Emotional Reasoning and Truth

How do we identify truth?

My education compels me to rephrase this question a bit...

"how do we Identify what is most likely to be true based on the information that we have available?"

The answer?

The scientific method, of course!

Sadly, some members of the church have come to the erroneous conclusion that when it comes to beliefs of a theological nature that you should neglect the scientific method and instead use "feelings" to determine what is true.

This is absolutely ridiculous to most people, so where did this reasoning come from in the first place?!

This faulty reasoning is loosely based on the scripture in Galatians 5:22 

"...but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance..."

Some people who may not have much experience with what a spiritual experience is actually like, may have read this scripture have mistakenly come to the conclusion that if you feel any of the above mentioned emotions while hearing something, this automatically means that whatever you heard must be from God and therefore, TRUE!

The fruit of something, is not the thing itself. 

This would be like mistaking the "fruit" of the tree to the actual" tree" itself.

Having money does not absolutely mean that you must therefore have a job.

Being wet does automatically not mean that it is raining.

Disneyland analogy

Lets says that you come back from Disneyland and your friend has never heard of this place. 

Them: "how was Disneyland? What was it like?"

You: "It was super fun"

Them: "Ahh, so Disneyland is the emotional experience of 'fun'."

You: "No, fun was a FRUIT of the experience-- not the experience itself."

Fun, wetness, and money can certainly be signs or fruits of things, but it is not the thing itself.

So it is with spiritual things. 

The "fruit" of the spirit is most definitely not "the Spirit" itself.

Otherwise a person could smoke a bunch of marijuana and feel peace while I tell them that in heaven they will lay in a pool of soft baby kittens.... 

"wow, what a peaceful thought-- must be true then if I feel peace?!" 

Of course not!

IF you have a manifestation of the spirit of God in your life, then fruits that will fall from this "tree of an experience" will likely be an increase in: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, and temperance.

Some might be wondering...

"So, if those emotions are not the spiritual experience itself, well... what the heck is a spiritual experience then??!!"

Answer:

A manifestation of the Spirit of God is an experience in and of itself that is indescribable. I could not anymore tell you what it is like than I could describe what salt tastes like or tell you what a sunset is like to a person who was born blind.

You can only comprehend this experience once you have experienced it for yourself. 

I've tried to explain it to someone in this link:

https://truthprocess.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-message-to-my-wonderful-7th-grade.html

BUT WAIT!!

I said earlier that you identify truth via the scientific method, so now I am saying that one should identify truth through some experience that you cant even put to words??? Kinda sketch-much??

Let me explain. 

The scientific method involves research, experimentation, questions, research, predictions, observations, data collection, analysis and drawing a conclusion. Essentially it involves a great deal of observing things and thinking about the things that you have observed. 

Observations might include sensation based experiences such as sight, sound, touch, smell, or taste. In psychology they often involve non-5-sense experiences. 

This is where the subject of theology adds an additional category. "Spiritual experiences".

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH EMOTIONS.

I would argue that individuals who think that a spiritual experience is the equivalent of an intense emotion have either: 

1. never experienced one, 

2. are using poor language to describe their experience (perhaps to be brief), or else 

3. it's been so long that they have forgotten what it was like almost entirely. 

Earlier when I was talking about the scientific method, I highlighted "observations"

The scientific method relies on observations which are collected through either personal experiences, or the personal experiences of others. 

Experts in certain fields may have observations that you do not have. For example, I am not an astronaut. I am not an expert in that field. I rely on experts to tell me what that is like to "walk on the moon" because I lack experience with it. I believe in trusting experts in their fields. 

If I need surgery, I talk to a surgeon-- not my math teacher. 

If I want to know about spiritual things, I read the words of people who have experience in this field-- they are "experts". 

If you think that the experts are lying or stupid or something like that. Then I recommend becoming an expert yourself, but I don't recommend turning to people who are not experts in the field. 

If you want to become an expert in something, then please pursue the scientific method.

If you lack certain observations that others have had and feel unable to obtain them for yourself-- (thus, not being able to become an expert in a certain field), perhaps I can help in that regard. Feel free to message me. 

If you have become a victim of thinking that:

Information + Emotion = Truth. 

I am sorry that this has happened to you. 

I highly recommend utilizing the scientific method in the future. 

But remember that a spiritual experience is a unique kind of observation, and it is NOT an emotion, though emotions may accompany it, just as emotions may accompany the experience of visiting disneyland. 

Good luck on your Journey. Whatever conclusions you come to in this life, it is still of benefit to you, as the purpose of this life is to experience mortality. The decisions you make and the things that you pursue a belief in may make this experience of mortality more or less meaningful and/or joyful, but whatever you do or believe-- it is still of eternal benefit to you.

May God Bless you.