Premature Judgment

Have you ever had a discussion with someone and had them say something like this: "Boy, I can tell you have really studied this more than me. I still think your wrong." If you have, you know you were left thinking, "What?!" How have we come to a place in our culture that a person can have intellectual (and even emotional) satisfaction, when their world is resting on an unsubstantiated reality?

Do people not realize that the instant they acknowledge that their opponent has studied more than they, it means they are arguing from ignorance? If I say to someone, you have studied this more than I have, I am admitting I am ignorant. Granted, we are all ignorant to a point. There are numerous things that we just don't know. However, we should not revel in our ignorance.

It is acceptable to say, I am not convinced or I need to study more. But, to dismiss an argument without weighing the validity of its contents is irresponsible. We should never be ready to concede the argument without first studying. We all have days where we can get caught off guard. There may be areas that we haven't thought to study, but that doesn't excuse premature judgment. We need to not only know what we believe, but why we believe what we believe. And we need to be familiar with the arguments against what we believe, as well as how to answer them.