This semester has been been the first semester where I have started taking communication classes to work toward my communication minor. The communication course that I am taking this semester is dealing with small group communication. This course is a strange one in that the professor treats it as an experiential learning class. That in and of itself is not what makes this course weird. The purpose of the course is to look at ourselves to better understand how to interact in groups. The professor talks about stopping our stream of thought to make the unconscious thoughts conscious. This is something that I struggle with for multiple reasons. I don't completely agree with the ideas that back it up. A lot of them are similar to buddhist ideas. Specifically the idea of no self. The professor has also mentioned that the idea of stopping thought is ironic for a STEM focused school.
Coming from a Christian and STEM background, I don't like stopping thought or meditating. There are many reasons for this. The first of which is that free hands are the devil's playground. Once thoughts are stopped, the devil can plant thoughts in the mind that immediately become forefront. Stopping all thoughts, and especially thoughts about God, leaves the person vulnerable to the devil's thoughts. This roots back to the fact that people are born with an inherent desire to sin and have all committed sins. With the help of God, we are able to understand, recognize, and prevent sins that we would otherwise commit. Blocking all things from going through your mind, as is the purpose of meditation, keeps God out of your mind and takes the control of your life out of the hands of God and into the inherent ideas of your mind, which are sinful. Obviously, this violates the very idea that Christians are supposed to hold to. Christians are supposed to avoid sinning at all costs, because the costs for sin are greater than anything else, either physically or spiritually.
I must admit that the idea of stopping thought would be taught in a liberal arts college in a non-conservative school does not surprise me. The reason that it doesn't surprise me goes back to a quote from Jordan Peterson. When asked why his right to free speech trumps another person's right to not be offended, he replied "Because thinking risks being offensive." When someone thinks, they are going to offend someone. This statement becomes even more true the more divided the country becomes. In a world where being offensive comes with a great penalty, it doesn't surprise me that schools are teaching people to stop thinking. However, the Bible doesn't say that Christians should stop being offensive. It says quite the opposite. It calls us to go out and use the Bible to make disciples of people. The Bible is going to offend some people. This does not mean that the Bible should not be used. It is still the true word of God that we are called to share with everyone we can, through love.
This is another misconception that I have heard from a lot of people when it comes to Christianity. I have heard people who are not Christians who are offended by the Bible and call Christians hypocrites for telling them about the Bible. They claim that since Christians are called to love their neighbors (aka all people), then they shouldn't use the Bible because it is offensive and they think that Christians shouldn't say anything that is offensive to anyone. Well, first of all this is impossible. And second of all, not telling someone the truth and consequently keeping them from eternal life with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not at all love. It is demonic and sick.
Thinking is going to offend some people, and that's alright, because through the offense, people will think about what was said and might find that they had no reason to be offended in the first place. So, remember to never fully stop thinking and to keep God in the forefront of your mind.