Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” “that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2b-3

<quote>

The Foundation of Thought

We’ve found, without exception, that all sound reasoning starts with a true premise. The premise is the proof. Therefore, if no one has proved the premise, the reasoning can’t prove anything. A premise is made-up stuff if we don’t know it to be true. It isn’t sane to make up stuff and call the made-up stuff “true,” nor is it sane to use made-up stuff as proof for something else.

</end quote>

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<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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