“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you”
Proverbs 23:7
But his heart is not with you.”
“I think, therefore I am [Exist]” – Rene Descartes
The ability to think unemotionally is a rare thing in the religious world. Blind or weak faith is rampant among the religious and it plants itself in opposition to rational thought. Problems spring up from individuals that could readily be solved by the simple application of thought, but no one wants to think. Thinking is too difficult for the common religious man. This is a pathetic and sad state of existence. It does, however, mean that anyone who thinks at all is farther ahead than 90% of his fellow religious friends.
Thought is our only weapon against the world. We have been commanded to be peaceable, as much as is possible (Romans 12:18). We do not kill people who disagree with us, that is left to the inbred Arabic pedophiles known as radical muslims. The way we reach out to the world is through rational thought.
Much of the religious world has resorted to emotionalism, because this is what tends to draw people in.
No one wants discipline, discomfort and philosophy. No one wants to take up his cross (Matthew 16:24). Everyone wants free and easy salvation. Everyone wants abs in three minutes a day on some great new product they saw on an infomercial. These easily accessible ideas and products pander to the lethargic nature of man, the nature that wishes to conserve energy to survive. The Lethargic nature of human beings wants to avoid any kind of strenuous thinking. Therefore, you must think.
Thought defends us from the devil and his demons who will play on our irrational minds, lazy nature, emotions and fears in order to manipulate us. Any emotion that reduces rational thought should be ignored when making decisions. All that should be allowed is the truth. Aristotle, in his book Rhetoric, describes all emotions in argument as “non-essential”. All that is essential is fact. Anything that moves a judge to pity, anger or some other emotion is non-essential and even dishonest.
Emotions will override our rational thinking every time, which is why emotions must be ignored almost always. Again, emotions must almost always be ignored, this cannot be stressed enough. Thought is our weapon against not only demons, but against radical conservatism and radical liberalism. With thought we banish weak arguments from the religious world and promote a culture of action-based faith rather than emotion-based faith.
Mantra
Thinking over feeling.
Application
Change the way you speak. If you are making an argument and you begin your statement with, “I feel like…” then you have a problem. Start your sentence with “I think that…” instead.
No one cares how you feel.
Your emotions are not logic.
You need to be thinking through your arguments and philosophies, not feeling through them.
- Think before you begin speaking. Do not start talking unless you are certain you have something valuable to say and won’t make yourself look like a primate. There is no shame in having a large gap of time between hearing someone else make a statement and then answering them. Take time to formulate your thoughts.
- Always start your statements with “I think”, never “I feel”.
- Follow a bullet point outline in your mind. What are the main points of what you are saying and how do you connect them together? Do this even with brief statements or thoughts. (Obviously this does not apply to single line statements).
Conduct Yourselves Like Men.
