LOVERS, NOT THINKERS

About a year and a half ago, I "learned" from a Scott Adams book something I had long suspected: Human beings are not primarily rational and logical. We are mostly emotional. Once we really come to grips with this truth, I believe life makes more sense, even though it also means accepting the fact that the people around us (and we ourselves) are going to act and speak in unpredictable ways. (And that can be a bit scary!) 

James K. A. Smith in You Are What You Love has come to this same conclusion, but I really like the way he frames it:

"What if, instead of starting from the assumption that human beings are thinking things, we started from the conviction that human beings are first and foremost lovers? What if you are defined not by what you know but by what you desire? What if the center and seat of the human person is found not in the heady regions of the intellect but in the gut-level regions of the heart?" (7)

I like the fact that he speaks of this logic/emotion reality in more positive terms. Instead of saying, "People are largely illogical", Smith says, "People are primarily lovers rather than thinkers." 

It would be useful then, when someone's opinions or actions make no logical sense to us, to ask, "What does this person desire?" rather than simply dismissing their opinions and actions as stupid or irrational.