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2010

Thomas Sowell and the Intellectuals

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01 Mar 2010

I really like Thomas Sowell. He is not a Christian. I wish he was. He does not use the Bible as the basis for his logically consistent ethical argument; but he has a great mind and a great sense of the inconsistency of the liberal worldview. He is a prolific writer and outstanding economist. His book Marxism: Philosophy and Economics is extremely helpful, as is his Quest for Cosmic Justice. Most recently he has written The Housing Boom and Bust and Intellectuals and Society. Tim Challies has a review of Intellectuals and Society here. If you have not read any of his works, you can check out some of his shorter articles at Town Hall. His most recent article on Tiger Woods’ apology is fascinating. You can read it here.

About Post Author

Nick Batzig is the senior pastor of Church Creek PCA in Charleston, SC and an associate editor for Ligonier Ministries. Prior to serving at Church Creek, Nick was a pastor at Wayside PCA on Signal Mountain, TN. Formerly, Nick served as the founding pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Richmond Hill, GA and as the editor of Reformation21 and the Christward Collective--sites of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. He frequently writes for Tabletalk Magazine, Reformation 21, He Reads Truth, and the Christward Collective. Nick was also the host of East of Eden, a podcast devoted to the Biblical and Systematic Theology of Jonathan Edwards. You can friend him on Facebook here and follow him on Twitter @nick_batzig

9 Responses

  2. Baus
    Reply

    Hey, I wish all my favorite nonChristian thinkers were Christians. Why not?

    At the same time, recognizing common grace, we know that nonChristian brilliance in general revelation is not all that rare. The Lord is generous.

    Anyway, here’s a correction on Sowell: http://mises.org/daily/3572

  5. Robert
    Reply

    pwned11 is right: Sowell is most definitely a Christian. Thank you very much for providing the link to that article. I went to Stanford and was one of the few Christians there. I’ve always admired Sowell but wasn’t sure whether he was Christian. I now can look forward to getting to know him better as a believer in heaven some day.

  6. Patrick
    Reply

    @pwned11

    If I’m reading this correctly, Batzig seems to think Sowell isn’t a Christian because Sowell went to great pains to present his arguments secularly so the non-religious wouldn’t immediately shrug them off when they saw Bible verses.

    I had an annoying roommate in college who was like this. He demanded that every discussion of anything be grounded first in Biblical scripture and quotations and then on intellectual and logical grounds. Unfortunately, we never really got to the second part because we would be stuck arguing verses which he tended to claim automatically disproved any other point of view. Also, any non-believer who ever got involved in these discussions promptly left when the arguments quickly became over scriptural interpretation and not even the issue under discussion.

    We’re allowed to use external evidence to back up our convictions, even obligated as believers. While simply quoting scripture may be enough to tide over some believers (and I doubt the rigor of their belief), the rest of us want to think things through and use logic and ration to piece together the truth alongside the word. And the great thing is that if the Bible really is true (which I believe it is,) our conclusions based on logic, reason, and evidence will be concurrent with what scripture really means.

  7. Stephen John
    Reply

    Thanks for the clarification on his background under ‘the grounds’ that he is Christian. Though neither here nor there, if it were not a Christian..just because he would suddenly be one doesn’t not make his arguments somehow ‘better’. Some who come to Christ will drop all or many other things after conversion since the carnal mind is of no use to God. He would be speaking from the ‘old man’….just to clarify in case we get the notion in the future of ‘if only so and so were…’..it doesn’t work that way. And if what I read in previous comments is correct – Good for him for not mentioning the bible – you’ve just weeded out a large portion of the population ..possibly other Christians in the process – when that happens.

  9. kevin r considine
    Reply

    Looking down through history, i can see great men who were not christian , yet God raised them up in times when that person stood again the evil of their time, look at Yi Soon Shin Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545-1598) fought 23 battles against the Japanese invaders of Korea between 1592 and 1598, and won every one of them …

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