Statement of Faith

I cannot live like this anymore. Constantly arguing, questioning. To what end? Logic and reason have no meaning. They are empty. The very foundation upon which they are built have no reason to exist. Nothing can be known. Nothing can be certain. To live under reason is to live under a lie. If you cannot prove the foundation, how can you truly be sure of anything else? The Age of Enlightenment is suspect.

I have to live by faith. The mind is a tool, an interface, and it is meaningless. No longer can my mind attain life. No longer can I reason it out. I must believe. I must have faith.

If that means I have a closed mind, if it means I am a fool, then so be it. The price is not too high.

I will take it on faith that there is a God, and His name is Jesus Christ. I will take it on faith that my life is His. I will take it on faith that I exist because I think, but that God exists because He Is.

I will believe with the heart, not the mind which is incapable.

I will have faith.

Close it Up, Lock it Out

On several occasions I have been accused of possessing a closed mind. This strikes me as being an interesting claim. What are they really saying? Simply, they are claiming I don't want to know the truth. However, there are several repercussions of this claim that must follow:

1. I am ignorant of the truth.
2. I know I am ignorant.
3. I don't care.

This is quite the claim. But there is a problem. In most cases, I would accuse my accuser of the same thing. What then? In effect, I find this closed mind argument to be wholly meaningless as it pertains to any debate. In short, it is an untenable position that cannot be proved. Let us examine the two sides.

Case A: Not only are you right, but they are wrong, and they won't listen to reason. You claim they are closed minded. It turns out you are correct, but it doesn't matter, because they are closed minded and will certainly never admit it or concede to you.

Case B: You are certain you are right, and certain they are wrong, but they won't listen to reason. You claim they are closed minded. In fact, they are not. In fact, you are closed minded, because you cannot conceive of a belief system that disagrees with yours and can only assume that such a belief system is ignorant. It may be that your belief system is right, but if they are truly open minded, then you have simply not made your case strong enough. We can only assume.

In either case, it's not worth stating. However, if you will permit an open mind, consider this. Everyone believes what they want to be true. If you know of a case where this is not true, then I will be genuinely surprised. But it must be the case. Consider that there is only one truth. I am not saying what it is at the moment, but we must understand that at the core of everything is the truth. However, most people do not believe it is true. Why is this? Is the truth not strong enough? Are most people simply closed minded? But if so, why are they? If they simply don't know, then all the truth needs to do is reveal itself and they will be won over. But what if it has, and they still persist? What would cause someone to believe a lie and close themselves to the truth?

Desire.

By all means, pursue reason and truth. But understand that everyone has what they perceive to be a good reason for what they believe. You may contend that their reasoning is wrong, but what if YOURS is wrong? Of course, you are convinced and have good reason to believe that you're not. But then, so do I. Who is right?

One thing is certain. Telling each other that we have closed minds will not bring us any closer to the solution. So knock it off.

Hurricane of Responsibility

If I hear one more person blame Hurricane Katrina's devastation on some other human again, I am seriously going to punch someone in the face.