Critical Thinking

I love philosophy, sociology, psychology, ideology; pretty much all things about the mind. I love to learn why people think about things, how they interact, the thought process and what makes people think.

It amazes me how much of an impact a persons thoughts can be. For example, if someone is self conscious about their body, it effects how they dress, walk, talk, interpret conversation and so on. It can effect people so much, that bringing up a conversation about the body, will cause the person to become defensive, even if the topic isn't directed at them.

I catch myself doing this a lot. When I am in class and some discussion comes up that I feel some sort of attachment to, its hard to focus on the entire topic, and not relate the topic to my personal thoughts.

I bring this topic up because I am seeing it discussed, on another level, on other sites and in my own life. It is really big in politics also, which of course I love.

I feel it is important to bring up because in our nation, we fail to attempt to see another persons perspective. This narrow minded act results in devastating tragedies. Take for example, sharing your faith. If you dont try to understand how the person whom your sharing your faith with sees you, then the attempt will mostly likely be a failure. (In politics, you see it constantly, especially because the media instigates it.)

A while ago I wrote about the importance of Listening. To go along with that, it is also important to think critically. Sounds pretty simple, however I am not talking about just reading a book and saying, "hmm, thats interesting, why doesn't this happen more" or something like that. Thats not critical thinking, thats just mulling something over.

An exhaustive definition is as follows:
"Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.." Seen here.

This is a constant learning that cultivates an untainted education, consistently increasing your awareness of how often you are told what to think. Once your start to learn how to think critically, you will start to crave a higher level of thought, and desire more complex conversation amongst your peers. After more practice, you start to see how advertisements try to convince you of your need for their product.

This is a skill Christians need to deflect arrows of interegation. Critical thinking will open your eyes to how the world trains you, and how people unskilled in the area, so easily follow.