APRIL 14, 2010. I’m approaching home-schooling parents with this course, because I believe a revolution in the education system should begin at home, with the family.

There are several confusions about how logic relates to faith, and I’d like to clear those up.

Consider the amazing amount of information floating around in our culture. Books, articles, internet postings, television news, videos, lectures, seminars, political talk, sales pitches, public relations chatter, scientific claims, educational material, and so on. In this arena, there are HUGE numbers of logical errors. As a reporter and educator, I’ve been cataloguing the errors for 25 years.

If children approach this mountain range of information with no understanding of logic, they will accept some ideas and reject other ideas in unpredictable ways—almost on a random basis. They will walk unarmed into the future and have no basis for judgment.

Who in his right mind wants to encourage or condone a situation like this?

That’s why I created the LOGIC AND ANALYSIS course. It provides a very thorough grounding in a tradition that is all about rational thought. The student gains the ability to analyze information from many different fields and find the flaws. The student becomes very skilled at using the superb tools of logic.

On the other hand, there is faith. This is very personal and very profound. Logic doesn’t touch faith. It is a separate subject.

I have found, in fact, that people armed with logic become much clearer about their own faith. Why? Because they aren’t trying to put that faith under the magnifying glass of analysis. They understand that faith and logic are two different worlds.

However, when people try to attack faith with their own version of logic, those who really know logic can respond immediately and lucidly—and fend off those arguments with great ease.

When, many years ago, I studied the great Western philosophers—especially Plato, the father of rational thought—I was struck by how clearly he admitted his own faith.

These days, some scientists are finally coming to grips with these issues. They are climbing down off their high horses and saying there are matters beyond the scope of the physical sciences.

There is no contradiction here.

If I said the existence of a hammer somehow eliminated the need for a screwdriver, everyone would know I was off my rocker. If I said travel documentaries completely negated the idea of actually going somewhere and seeing life firsthand, people would know I needed a good brain-nutrition supplement. If I said music clearly eliminated the need for science, I’d be laughed out of court.

So it is with logic and faith. The existence of one doesn’t challenge the existence of the other.

They actually support each other.

Some people of faith are a bit nervous about logic. Here is the reason: They haven’t studied enough logic. If they had, they would know that logic eventually brings you to a place where you have to confess you are now navigating by other means. You are crossing over into a territory where different rules apply. Your deepest convictions are now your compass, and those convictions don’t require a foundation of proof. They only require the reward that comes from believing what you believe.

Feel free to inquire about my logic course. qjrpress@gmail.com

Jon Rappoport has been working as an investigative reporter for 25 years. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize early in his career, he has published articles in LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, CBS Healthwatch, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. He has taught in several private schools in New York and Los Angeles, and has tutored extensively in remedial English at Santa Monica College. At Amherst College, where he graduated with a BA in philosophy, he studied formal logic under Joseph Epstein, a revered professor of philosophy.