Philosophical ADD

At its best, the blogosphere is a place where amateur and professional thinkers alike are able to pontificate on the latest issues in their lives. Whether related to friends personal lives, politics, or theology, I routinely navigate a large number of blogs both to learn what is on peoples minds, but also to sharpen my own. As I have given thought to my own blogging and the topics that I put my mind to as I blog, I have become concerned that so much consumption has formed in me a sort of "philosophical ADD".

My mind wanders from topic to topic. I quickly formulate opinions, offering many in comments on my favorite blogs. But have I really thought at any great depth about the topics that I offer my own two cents on.

Pushing beyond my own proclivities, has the blogosphere taught many of us to fail at the task of deep thinking and deep knowing (this includes the friend grazing that we call life on facebook). As much enjoyment as we find skimming from blog to blog or facebook friend to friend, are we really getting to know a friend more deeply or a topic more completely?

Now I do not believe in an either/or approach to this concern. I believe that we can find a balance and believe that I personally need to. If I want to offer my thoughts on a political cause, I should really attempt to understand the issue at more than a surface level. Both sides of the issue should be openly considered. So much of what passes as political debate only amounts to so much hot air flying past one another as no one is convinced or really all that actively engaged in winning hearts and minds.

The same holds true for theological debate. Much of what is set up as a debate on the nature of dcotrinal standards, is in fact merely a political debate under teh guise of theology. My own church body is far too often engaged in such political maneuversin the name of the Gospel. Groups organize around their own interpretation of the Scriptures or Confessions, but quickly coalesce into political parties that vie for control over church governance. Again one finds each "side" talking past the other and wondering why "they just don't get it".

If we read blogs and not books, we fail to learn to comprehend arguments that require more than a paragraph or two to explain. As we get our news in sound bites, we give up our ability to sniff out fact from fiction and come to simply believe that the media merely presents the fact rather than stages them with deliberate intent.

I know that I have crossed over a number of areas, yet that I my point. In live we engage in a number of areas and some how, I believe I must find the time to drink far deeper lest I fail to really discover the truth.