Feelings
versus facts
When truth revaluation is reduced to
feelings, it becomes impossible to persuade, no matter how certain and clear the
facts, because most often, the believer feels
bad when prior held beliefs are contradicted (this is called cognitive
dissonance). Those dependent upon feelings to maintain status quo beliefs are
thus compelled to defend those feelings, whether or not those beliefs are true.
Consequently, instead of debating the correctness or incorrectness of doctrine,
which can be established through scriptural, rational, and historical
investigating, one must defend against feelings.
We have no right to feeling strongly about
something for which we cannot provide either charismatic or rational evidence.
The ideas themselves should be the focus, not the feelings . . .The natural man
is an enemy to God; finding truth requires us to yield our emotive response—which
is carnal—to the voice of the Holy Ghost, the voice of reason.
Peter taught that we should “be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason for the hope that is in
you with meekness and fear.” (1 Peter 3:15) “A reason” implies that there are
true facts, evidences, or observations supporting a given belief.
A sincere search for truth must be a
consistent rational evaluation of new evidences, both those that support and
those that refute currently held positions. In order to search for truth, then,
one must be able to enumerate the reasons for their currently held beliefs. A
surprising number of people defend their own beliefs without any substance at
all. Instead, their entire argument consists of a few tired logical fallacies.
These ineffective attempts fail to persuade because one has no reason to
consider something until they have been given a reason to believe the new idea
is at least possible. Moreover, an individual whose beliefs are not
substantiated cannot be convinced of higher truth because it is impossible to
argue against an irrationally held position.
False ideas do not stand up to scripture,
logic, or history. For example, Sherem taught both that man “cannot tell of
things to come” and also that he knew that Christ would never come (Jacob 7:7,
9).
If you do not question what others
automatically assume to be true, you cannot be any different than they are. (Robert
Smith, The Glory of God is Intelligence:
Acquiring and Disseminating Light and Truth [2019], 156-57)
