Snake oil salesmen and black holes

Some people disregard spirituality as a whole because of the many "nut-cases" that can be encountered (fortune tellers or those guys who slap people in the forehead etc.). Other people reject all spirituality because so much of it disagrees (it is a HIGHLY controversial field)-- and many assume it must therefore be incorrect because among 100 contradicting theories on a single issue-- at best, 99 are wrong and 1 is right (supposing that even 1 is right).

Before we throw out the entire field, take a look at the field of "medical science" not too long ago. It was more wrong than it was right. It did more harm than good. But with some time and effort, the field developed and is now more predictably useful... however-- there still exists a LARGE and BROAD field of pseudo-science medicine. It claims to be "real science based medicine", but is often just as delusion based as pseudo spirituality-- it is a counterfeit of something real.

My theory/faith is that in the field of spirituality, (much like medicine), there also exists "real" and "pseudo" spiritual sciences. Just like the "snake-oil" salesman, selling a bottle that will cure you everything that ails you, there are spiritual snake oil salesmen who will tell groups what they want to here for the right price. Ultimately confusion is the product. Sometimes, many bad encounters with a pseudo medication results in people rejecting medicine altogether, similarly-- after many bad encounters, many people reject spirituality all together. But I am here to tell you that not all is false in medical science or in spiritual science.

 It can be difficult to tell the false from the real. But there is a method that you can follow. I call it the "truth process". In physical-science we make a falsifiable statement or theory and then try to prove it wrong through a series of physical experiments. If we can't prove it wrong, then it can be assumed as right, or we modify our hypothesis and start over. 

In spiritual science however, we do not have the luxury of empiricism in the same way. Evidence, however, is gained similarly. We pay attention to something called "evidences of the spirit" (or as Paul called it "fruit of the spirit"). This is done much in the same way as we observe that a black hole exists. We may not be able to detect the black hole directly, so we must observe the effects of the black hole to identify the black hole itself. We don't know what a black hole looks like, but we can see what it does and that tells us some things about it.

Similarly, in spirituality we pay attention to certain observable characteristics or attributes in association with a theory (belief). The theory states that closer adherence to spiritual truth will yield certain evidences in our lives", which have been called by Paul in Galatians 5 as "fruits of the spirit": "...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, [and] temperance"

When we want to know if the spirit of God is actually effecting our lives or if it is just a bunch of people having a semi-psychotic delusional "spirit-fest", we have a method to test it. Much like a scientist in a lab trying to grow cultures-- the test takes time and effort.

Here is how it might look: 

We observe a person (perhaps a person who is in the scriptures, such as Jesus Christ) who appears to have a knowledge of God and who appears to have fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance).

We listen to what they say, and then we attempt to apply their teachings to our life.

Then, like watching a tree grow, we carefully record our findings (its called keeping a journal). We detect if our understanding expands and if our hearts fill with joy, love, peace etc. If this occurs, then the teachings must have good in them. But we don't stop there, we seek for more good ways to apply the teachings and we turn it into a lifestyle and we continue the "experiment" in our lives.

Recognize however, that it is easy to deceive our senses and it is easy to trick our hearts. Going to a rock concert, a foot-ball game or a revival may get us super pumped and excited and "happy" etc, this is not the kind of joy that I am talking about. Joy is the deep subtle feeling we get when we do something good; something kind; something selfless. We can trick ourselves into seeing things that are not there, or into failing to see things that actually do exist. Do not be hasty or quick to draw conclusions. The products of faith are not immediate, just as the products of most experiments are not immediate. It takes time and patience for the tree to grow and it takes time for the tree to bare fruit. When we taste the fruit of the Spirit of God, we can know that it is of God and that it is good. Trees dont grow observably grow overnight and they certainly don't grow a piece of fruit overnight. It will take time and patience to fully taste the fruit of faith, but I promise, that it is worth it. You may not see God next week, but, much like a black-hole or wind or radio-waves, you can see evidences. And like a tree growing up and baring fruit, your faith can grow and and bring you delicious products of your faith: "... love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, [and] temperance"