If baptism isn’t just a symbol of initiation, but an initiation, then Zack was already a Christian. God’s seal had been impressed indelibly on his soul. The inky divine thumbprint declared, “Mine.” He was adopted into God’s family, inducted into the knighthood of worship.
... about the agnostic dyslexic insomniac?
He stayed up all night wondering, “Is there a dog?”
If you want to explain what is less clear, you must fall back on what is more clear. Certainly there is a lot to learn from the biblical narrative, but one must interpret it in the light of the doctrinal statements, not vice versa. To set aside explicit teachings and rely on the stories alone is just a way to pipe in one’s own prejudices and call them the teachings of the Bible. Anything goes.
“Better real darkness than false light, say the saints; better real confusion than false clarity.” -- Inaugural address of Fr. Thomas Hopko, Dean, St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary (1993)
Fallacies of reasoning fall come in two kinds. Logic textbooks focus on formal fallacies, slips in inference: “If all dogs have tails, then all animals with tails are dogs.” So-called critical thinking instruction tends to focus on informal fallacies, tricks of distraction: “Scientific people don’t believe in ghosts, so there must not be any ghosts.” “If we don’t change our mind about global warming, we’ll all drown!” “Everyone knows the moon is made of cheese.” "How can you be so unpatriotic as to criticize the President's proposal?"
"Whatever deviates from the plain path of duty, or contradicts received opinions, seems to imply strength of will, or a strength of understanding, which seizes forcibly on the attention. Whether it is fortitude or cowardice, or both, there is a strong propensity in the human mind, if its suspicions are once raised, to know the worst. .... When once the fairy dream in which we have lulled our senses or imagination is disturbed, we ...
"The state exists simply to promote and protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden -- that is what the state is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.” -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 4:8.
