 1/2. You can calculate this using Bayes’ Theorem. Try it out!

By the way, if you can remember “1/2” then you should be able to get some extra-credit points on tomorrow’s exam. Even more points if you can do the calculation…