<quote>
What is truth? ~ Pontius Pilot, speaking to Jesus Christ

Pilot, a sincere ungodly thinker, didn’t see truth as a sensible goal or something we can know or even define. We’ll follow the lead of The Truth Project (http://www.thetruthproject.org/) and define “truth” as reality and “reality” as what has substance or has real existence. Knowledge, as we’re defining it, is certainty about reality. We see a distinct difference between concept and reality since concept consists of mere thoughts about reality. The conceptual part of those thoughts is made-up stuff. For example, reality isn’t any of the following:

• opinion
• assumption
• concept
• theory
• theological concept
• lie
• misconception

</end quote>

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<quote>
a CREV Creation-Evolution Headlines Newsletter states:

. . . evolutionary explanations are vacuous stories floating over the observations . . .

“Vacuous” means without content, empty, silly, or mindless, but evolutionary explanations aren’t the only vacuous explanations. In fact, human explanations of many types go beyond the observations and experiences, and these explanations may stretch the truth or add made-up stuff to the truth. Sometimes, these explanations diminish the truth. When human explanations expand on reality this way, they distort reality and are mindless, twisting reality in vacuous thinking.

Therefore, it’s not the subject that turns human explanations into mindless stories, but whenever premises don’t prove that the conclusion is true, the result is mindlessness. Simply put, whenever a persuader’s supposed proof doesn’t prove that the persuader’s claim is true, the result is mindlessness. For example, if proof isn’t true, we can’t use it to prove anything. Untruth can’t prove anything. Untrue or unproven “proof” isn’t proof; it’s phantom proof. Vacuous stories are vacuous regardless of what they explain.

As a result, when humans make up stories, those stories are always mindless, and those stories are mindless because they consist of made-up stuff. Those stories always float over substance, whether substance consists of observations, experiences, Scriptures, or other truths. The problem comes in if we confuse made-up stories and assumptions with those observations, experiences, Scriptures, or truths. Obviously, the made-up stuff is never the same as the observations, experiences, Scriptures, or truths, so confusing the two is insane.
</end quote>

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<quote>

Sanity Killing Thought Patterns

Certain ways of thinking frustrate logic, and some ideas distort reason. Also, a countless number of thought patterns kill sanity, while unstable philosophies destroy our ability to be reasonable.

“When philosophy leaves out God and looks for answers to life only within the natural world, it cannot discover reality.” ~ The Truth Project

This quote mentions philosophy, but philosophy isn’t the only place humans have trouble discovering reality.

</end quote>

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<quote>

Reason is human effort to know and understand truth. But reason can be sound or unsound. Sound reasoning can find truth while unsound reasoning only creates the illusion of knowing. Unsound reasoning can’t find truth. But while this difference is simple, the lies leading to unsound reasoning create a fog, confusion, and complexity. We’ll explore this fog, confusion, and complexity as we continue our journey through the many differences between sound and unsound reasoning.

We’re coming to understand fallacies that blur the distinction between truth and error to make us all lose touch with reality occasionally. Defining the word “fallacy” as we’ll use it, a fallacy can be any deceptive method, tactic, statement, or way of thinking. And fallacies can be confusing, so we’ll look into a simple way to think about fallacies. We’ll try to clear away the smoke as we sift through how to think critically and inquire into how to evaluate every claim.

</end quote>

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The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions by Emily P. Freeman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book comforting since I often feel disappointed with the way I seek the leading of God and yet have topsy-turvy results at times. Emily’s book points to the One Peron Who knows all things and has all wisdom. It gives us examples of His realness, His voice of leading, and the flow of His wisdom rather than telling us that He’s real and knowable.

This is very important to me. I want to know Him better. I want to know Jesus and learn to discern His voice from all others. I want that level of maturity. I don’t want to one day come before Him and hear Him say, “Depart from Me. I never knew you.”

Emily brings Jesus Christ out of theory and into practical decision-making, planning, and living life in an orderly way. That’s where Jesus should be. He should be in our daily lives. The human mind functions in a confused cloud without Jesus and His leading. In His presence, I do often struggle with the jumble of thoughts in my fleshly mind, and I could relate to the admonition of enjoying the silence, the white space, and making time for it.

View all my reviews

<quote>

The divide is stark between revelation and made-up stuff, which is why we take our journey. Before we finish our great quest, we’ll comprehensively explore why assumptions are make-believe. We’ll also thoroughly investigate why we can’t trust assumptions. We’ll also analyze the ways ungodly thinkers claim that basing thought on made-up stuff is sane.

As we’ve seen, the great ongoing debate throughout the world is about reason and how to interpret observations and experiences, and it’s about the sound basis for thinking. It’s about how to detect the difference between good and evil, truth and error, or reality and make-believe. And the fundamental question is, should we make up stuff or should we ask God to give understanding of reality and listen to Him?

</end quote>

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<quote>

Considering that Bill’s interpretation of scientific observation rests on human assumptions, assumptions are necessary for understanding origins history from Bill’s perspective. Therefore, Bill uses assumptions as a starting point for thinking. From the other point of view, Ken trusts what’s written in the Bible because God reveals reality to Ken through the Bible, and Ken trusts God, while Bill trusts assumptions.

</end quote>

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<quote>

Bill Nye referred to a “body of knowledge,” and his beliefs are part of this “body of knowledge,” so the ungodly historical stories are part of what Bill calls “the body of knowledge.” With bravado, Bill defined “science” as a method plus this “body of knowledge,” so, in his mind, no one dares to challenge his beliefs. The “body of knowledge” confirms his beliefs. By his definition, the “body of knowledge” is science, so this definition means that Bill’s beliefs are science.

Consider how Bill’s logic works. He assumes big bang, billions of years, no creation, no worldwide Genesis Flood, and no way to know God personally. Then, he adds those assumptions to the body of knowledge. He then labels this body of knowledge “science.” Then, what he is now calling “science” proves his original assumptions. He says that “science” proves big bang, billions of years, no creation, no worldwide Genesis Flood, and no way to know God personally. But what’s really happening? His assumptions are proving his assumptions. It’s circular reasoning.

On the other side of the debate, Ken Ham said that he knows God, and he said that everyone who seeks Christ finds Christ. That means we can know Christ, and we can test this truth. Therefore, we don’t have to take Ken’s word for it since anyone with an open mind can test it. Built on this foundation, Ken said God reveals the history of the universe through the Bible.

Ken and Bill agree that Bill bases the historical part of this “body of knowledge” on assumptions. Ken brought it up, and Bill made a statement defending the basis of his thinking. They disagree on whether assumptions are a trustworthy way of knowing. Bill believes that assumptions are a trustworthy way of knowing everything and Ken believes that assumptions aren’t a trustworthy way of knowing anything.

Ken’s interpretation of scientific observation rests on what God reveals to him through Scripture since he knows that revelation is necessary for understanding origins history, and scientific observation confirms what God reveals through Scripture. Because of this knowledge, Ken uses the divine revelation in the Bible as a starting point for thinking.

</end quote>

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<quote>

While it seemed like Ken Ham and Bill Nye debated Creation versus evolution, they really debated revelation versus make-believe. However, Bill would highly object to anyone calling his made-up assumptions “make-believe.” Also, both men became aware of the revelation-versus-make-believe debate. Both addressed it. Ken defended revelation. Bill defended assumptions. So the debate was (and is) about how to reason and how to know the truth, and it wasn’t (and isn’t) about Creation versus evolution.

</end quote>

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