Breakfast with Socrates

While I would love to take credit for the title of my post, I must give credit where credit is due. It is the title of an upcoming book written by Robert Rowland Smith and according to the review it “…presents a unique marriage between the teachings of great philosophers and the details of everyday life.” The article provided this excerpt from the introduction of the book:

“Given that Socrates was assassinated by poison, you might think twice before accepting his invitation to breakfast. Yet what got him killed is exactly what would make him an excellent breakfast companion: his curiosity. He was silenced for asking too many questions, getting up the nose of too many people. His mind was probing, dissatisfied, and inventive, and it led him to bring everything…into doubt. No wonder his most famous pupil, Plato, characterized him as an irritating insect. Were you actually to sit down with him for cappuccino and croissants, he might start by asking why you lead the life you lead, or what value you have as a person. It’s a style that might cause you, like the state that had him murdered, to take offense; on the other hand, were you to give him the benefit of the doubt, you’d be taken on an extraordinary mental journey. Famously, Socrates declared, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and preferring dialogue to giving speeches, he’d get you to reflect on your self, and your actions in a way that would either lend them greater meaning or inspired you to make changes, and so create the meaning that your life lacked.”

I like to ask questions. I want to know, to understand why. Why do we do things a certain way? Why do we believe what we believe, and what led us to that world-view? Why do we have certain likes or dislikes? Where does tradition come from and when did it start, or who started it? Why do we do what we do? Why did that individual feel compelled do this or believe that, and what was the motivation behind it? Asking questions of the status quo can at times cause much discomfort and uneasiness. When you ask questions people tend to get nervous, especially if you bring up life’s big questions; Why are we here? What is the purpose or meaning of life? Or what comes next? This line of questioning makes some of us uncomfortable. Sometimes that nervousness is masking the fact that we have not thought it through and rather than admit that we deflect the question, or say that it is an inappropriate question in polite company. But many times people don’t ask questions for the wrong reason; we just do not want to face the issue or we find the answer inconvenient. Other times individuals ask with a true desire to probe, to learn to understand the basis for the tradition or practice. The difficulty is finding a balance of being truly interested in what the other person has to say and remaining “teachable” ourselves. But ultimately we need to contemplate the big life questions and the answers and come to some sort of conclusion.

Like Socrates, I agree that the unexamined life is not worth living. The challenge for each of us is not to “poison” the answers by ignoring them completely or being unwilling to rethink what we have held so dearly to for far too long. My pursuit of knowledge, my probing and pursuit of Truth brought me full circle. I grew up “religious” but never really stopped asking questions. Throughout life I experienced doubt and second guessed a life of faith. I eventually found that my faith in Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah and His atoning sacrifice as the sole means of being reconciled with God made sense from the perspective of human logic and reason. There is “Evidence that Demands a Verdict”, but I acknowledge that human reason can only take us so far. We do need God to reveal Himself to us through His Word and he promises in Hebrews 11:6 to reward those who diligently seek Him. The word wisdom occurs 234 times in the Bible; wise 247 times, know 763, knowledge 172, and seek 244 times. The Bible puts a great emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge. If we believe that there is a God who created this world, this universe and us shouldn’t we desire to know Him better and what He expects of us?

In Romans 1 the Apostle Paul warns us not to suppress the truth that we have gnawing at us in the back of our mind, because this suppression will ultimately lead to our detriment. Paul states very clearly in Romans 1:19-20; “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Paul is merely echoing Psalm 19:1 when David states; “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” God is whispering to us in His creation but shouted to the world when He sent His Son. Are we listening?


"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." --C. S. Lewis