Opinions and Lack Thereof
As a law student, I do feel constant pressure to have an opinion on things. After all, the entire law school education literally revolves around reading opinions. But, judges typically develop their opinions after a thorough fact-finding process involving a disinterested jury, a body of precedent, zealous advocacy, and a robust framework of rights and procedures. In other words, conclusions in a court of law usually bear at least the appearance of propriety and rationality. Opinions rendered apart from truthful information and plagued by partiality of judges and juries would undermine the legitimacy of our judiciary. I love this article my brother shared with me, because it discusses how sometimes it is okay to admit not having an opinion if we truly don't know enough.
Quoted Excerpt below:
But knowing we live in a society enthralled by the spectacle—where public life, political causes, and civil debate are susceptible to widespread illusion, misinformation, and propaganda—means we should resist the pull to offer an opinion on everything. Last year, I was struck by a comment Tim Keller made on a Christianity Today podcast. He was asked about a controversial subject—something he had considered from more than one angle—and he admitted he was less sure of his viewpoint than he had been at the beginning. Even more, he wasn’t sure he had to have a strong opinion. He recognized that having a strong opinion didn’t suddenly give him any power to affect the controversy anyway. The way of wisdom means recognizing our limitations—both the limits on our knowledge and also the limits on our ability to affect change in the world. The way of wisdom frees us from having to have a well-formed opinion on every hot-button issue of the day. We can always say, no matter how surprising or unpopular, “I don’t know what I think about that.” Perhaps this is one way that Christians can be salt and light, one way we can stand out in a world where everyone seems so certain (and usually angry) about whatever is going on. Maybe the admission of ignorance is one way we can offer grace and humility to a world drowning in its own ill-formed judgments. In order to de-escalate tensions in our society and lower the temperature of our civil discourse, we can demonstrate the humility that says: “I haven’t really studied that issue,” or “I’m not an expert on the most important facts and considerations in that debate,” or “I don’t think I’ve weighed the different sides and looked into all the relevant points yet, and so I don’t have a strong opinion."
Giving Space for Thought The way of wisdom and humility leads us to admit our limitations. But we must not allow humility to become a cover for cowardice. It would be wrong to appeal to humility in order to avoid developing strong convictions. We should not use humility as an excuse to avoid taking stands on important issues, or as a way of excusing our apathy in coming to better and more-informed conclusions. No, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means our goal is not to be apolitical; political debates matter for the neighbors we are called to love. My point is not that we shouldn’t have well-formed opinions, but that we need to open up space in society to say, “I don’t know yet enough to have a well-formed opinion.” We must also avoid the illusion that our opinions are well formed because we’ve read an article or two online.
On some of the more contentious political debates of our day, where people with good intentions often disagree, we need to free people up to say, I don’t know what to think.
Quoted Excerpt below:
But knowing we live in a society enthralled by the spectacle—where public life, political causes, and civil debate are susceptible to widespread illusion, misinformation, and propaganda—means we should resist the pull to offer an opinion on everything. Last year, I was struck by a comment Tim Keller made on a Christianity Today podcast. He was asked about a controversial subject—something he had considered from more than one angle—and he admitted he was less sure of his viewpoint than he had been at the beginning. Even more, he wasn’t sure he had to have a strong opinion. He recognized that having a strong opinion didn’t suddenly give him any power to affect the controversy anyway. The way of wisdom means recognizing our limitations—both the limits on our knowledge and also the limits on our ability to affect change in the world. The way of wisdom frees us from having to have a well-formed opinion on every hot-button issue of the day. We can always say, no matter how surprising or unpopular, “I don’t know what I think about that.” Perhaps this is one way that Christians can be salt and light, one way we can stand out in a world where everyone seems so certain (and usually angry) about whatever is going on. Maybe the admission of ignorance is one way we can offer grace and humility to a world drowning in its own ill-formed judgments. In order to de-escalate tensions in our society and lower the temperature of our civil discourse, we can demonstrate the humility that says: “I haven’t really studied that issue,” or “I’m not an expert on the most important facts and considerations in that debate,” or “I don’t think I’ve weighed the different sides and looked into all the relevant points yet, and so I don’t have a strong opinion."
Giving Space for Thought The way of wisdom and humility leads us to admit our limitations. But we must not allow humility to become a cover for cowardice. It would be wrong to appeal to humility in order to avoid developing strong convictions. We should not use humility as an excuse to avoid taking stands on important issues, or as a way of excusing our apathy in coming to better and more-informed conclusions. No, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. That means our goal is not to be apolitical; political debates matter for the neighbors we are called to love. My point is not that we shouldn’t have well-formed opinions, but that we need to open up space in society to say, “I don’t know yet enough to have a well-formed opinion.” We must also avoid the illusion that our opinions are well formed because we’ve read an article or two online.
Wisdom doesn’t mean withholding judgment forever, but it operates with a level of caution due to its understanding that our knowledge is limited.
On some of the more contentious political debates of our day, where people with good intentions often disagree, we need to free people up to say, I don’t know what to think.
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