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I don’t know how many of my readers have ever engaged in theological debate/discussion but it is often enough to make me want to pull my hair out.  I used to try with all the arguments I could muster to prove why I was correct regarding whatever topic was up for debate, but I’ve now learned this to be a pointless endeavor.  Usually, no one will listen to what you have to say, etc.  It really is a frustration for me.  I know that no matter what, I will always be the one who is “wrong,”  so I have begun to stop trying (or even caring).  In some instances (i.e. the Calvinism/Arminianism debate), this is a good thing.  In the end, I think it’s a stupid and pointless debate - God will do whatever he wishes and whether or not we understand that is less important. But sometimes, the topic is a rather important one - and yet I can’t muster enough energy to try and explain why I think the Bible, or Christian theology, or the witness of Christian tradition says something quite different.  The Fathers spent their lives doing this, but I’ve just become a defeatist, I guess.  I think I am just beginning to see through the whole thing.  No matter what I say, the person I am talking to will discount anything other than their original beliefs.  Because that is the way people are.  So instead, I will listen, and think, and try to see if *they* have any good points, so I’m not becoming one of the people I hate to interact with.  

But it frustrates me, because I don’t think Augustine or Ambrose would do that.  They would do all they could to help someone see the truth.  But perhaps they were in a better position than I to determine what the truth is.  So Augustine wrote a thousand pages on the trinity, exercising all of his energy and mental capacity - only to determine that the nature of the trinity is unknowable and his project was moot. And instead of doing that, I sit back and let people go on and on about why they are right and allow them to think they convinced me just to get out of arguing over it.  Blah. 

I think I am just so sick of school that I have no energy to muster anymore.  

That is all :-)

P.S. I am half-expecting someone to reblog this with an argument against something I have written.  Oh dear.