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A dusty peddler guides his mule and wagon towards a village in the distance. As he enters it, he sees a group of soldiers huddled around a fire. “Gentlemen, I have items for sale that you can’t afford to be without.” They glance up at the stranger, intrigued by his opening words. “Oh, yeah, what’s that, old man?”, one of them calls with a skeptical tone. The salesman reaches into his wagon and pulls out a finely crafted shield from a tattered sack. “This, my friend, is a shield like no other, made from metal so strong that no weapon on earth could pierce it.” The soldier takes the shield and studies it as the peddler continues. “And this”, he says, as he pulls an ornate spear from the wagon bed, “is a spear that can pierce the strongest metal known to man.” The soldier inspecting the shield looks up at the spear in the peddler’s hand. “Wait a second”, he says, “How could both be true, a shield no weapon could pierce and a spear no metal could resist?” The traveling merchant is rendered speechless by the simple question, unable to resolve the contradiction. “Move along, old man,” the soldier says, “you’ll make no sales amongst us today”, and he tosses the shield back in the ramshackle wagon.
That story is found in a Chinese book of philosophy from the 3rd century B.C. The Chinese word for “contradiction” finds its origin in the tale. The word is máodùn and it literally means “spear-shield.” The story is an illustration of the “unstoppable force paradox”, commonly stated as “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” We recognize the problem immediately upon hearing the story for we instinctively understand that both cannot be true, it violates the law of non-contradiction. The story illustrates the problem, but it doesn’t create the law. In fact, it serves to reveal the transgression of one of the primary laws of logic: two mutually exclusive propositions can’t both be true at the same time and in the same sense. You see, there is a “shape” to reality that can’t be resisted for too long. Indeed, if there is an immovable object at all, it is surely the logic upon which the entire universe is founded. And reality is this way because He Who is reason Himself created and upholds all things.
Have you ever stopped to consider that the only truly lasting things are not physical? It is just as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 4:18, “For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.” How counterintuitive to our materially-obsessed minds. The concepts of Truth and Love and Logic are monumentally stronger than anything found in all creation, and yet we cannot place them in a petri dish or examine them beneath our microscopes. They are more solid than the ground we stand upon but undetected by our keenest instruments. This unseen structure of reality is the bedrock of every society on earth, and to the degree that we build upon it, our structures are secure. So logic acts like goad directing us in a certain direction. And like a balloon pressed beneath the surface of the water rises to the top the moment its let go, so these immaterial realities will always split the rock of suppressing lies and stand triumphant in the end.
Logic provides the capital to fund our loftiest endeavors, but the moment we begin abandoning it we start spending that capital on our own destruction. It was recently suggested that the concept of 2+2=4 is the product of an oppressive and corrupt society and should be cast aside. But math isn’t something that was constructed by men. It was stumbled upon, like an invisible stone in our path, and we move forward as we recognize its reality. Some may associate logic with the cold and sullen character Spock, the science officer from the Star Trek series, but what we actually find in creation is the warm and wonderful edicts that form flowers, snowflakes, and sunsets. We find graciousness in the division of the sexes and delight in the chemical laws our foods obey. We flourish as we yield to these unseen laws, finding them ever amiable to the health and wellbeing of humankind. We reject them to our ultimate demise.
History is the succession of physical things passing away, but standing over them all is the immaterial and eternal Lord of truth. Our society clamors to be on the “right side of history,” but it should seek rather to be on the right side of truth, “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” (2 Cor. 13:8) There is an “Unstoppable Force”, Who is also “Immovable,” but He isn’t an impersonal law, and there are no contradictions in Him, nor shadow of turning. He upholds all creation by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3), and we can cry out to Him, “Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help. Also, draw out the spear, and stop those who pursue me, say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.” (Psa. 35:2-3) This One Who is logic Himself will always be a firm foundation for our feet.
