What We ThinkHow do we come to the conclusions that we come to? Most of us would say that we reason things out. We begin with the facts and then logically reason our way to a conclusion. When we are addressing complex issues the process is not easy. When we interact with other people we realize that personal perspectives play a large role in ours and other people's perception of the facts as well as our methods of reasoning. "What we think," is fundamental to the purpose of the Moral Matrix, indeed it is fundamental to morality.But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. (emphasis added)It is actually quite astonishing, that our eternal disposition is dependent on something so seemingly intangible as our thoughts. This is particularly difficult when we admit that we exchange some thoughts for others with little consideration. We are a mentally fickle species. In fact it can be scary. Perhaps our thoughts are not right with God at the moment we are judged by Him. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.It is apparent that we should not take what we think lightly; we should work out our thoughts deliberately. It is our meta-thoughts, perhaps, that are important. Our thoughts about thoughts. Perhaps we cannot be in the best mood, or righteous mind, at all times, but if we continually return to the truth, and struggle with it, maybe that is enough. Ultimately, our hope is that God is indeed merciful. There is a saying, "We see what we believe, not believe what we see." This sums up nicely the problem we each have in discovering the truth, as well as the problem we have trying to explain it to others once we have found it. The crux of finding the truth is actually wanting to find the truth. Many of us are looking for justifications of our beliefs and or behaviors rather than finding the truth. Indeed the truth about ourselves is usually not as appealing as we would like. Even more than our desire to not face our inner corruption, is our desire to exalt our image of ourselves. Pride bars us from truly seeking the truth. Most of us find that concentrated thought about what is true can lead to circular reasoning, and other confusions. The difficulty in finding the truth has lead many to conclude that there really is no ultimate truth. What is truth? Reality is truth. The ultimate truth is the ultimate reality, God. The Bible repeatedly instructs us to use sound, practical, reasoning. The Bible affirms that there is an ultimate truth, and God is it. This makes sense because God is the creator of reality and as such He is more real than His creation. In addition the Bible admonishes us against lying, which is by definition against the truth. We have enough difficulties trying to understand complex issues with only our limited knowledge, without adding to the difficulty by communicating untruths. |