While studying to be a mechanical engineer, I always had to state the assumptions I made at the beginning of the problem before solving it. Most of the time, this was because the grader would evaluate the problem-solving technique instead of a black and white solution (which is why it is always important to show your work). However, in a real-world scenario, engineers not only have to make assumptions but validate that the assumptions that they made are sound. Many people say that you should never assume. In reality, we must make assumptions all the time, but it is important that our assumptions lead to correct decisions. An engineer may assume that a certain piece of equipment will be used in extreme weather conditions and design to account for those extremities. Similarly, when creating societal or political organizations and policies, correct assumptions must be made about human behavior. Most logicians will agree that at the root of any belief system, there must be fundamental truths that are unprovable. (Those that don't agree with this believe a different logical system that itself cannot be proved.) As a Christian, the first fundamental truth that I believe is that the Bible is infallible and inerrant.

This is the first post in a series on economics. Politics is just economics, and economics is just value systems. My knowledge on this topic is mostly philosophical, but I will try to make the right assumptions. George Macdonald begins The Hope of the Gospel with the following words:

I would help some to understand what Jesus came from the home of our Father to be to us and do for us. Everything in the world is more or less misunderstood at first: we have to learn what it is, and come at length to see that it must be so, that it could not be otherwise. Then we know it; and we never know a thing really until we know it thus. 

I tend to be dogmatic in my beliefs, and I hope to persuade others to believe what I believe by showing that it could not be otherwise.