Syllogisms

Syllogisms...

Example:

All humans are sinners.
Paul is a human.
Paul is a sinner.

This syllogism is valid: if all humans are sinners, and Paul is one of those humans, he must be a sinner as well.

Here's another example:

All humans are excellent hunters.
Helen is an excellent hunter.
Helen is a human.

This one is not valid: ignore the fact that not all humans are excellent hunters for the moment and consider, what if Helen is a lioness? She may be an excellent hunter, but a human she's not. One way to make this syllogism valid would be to change All into Only...

Only humans are excellent hunters.
Helen is an excellent hunter.
Helen is a human.

Now it is valid. But it isn't true, is it? Or maybe it is? Depends on your idea of what an excellent hunter is. Readers of The Most Dangerous Game can attest that there is something to be said about the ability of humans to reason.
Let's go back to my first example, about Paul and his sordid transgressions, and discuss the truth or falsity of it:

All humans are sinners. As a Christian and believer in God's Word, this is something I believe to be true. For me, the syllogism is valid and true. I really don't think that anyone can deny that they have done something wrong at some point in their life, but different people do have different moral compasses. People's respective opinions on what is wrong and what is right will no doubt differ from one person to the next. A mass murderer might justify what he does by thinking that we are just animals running around in the aftermath of this "big bang," and that what we do doesn't really matter. Of course there are plenty of believers in these theories who would never kill anyone, so please don't take offense from this; and there are believers in God who commit murder as well. All of this to say, "All humans are sinners" is a statement that has a meaning interpreted differently by everyone. But I do believe that there are certain universal, inexorable truths in the world, and I believe that this syllogism is not only valid, as I have defended, but True.