On Obstinacy in Belief

When the going gets tough, the tough...read C.S. Lewis. I know some people prefer more emotional/devotional fare, but as for me, I love to parse an argument when feeling assailed:

Our opponents...have every right to dispute with us about the grounds of our original assent. But they must not accuse us of sheer insanity if, after the assent has been given, our adherence to it is no longer proportioned to every fluctuation of the apparent evidence. They cannot of course be expected to know on what our assurance feeds, and how it revives and is always rising from its ashes. They cannot be expected to see how the quality of the object which we think we are beginning to know by acquaintance drives us to the view that if this were a delusion then we should have to say that the universe had produced no real thing of comparable value and that all explanations of the delusion seemed somehow less important than the thing explained. That is knowledge we cannot communicate. But they can see how the assent, of necessity, moves us from the logic of speculative though into what might be called the logic of personal relations.

--From "Obstinacy in Belief," from The World's Last Night and Other Essays

Because arguments often uncover a reason for hope, and put it on a firm foundation so your mouthy mind will stop its constant yammering.