When you read the title “Common Sense,” it probably brought to mind the saying, “Common sense is not very common.”  The saying is talking about good judgement not being as common as we would like, and that is certainly true.  Common sense, however, doesn’t just refer to good judgement; it refers to good judgement based on a simple perception or interpretation of the facts we have immediately before us.  The truth is that common sense can be wrong, drastically wrong.  Most objections to new scientific or intellectual ideas arise because they don’t agree with common sense conclusions.  Of course, the new theories usually involve newly discovered facts or new, more complicated, explanations of available facts.

For many centuries it was an accepted fact that the sun and planets revolved around the earth.  In the seventeenth century Galileo was convicted by the Inquisition for saying that the earth and planets revolved around the sun; this was done even though Galileo had supporting telescopic observations.  Religious reasons were given, but the real reasons were based on common sense.  If the earth is revolving around the sun, why don’t we all fly off into space?  Makes sense.  A more sophisticated experiment was sometimes cited.  If you drop an object from the top of a ship’s mast, it falls straight down.  People felt that if the earth were moving through space (or even revolving around its axis), the object would fall away from the mast.  It took Newton to settle the question.  To give another example, the modern theory of infectious diseases was slow to be widely accepted by physicians; for example, having a sterile field during operations wasn’t universal until the twentieth century.  Common sense said that things so small they couldn’t be seen couldn’t be the source of disease.

Pastor Art referred to common sense in his Easter sermon.  It was in reference to the two women who saw Jesus at the tomb.  When they tried to tell others of their experience, they were not believed.  In Luke 24:11 we read that they were told their words seemed like nonsense.  You see, common sense said that it couldn’t be true.  Sometimes the biggest obstacle to faith is common sense.

Here’s another example.  Most of the first converts to Christianity were Jews, but the vast majority of Jews did not believe.  At the time the Jews were living under harsh Roman oppression, and they were heavily taxed.  Failure to follow Roman directives was cruelly punished.  Common sense would say to the Jews that their Messiah would be a leader that could defeat the Romans.  Common sense would say that their Messiah would not be a humble carpenter who died on the cross.

I believe that Christians should use good judgement, but they should base it on solid argument and best available facts.  They should worry whenever common sense leads them to a conclusion that seems inconsistent with the fundamental tenants of our faith, such as loving our neighbor as our self, believing that God’s grace is freely given, or that God loves YOU and me unconditionally.

Jim