I was at my college and ESPN was on the TV in the lounge and a commercial came on for Comcast cable. In it, you see these two guys made out to be geeks. They go on this couch with some beautiful girls saying "You must be a model." and "Hi. I'm Roger. I design software." The girls are obviously sickened and so they turn on the cable and there's Star Trek. The next scene has the guys staring awestruck at the TV and the girls gone.

Funny? Yeah. I'll grant that. Contradictory? Maybe you hadn't thought of that but it is. It's important to understand the history to back that claim first though. When the Enlightenment came with the Copernican Revolution and happenings like that, people began losing faith in the church. (The church had wrongly agreed with Aristotle that the Earth was flat. It wasn't a biblical claim but an Aristotlean one that they used the Bible  to defend.)

Thus, while faith and reason had gone hand-in-hand for the longest time, reason began distancing itself from faith. Thus, we had a full movement of rationalism. John Locke was a leader of this who was a Christian theist though. He argued that babies are born with a blank slate (which has its own share of problems) which opened the door for Hume.

Hume came along with total skepticism. Thus, faith in reason was being dwindled and this was as Romanticism was coming in. Romanticism says that if your head and heart disagree, go with your heart. This is NOT the biblical approach. The Bible never tells us to make decisions based on feelings.

But such an appeal to emotions came to a reverse again as Kant postulated an infinite universe and then Darwin came up with the theory of evolution. Then we were back to rationalism as man has become the center of his universe and we try to look for one underlying principle explaining all reality apart from God.

And now, we live in an age where the intellect is held strongly and I am saying this as an intellectual myself. But to be a rationalist one has to lose any idea of the supernatural in this day and age and agree with the naturalistic perspective on the universe. Richard Dawkins sums it up well as a rabid evolutionist.

"It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (Or wicked but I'd rather not consider that)."

Now here is what I find contradictory. Why is it that an age of rationality seems to mock rationality as the commercial shows? Intelligent people are viewed as "geeks." If you've seen Spider-Man, take a look at how he was portrayed before he was bit by the spider.

Is it any wonder our culture is illiterate? Is it any wonder the average person doesn't read a book unless it has the word "illustrated" on the cover? One of the number one questions I'm asked at work when reading on my break is how I can read a book without pictures.

This is the postmodern situation. I believe postmodernism was made to avoid rationalism again. We don't want the pendulum swing again. We can't trust reason. We can't trust our emotions. Why not be safe and just not trust anything? There is no absolute truth.

I must admit I fall on the side of rationalism myself but I know firsthand that if you are intelligent in our day and age, it will lead to your personal insults. At the same time, we Christians are insulted for not being intelligent. One wonders what values are being supported.

I suggest we go back to the Christian way. Rationalism and emotions are both from God. God created our emotions and our minds. They are to be used together and in balance. Rationalism alone will lead to problems but so will emotion alone. We need both.

And who knows? Maybe after that some of us intellectuals might have a shot with the ladies. (Had to get in a little humor there.)