Drawing Conclusions From Faulty Reasoning

It has been said that ignorance of the law is no excuse, and even that which we are unaware of or indifferent to is still applicable to us. The observation is apparently confirmed in that we were all subject to gravity prior to its discovery. While going out to eat one night, I observed a situation that perfectly illustrates this principle.

The following occurred at a restaurant where placing orders at the counter and seating yourself was the norm. There is a sign at the door explaining all this. As we were placing our orders, a man came up to the clerk and, rather rudely, voiced his dissatisfaction that he had sat waiting for someone to come and take his order. The hostess politely explained the order of things and even mentioned that there was a sign in the door of the restaurant explaining them as well. Nonetheless, the man still refused to acknowledge his own error, and further declared illogically that because he didn’t see the sign, it didn’t exist. His exact words to the hostess were, “If I can’t see it, then it’s not there.”

On faith that was not religious or dogmatic but placed entirely in the never-ending depth of nature, Manly P. Hall said, “There are many levels of life which we cannot see and know, yet which certainly exist." Although the existence of God or a soul that survives death are not things we can apprehend empirically such as a restaurant seating sign, unfortunately many people’s belief or disbelief in God hinges on the same principle of perception. See, in the situation at the restaurant, there was an objective and absolute reality that was in fact perceivable, and that was the presence of an informative sign at the door. It was there, regardless of whether anyone saw the evidence or not. The entire time the man spent in frustration was all in vain and completely avoidable. The whole time he sat there thinking to himself, ‘There’s no order or consistency in this place,’ there was. The point is that human failures of perception do not negate the objective and absolute truth of the a fact’s existence, or its potentiality to illuminate and inspire.