Pt. 3: Show Your Work.

I wonder what the two other pigs were thinking. I mean, they all had to have gone shopping together, right? It’s not every day you find three young, virile, independent male swine deciding to build their own houses, let alone on the same land at the same time. That said, there had to be dialogue amongst them discussing what material to use. How did they decide?

"My parents use sticks, so that means I use sticks" the first could have sternly reasoned. "It's how I was raised; It's part of who I am.” Perhaps the second assumed all materials are basically the same. “No material is better than the other…it’s all about what’s right for you.”

They heard the third pig’s warnings, but for some reason didn’t budge. Maybe one of them was comfortable with his materials, and saw no reason to change. Perhaps the other actually found reason in the third’s admonitions, but felt uncomfortable with change, saying “it's just really hard to use bricks when you haven’t grown up that way.” In any case, the time came when the quality of their building was put to the test. This all three pigs had in common.

An argument for truth is a specific kind of thing. Everyone has one. Think of an argument like a simple house, a roof supported by walls. The roof is the conclusion, and the walls are the supporting ideas. By testing the walls, we see if they are strong enough to keep the roof from tumbling down.

You may have recognized the utterances above. Many times these are the kinds of responses people give when asked about why they believe what they believe. They don't see the need to test the walls. Most often beneath their passive attitude is the conclusion that all truth is relative -- whatever works for you is right. These are the most unsafe houses to live in. Support for these conclusions is scarce at best (I'll elaborate more on this in the next post).

It seems silly to us that they didn't choose stronger material, doesn't it? They didn't take time to support their houses, and in the end met the consequences for that. It's important to question, doubt, and test the strength of your beliefs, because there are some things in life that don’t cater to your preferences and opinions. Rather than hoping reality will bend to your argument, it’s up to you to make an argument that holds up to reality. Otherwise, when reality hits hardest, it won’t hold up at all.

This is part 3 of the "Do Your Homework" series.