Promise me that you’ll laugh and point at me if I ever suggest that ‘common sense’ is all you need in order to see that I’m right.

Promise me!

Appealing to ‘common sense’ is a lazy way to argue. It requires no communication skills. It requires no data. Ironically, it doesn’t even require any common sense. There’s a reason for that.

Like Santa Claus, ‘common sense’ doesn’t exist, at least not in a way that’s useful to discussions. It is merely the assumption that I know the same things that you know. Telling me that your views are ‘common sense’ is essentially saying, “My views are my views,” which I already knew. Common sense doesn’t validate your point of view. Common sense IS your point of view.

We may have some ideas ‘in common.’ But we don’t need to argue about those things. Debate is unnecessary when we agree. Debates happen when we don’t share a viewpoint. The purpose of the argument is to figure out if there’s any ‘common sense’ between our different beliefs. So ‘common sense’ can’t be the solution to the argument because ‘common sense’ is what the argument is about!

Whenever possible, I try to avoid saying dopey things. Of course, despite my efforts, stupid statements fall out of my mouth with troubling regularity. It is quite possible that I’ll shout something at you in the future like, “What’s wrong with you? This is common sense stuff!” Promise me you’ll laugh and point when that happens. That’s the common sense solution.

“One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.”

(Romans 14:5)