The Two Methods to Learn Anything
As you live your life you are always learning. Habits are just things that you have done repeatedly until you have gotten good at them and have learned them!
You can take a willy-nilly, haphazard approach to learning or you can really learn a lot of things that are essential in being successful. It is your choice! Wouldn’t you like to be successful at what it is God has called you to do?
The purpose of this short teaching on learning is to demonstrate the two methods to learn something and most importantly, how to know which method to choose!
The two methods are: The Inductive Method and the Deductive Method.
Let’s look at the Inductive Method first. Another name for this method is the Scientific Method.
Don’t let the word “science” throw you off. The word "science" appears only twice in the Bible and by the context you can see that there are two types of science: real science and false science!
The first time it appears is in Daniel 1:4 and is a description of Daniel and the three Hebrew children:
Daniel 1:4 “Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.”
This first appearance shows that science is something that can be understood. It is the good type of science. Our study of the Scientific Method is this type of science!
However, there is a warning in the New Testament against “false” science:
I Timothy 6:20 “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:”
The warnings from this verse show that, not only is there false science, but that it is in opposition to what God wants the believer to trust in! As a Bible believing Christian, we trust what God says more than what is “falsely proven” by science. As the old man that taught me the Bible said, “Eventually science will catch up to the Bible!”
Many think that Aristotle and the Greeks came up with the scientific method, but this is not true. It is the method King Solomon used to get all of wisdom that God gave him! The Bible book Ecclesiastes contains his conclusions. If you are interested in learning more about how he was able to learn and know what he did, check out the section of this website that has a commentary on Ecclesiastes.
The scientific method has been around since God placed Adam and Eve in the garden! The inductive method was the method that the serpent used to deceive Eve! The scientific method uses these steps to find the truth: Observation, Hypothesis or Assumption, Experimentation to test the assumptions, Conclusions, and finally Scientific Theory.
The second valid method to learn anything is the Reasoning, or Deductive method. Some things can’t be proven by experimentation. They are found out by using your “noggin.”
For example, it is impossible to prove by experimentation the origin of the Universe. You cannot recreate the Universe to see how it started! God gave you a brain and you must think about it to come up with the conclusions!
Ok. Let’s use these two methods to come up with the answer of 2 + 2 = 4 and $200 + $200 = $400.
Here is the scientific, inductive way to prove that 2 + 2 = 4:
Here are 2 balls.
Here are 2 more balls.
It is easy to see and count that there are now 4 balls!
Now we will use the Reasoning or Deductive method to prove that $200 + $200 = $400:
In your mind you have $200. Don’t look in your wallet! Your wallet is empty! The $200 is only in your mind. Now add another $200 to this. (Again, don’t look in your wallet or in your pockets!) In your mind you can add the $200 + the other $200 and you will get $400! Don’t try to spend it! It only exists in your mind.
Can you see the advantages of using both methods. Often you Must combine the methods to get the correct results.
How can you know that if you jumped off a 500-foot cliff that you would die when you hit the ground with a splat!
If you jumped, you could prove that you were right! But you wouldn’t have survived telling anyone your conclusions! Bad idea.
So, you could throw a watermelon off the cliff, see the results and assume that if you did it you would achieve the same results.
Before we investigate how to know which method to use, we need to examine the dangers of each of them.
Sometimes we call the scientific, inductive method the “Try it. You’ll like it” method. This is the method I used as a young man. I had rejected God and was looking for answers. My friends would tell me, “Try this. You’ll like it.” Well, I would try what they suggested but I didn’t like it. It didn’t satisfy me, left me wanting more, and made me miserable. Before long I was addicted to a lot of things that didn’t satisfy.
This was the method that King Solomon used.
Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 “So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”
There is a chapter in the Ecclesiastes commentary intitled, “Why the wisest man that ever lived, died as fool.” He started out loving God but ended up ignoring God and was worshipping false gods!
The danger of the scientific method is that, while it might show you the truth, when it comes to sin, it leaves you unsatisfied, unfulfilled, mad, and addicted!
Sometimes we call it the “Here hold my beer and watch this!” method. It usually ends badly and makes you a candidate for the “Darwin Awards”.
The danger to look out for with the Reasoning/Deductive method is more subtle.
Since you can only reason with the facts and information you have, there is a danger that you don’t have all the facts, or that you misapply them!
How do you know when to use either method?
To be successful at applying these methods, it is important that you learn the third method: The Instructive Method. We call this the Bible Believing method. Sometimes we refer to it as “God said it. That settles it.” One thing I have learned in life is that when you do things God’s way. You get Godly results!
Look at this New Testament verse:
I Thessalonians 5:21 “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
You are admonished to “prove all things”. How do you prove something to know if it is good or bad?
Simple. Use the instructive method. If the Bible says it is good: “Try it. You will like it!” Try good things. The Bible says reading and believing the Bible is good. Try it. You will like it. The Bible says going to church is good. Try it you’ll like it.
So, try good things. To prove something is bad, again use the Bible. If the Bible says it is bad. Avoid it. Pass by it. Don’t do it! Use the deductive method. History is a great teacher. So is results in others. How do we know smoking is bad? See what happens to a man that smokes his whole life. He gets lung cancer and dies an horrible death! How do we know communism is bad? We look at the results in history. It never works. It was used once in the early church and failed. It was used in early America and failed. Every country that tries it fails!
If the Bible says it is good, use the inductive method and try it. If the Bible says it is bad, use the deductive method and avoid it. It is that simple.
Apply these learning methods and you will be on your way to learning what you need to know to be successful!
Open your mind to the truth and shut your mind to lies!
