Advent Meditations About Waiting

I studied Philosophy at Geneva College, and one of the classes I took was formal logic.  I loved that class.  In fact, it was probably one of my favorite classes of my undergraduate studies.  I loved it because it was taught by my favorite professor, Dr. Byron Bitar.  I also loved it because I was enthralled with the subject matter.  In class, I discovered how much I loved logic.  I loved learning about the validity, soundness, and cogency of logical arguments.  I loved learning about logical fallacies, how they work, and how they are employed.  

There was one fallacy that I’ve never forgotten, mostly because of the strangeness of its name.  It’s called the “fallacy of the beard.”  The fallacy of the beard was coined by Robert Thouless in his 1930 book Straight and Crooked Thinking.  Thouless objected when someone dismissed a claim by saying that there is no difference between a thing and its opposite since a blurry line exists between them.  For example, he pondered when you know a man has a beard.  Does it require one whisker on his chin?  Two? Three? Thirty?  Must he not shave for a day, a week, a month? Ambiguities mean that things are unclear, but it does not always mean that something is untrue.  Sometimes ambiguities are used to conceal the truth or to lie, but sometimes things are unclear simply because they are not yet fully revealed.  Just because something is not fully revealed does not mean it is untrue.  You may not know when a beard “arrives,” but you know it’s coming.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the fallacy of the beard lately, for several reasons.  Mostly because over the last several weeks, I’ve been growing a beard for the first time in my life. I’ve wondered, when can I say I finally have a beard?  But it also occurred to me that the Advent season helps to protect us against falling victim to this fallacy.  Each Advent, we remember that Jesus came long ago and that he promised to come again.  And while we wait, he is with us by his Spirit.  The promise has not been fully revealed, but that doesn’t make it untrue.  Advent helps us to reaffirm the truth, even though we can’t fully see it.  Jesus is coming again, it is true.