Thinking Thomas

Critical Thinking for Intelligent People

THINKING THOMAS is about thinking critically. You may recall the biblical “doubting Thomas.” With Thinking Thomas, we’re going beyond doubting what someone else has to say. We’re actually deciding for ourselves what is credible and what is not. To do that, we use critical thinking skills; we question everything.

In the doubting Thomas story, the disciple Thomas doubted that it was Jesus who was appearing after resurrecting. Jesus assured him that he was real by proving to Thomas that his wounds were real. He placed Thomas’ fingers in the nail holes.

From the story, we are supposed to then believe for time immemorial the details of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as related by an unnamed author, written more than 60 years after the death of Jesus from an oral history account. We are supposed to believe without proof and without evidence. We are not afforded the same degree of verification that Thomas was (according to the story).

In fact, we are supposed to believe all of the contents of the Bible without any kind of proof or evidence while totally disregarding contradictory evidence and proof.

Thinking Thomas is about actually thinking! It is about thinking critically, thinking logically, considering all that we know to be true when we evaluate whether or not anything presented to us is true, valid, or otherwise worthy of our consideration.