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Unreasonably Reasonable
Contributed by David Dunn on Oct 20, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: Our rational age has lost its reason; only faith reunites logic and love, restoring truth, humility, and genuine freedom.
Introduction – The Smartest Dumb Thing We’ve Ever Done
I was sitting in a campus café a few months ago when I overheard a group of students arguing over whether coffee is technically a fruit juice.
It started as a joke, but within five minutes one had pulled up research on the coffee cherry, another had cited a sustainability blog, and a third announced that she “identified as caffeine-neutral.”
By the time I left, they were red-faced and furious.
Nobody was smiling, but everyone was sure they’d won.
That, I thought, is the most reasonable thing I’ve seen all day — and also the most unreasonable.
We have more degrees than thermometers, but less wisdom than our grandparents.
We can land a robot on Mars but can’t have dinner with someone who votes differently.
We have facts at our fingertips but peace nowhere in sight.
Welcome to the age of being unreasonably reasonable.
We talk endlessly about science, logic, and rationality. We trust the data, the experts, the algorithms. Yet try questioning the narrative, and watch how fast the rational mask slips. Suddenly, the guardians of reason are shouting, “How dare you ask that question!”
It’s as if our modern creed reads:
> “I think, therefore you must agree.”
1. The Cult of the Smart
Once upon a time, reason was humble — a candle flickering in a dark room, helping us see truth.
Today, it’s a blowtorch. We aim it at anyone who disagrees.
Reason used to ask, What’s true?
Now it asks, Who’s trending?
We’ve created a new priesthood — the Cult of the Smart.
Its temples are lecture halls, its liturgies are TED Talks, and its sacred relics are credentials.
Dissent isn’t heresy because it’s irrational; it’s heresy because it’s unfashionable.
We think intelligence can replace integrity, and cleverness can replace conscience.
We assume the “educated” are automatically the enlightened.
But if you can justify anything, you can also rationalize everything.
And we do.
You see, when reason is divorced from morality, it doesn’t lead to truth — it leads to excuses.
We’ve become masters at justifying whatever our hearts already want.
We call it “being reasonable.”
God calls it “being deceived.”
Paul wrote it bluntly:
> “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” — Romans 1:22
The more we worship reason, the less reasonable we become.
2. From Faith to Formula
Once, people believed that truth existed outside of them — that it was something discovered, not invented.
The universe had a Designer; life had a purpose; morality had meaning.
But modern man decided to be his own compass.
He said, “I don’t need God — I have Google.”
So truth moved from the heavens to the headlines.
We traded conviction for convenience, wisdom for information, and revelation for opinion.
We stopped asking, Is it right? and started asking, Does it work?
That’s how we ended up with people who are moral relativists in the classroom but moral absolutists on Twitter.
They’ll say, “There is no objective truth,” and then post, “Silence is violence.”
Friend, if there is no truth, silence can’t be anything.
This is what happens when the formula replaces faith.
Reason becomes an idol — an unreasonably reasonable god who promises enlightenment but delivers confusion.
3. Cultural Totalitarianism with a Smile
You’ve probably heard of “cancel culture.” It’s the modern version of book-burning, except now the fire fits in your pocket.
Say the wrong word, question the wrong idea, and the algorithm will escort you to digital exile.
What used to be conversation is now condemnation.
What used to be persuasion is now prosecution.
We tell ourselves we’re open-minded — as long as everyone agrees with us.
We preach tolerance — but only for people who believe what we tolerate.
This is what Melanie Phillips calls cultural totalitarianism:
No alternative may be permitted, because the ideology itself claims to be synonymous with goodness.
To disagree is to be evil.
So people stop speaking.
And when people stop speaking, thinking soon follows.
Freedom dies not with a bang, but with a polite “I’d better not say anything.”
Here’s the irony: we’ve become unreasonably reasonable — so obsessed with protecting feelings that we’ve forgotten how to protect truth.
4. The Disappearance of Dialogue
In the Book of Isaiah, God says,
> “Come now, let us reason together.” — Isaiah 1:18
Notice: God doesn’t fear our questions.
He invites them.
Real reason doesn’t cancel; it converses.
The Enlightenment gave us marvelous tools — microscopes, telescopes, and microchips — but it also gave us swollen egos.
We began to think that if something couldn’t be measured, it couldn’t be meaningful.
But love can’t be graphed.
Conscience can’t be peer-reviewed.
And hope doesn’t fit neatly in a spreadsheet.
The tragedy of modern reason is that it amputated half of what makes us human.