For more than looking cool!

I've often been asked; "why did you choose to get an undergraduate degree in philosophy?" First of all, and this is the only time in this post I plan on sounding preachy, this question really does reveal the state of the secular university in the United States. People ask this question because they think that the reason people go to college is so that they can get a job. The notion of actually becoming a more educated person is all but laughable to most of us. I am just as bad as the next person when it comes to this because I am always advising high school students who do not know what they want to do to get business degrees because that way they are set up for a plethora of job options. I do, admittedly, feel a bit like a sell-out every time I advise the business route.

Anyway, the original question is important. Why should anyone be interested in philosophy? Specifically, is there any reason why a Christian would benefit from studying philosophy, either formally or informally, besides the obvious reason of looking cool at parties?

I think there is, allow me to digress. Right now I am taking an eschatology class here at Southern. In this class one of the topics we spend a bit of time studying is heaven. It is amazing, just looking at a small sample of popular writing on the subject, both Christian and non-Christian, to see how insane we are when it comes to our theology of heaven. Scores of Christian writers conceive of heaven as a non-physical realm where we become absorbed into God through eternal worship, of course, via harp playing. The interesting thing to note is not that the popular conceptions of heaven are non-biblical, but rather it is interesting to see where these notions of heaven come from. Clearly and unmistakably these disembodied pictures of heaven are born out of Platonic-dualism that sees the physical as inherently bad, a notion that is rejected on countless pages of the Bible.

Now, why do I bring this up. I bring it up because this heaven business is just one of literally thousands of examples of contemporary people believing something that is born out of a philosophical system that they cannot name nor are they familiar with. Another great example of this is in the area of ethics. In Desiring God, John Piper writes about how most of us operate under a frame-work of ethics born out of the writing of Kant without ever having read a word of his writing.

Like it or not our minds are far more influenced by philosophical systems then we know. Moreover, the frightening reality is that we are probably blind to dozens of areas where our lives are directed by philosophies that are, at least at some points, anti-biblical.

So What? What is my point? My point is that it would be healthy for all of us to develop some little, tiny knowledge of the history of western philosophy that influences us. One great book that will offer you a broad overview of some of the key topics and thinkers in western philosophy from a Christian perspective is called; Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, by J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig. 

Ok, enough of my ranting. I hope something I wrote will help in some tiny way. I miss you guys and I pray for you constantly.