Top Three Critical Thinking Tools for Christians

Christians are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Mark 12:30). God wants us to think through things but to do so with minds renewed by the gospel and his truth.

Well, we must teach believers how to think, not just what to think. That’s always been an emphasis at Answers in Genesis. Our world wants to teach everyone exactly what to think and discourages, deplatforms, and maligns anyone who dares to think outside the accepted narrative. But Christians are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Mark 12:30). God wants us to think through things but to do so with minds renewed by the gospel and his truth.

So here are three critical thinking tools for Christians:

1. Think foundationally. If we want to think critically about the world around us, we must first understand one vital principle: everyone has a worldview. There is no neutrality! Our world likes to pretend that scientists, for example, approach the evidence without any assumptions or preconceptions—but that’s simply not true! Everyone has a worldview (like a pair of glasses) that colors how they view the world, and evidence is interpreted through that lens.

That worldview is founded on something—and there’s ultimately only two options: man’s word or God’s Word. Either someone starts with autonomous human reasoning or human emotions and interprets the evidence (or even the Scriptures!) through this lens, or they start with the perfect, infallible Word of God as the authority.

When you hear a claim about God’s Word or his world that contradicts what God’s Word says, do three things:

1. Make sure your understanding of the Bible is correct! Read the passages in question within their immediate context, the context of the book of the Bible they belong to, and within the context of the Bible as a whole (the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself). If you’re sure your interpretation of the Bible is correct, then you know the skeptical claim you are facing is wrong because God is always right (Romans 3:4).
2. Check the worldview of the person making the claim. Do they honor and love God’s Word, allowing God to be the authority—or are they making themselves, human reasoning, research, or emotions (feelings) the authority? What is the foundation for their worldview? Worldview (and its foundation) drives interpretation.
3. Look for the logical fallacies (more on that below) and the assumptions driving the interpretation. In other words, separate the actual facts (the evidence) from the interpretation of those facts, remembering that facts don’t speak for themselves—they are always interpreted based on one’s worldview. Then, once you have “just the facts,” apply a biblical worldview to those facts to properly interpret them in light of the truth of God’s Word. If you don’t understand how the facts could make sense within the light of God’s Word, just wait—God’s Word will always eventually be shown to be true.

   The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

2. Look out for logical fallacies. Logical fallacies are mistakes in reasoning, and people use them all the time (intentionally or accidentally). Fallacies can distract from the truth or the real issue, twist facts, distort the truth, and manipulate you into a certain conclusion. Here are just three examples of common logical fallacies to be on the lookout for:

   • Straw-man fallacy. This fallacy occurs when someone misrepresents his opponent’s position and then proceeds to refute that misrepresentation rather than what his opponent actually claims. We see this one all the time when people misrepresent biblical creation and then attack that misrepresentation instead of what we actually believe.

     For example, I’ve heard this one so many times: “Creationists say species don’t change—but look at those dogs, they’ve changed! So, of course, creation isn’t true!” But we don’t believe species don’t change—we believe one kind (which generally falls at about the family level) won’t change into another kind, but there’s a lot of variability within a kind (e.g., wolves, dingoes, coyotes, domesticated dogs, etc. are all within the dog kind, but there’s lots of variety).

   • Ad hominem. This fallacy attacks the person making the argument, rather than the argument itself. Again, we see this one all the time. For example, rather than actually address our biblical and scientific arguments against the murderous practice of abortion, pro-abortion activists will just say, “These people hate women!”
   • Fallacy of equivocation. With this logical fallacy, someone uses a word and then shifts the meaning of that same word later in the argument. Again, we see this one a lot. Here’s a common example, “Evolution is a fact. After all, we observe evolution in Darwin’s finches today.” What they’ve done is used the word “evolution” twice, in two totally different ways, but made it seem as if they’re using the word the same way twice. Here’s what is really meant by that statement, “Molecules-to-man evolution is fact. After all, we observe small changes within the finch kind today.” See how equivocation totally changed that argument?

3. Use the “7 Checks of Critical Thinking.” Don’t just take what you read or hear at face value (no matter where it comes from—those “on your side” also make mistakes, so be vigilant about everything you hear, always comparing it first against God’s Word). Rather, take the time to check it out.

   • Check Scripture. (We can’t say this enough!)
   • Check the challenge. (Is this opposing a nonnegotiable doctrine or is it a peripheral issue?)
   • Check the source. (Where is the information coming from?)
   • Check the definitions. (What do they mean by what they’re saying?)
   • Check for propaganda. (Why does this sound true?)
   • Check the interpretations. (What are the assumptions behind this?)
   • Check the logic. (Are there any errors in reasoning?)

I hope that using these three basic critical thinking tools will help you to watch the news or videos on social media, read articles, and chat with your friends and family without being taken “captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition . . .” (Colossians 2:8). If you want to learn more, and I encourage you (and the young people in your life) to do so, please check out our deep dive into critical thinking and logic in a new online course from Answers in Genesis—Critical Thinking Scan, featuring teaching from Patricia Engler. It’s a fantastic way to learn how to think so you can decipher truth from error and not get sucked into the fallacious thinking of our world.

Check out this online course, our apologetics courses, or our world religions and cults series, at AnswersEducation.com.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.