(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
If we don’t have the truth, we’re subsisting in a world of illusion and delusion. Unless reasoning BEGINS with truth, reasoning can’t lead to truth. Sound reasoning must always be based on truth. We can’t base reason on untruth or we deceive ourselves regardless of how well the untruth is presented. The more convincingly a persuader presents an untruth, the more hurtful and dangerous the lie
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_3_-_Scientia.pdf)
We discovered the importance of truth even though it’s painful whenever truth destroys our current paradigms and preconceptions.
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
Press toward the mark of your high calling in Christ Jesus. We’re traveling where we have never passed before.
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
We began trip 10 by reviewing what we learned on trips 1-9. What were the two most important truths we learned in those nine trips? Jesus Christ is real, knowable, and the only source of TRUTH. You must base your thoughts on TRUTH or your thoughts aren’t rational. Since rational thought requires TRUTH as a starting point, rational thought is impossible without Christ. The human mind is incapable of rational thought without Christ. Faith comes by hearing God’s utterance, His truth. That means sound reasoning is impossible without faith.
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
We’re on a life-long journey into truth and righteousness. We must not stop now.
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
God also directs us in the seemingly insignificant decisions in our daily lives. In these decisions, He leads and teaches us by His abiding Spirit. He never leaves us or forsakes us, and He’s an ever-present help in need. The Holy Spirit is here with us to teach us and lead us into all the truth. Of course, we must look for and acknowledge His leading to benefit from it. Therefore, we would be foolish to decide anything without asking God first. We would be foolish to ask God and then forget to wait for the answer. How much more foolish to get the answer and refuse to obey. And yet we act foolishly too often.
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
God also reveals reality through observations of His creation. He tells us this in the first chapter of Romans. He reveals not only material reality but also spiritual reality through the things He created. Not even failure to acknowledge God can stop this revelation. So God won’t excuse anyone who refuses to acknowledge Him. While God still reveals reality if we fail to acknowledge Him, failure to acknowledge God keeps the rebellious mind from being rational. If you fail to acknowledge God, you can’t tell the difference between truth and error. You can’t tell good from evil or reality from make-believe. And at a certain point, God allows those who persist in rebelling to walk into total darkness.
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
Human thought pulls ideas out of imagination, which is haphazard. Divine revelation isn’t haphazard. For instance, God reveals reality to us through Scripture like the history of the universe. He defines right and wrong. He tells us about the future. He reveals the order for the Church, marriage, and families. He also explains the ways to get close to Him. He shows us the ways He speaks and leads.
God teaches us reality through the Bible, but only under certain conditions. We must stand in His presence and depend on Him to interpret the Bible. We must avoid leaning on human ability to understand the Bible. The so-called “human ability to understand” doesn’t work. This so-called “ability” is always based on made-up stuff. Made-up stuff is haphazard.
How different when we follow the Holy Spirit! As we walk in submission to the Holy Spirit, we walk in submission to those ministries and offices God has appointed over us in the Church where the Holy Spirit indicates. In other words, the Holy Spirit even leads us to find the right counselors and teachers, the ones God sets to lead us.
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
Is it possible to always be rational, to never lapse into irrational thinking, to never commit any fallacy? It is possible even though it seems impossible. It seems impossible since each of us has two minds. These two minds are in a battle to the death. As Christians, we each have a natural, carnal mind, and we also have the mind of Christ. But we can’t reconcile these two minds. So we’re limited this way. And yet the Holy Spirit will lead us to the vision He provides. And He Who started a good work in us will continue to complete it. (Philippians 1:6) He’ll complete it in everyone who’s willing. So He continues the work. He continues until we come to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God. All must come to unity as one complete man. We must continue to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
(end quote)
(quote from RealReality.org/Real_Faith_and_Reason_Vol_2_-_Scientia.pdf)
In our individual walks, we Christ-followers do wander from the way and do commit fallacies sometimes. If we would only say and think what the Holy Spirit gives us, we would never commit any fallacies. We wouldn’t commit fallacies since we would have a Foundation for thought.
(end quote)
