[forty-two]

Originally Posted by BarefootBetsy

I haven't heard that about "common sense" but I have heard that because we live in a fallen world, our motherly instincts (about wanting our babies with us, and responding to their cries) are also fallen and warped and sinful

And coming from a culture where we're taught that our instincts and intuitions are wrong... well... how can we then argue that people should somehow just know to pay attention to those things? Our culture does not value innate knowledge much at all, from what I can tell. Especially not the innate knowledge of women/mothers...

I agree that our instincts are warped by sin - they are shaped by fallen people living in a fallen world, of course they are . But so's our reason and emotions and will and we still use those (although people do throw out one or more of those, too, in the name of "sinful"). Yes, our instincts are not perfect - but *nothing* about anything in the world is perfect, it's all flawed b/c of the fall. But like the world, our reason and emotions and will and instincts still more or less work (and thank goodness ). But I've never seen a convincing argument for why we should trust sweet reason instead of our instincts . They are both equally likely to go wrong.

Originally Posted by rjy9343

That makes a lot sense. If you think that your judgement is sound, then you can take flack about your choices without backing down. The first part of the flexibility makes sense. But I don't follow the part about ignoring reality.

Yeah, it's not so much ignoring reality as it is the "more cowbell" approach to problem solving - if something isn't working, the *only* possible reason is that you aren't doing it right/enough . The idea that it might possibly be the wrong approach is not an option .