Complexity of issues, sheer volume of information, and politically biased reporting make it more and more challenging to stay accurately informed. Rational thinking skills and wise decision-making based on objective reporting of information are becoming more and more critical—and harder to find. In this article, we consider some challenges we face and some factors to consider in order to navigate them wisely.
To begin, let’s say that someone asks us a question. There are several ways we might respond:
(1) “I feel ….”
(2) “I think ….”
When someone asks us how we are feeling, we typically reply with #1, “I feel….” Responses #2 and #3 are how we might begin to share our opinion or a faith-based answer, respectively. Let’s consider Response #1 first.
Emotional Responses
Our “feelings” are an important part of our self-awareness and our physical and emotional health. Our physical and emotional health require that we maintain a relationship with at least one person; or if necessary, with pet animal. We are strengthened and encouraged through face-to-face communication with others or through letters, phone calls, and social media.
Many of us have pressed “smiley face” stickers on our letters to convey a wordless message of encouragement. Now that we have cell phone apps, we can digitally insert our choice of emojis along with our text messages and e-mails to communicate briefly how we are “feeling” about something in a wordless fashion.
For many of us, it is easier to describe “how we feel” when someone asks us about our physical pain than when they ask “how we feel about our pain.” How we feel about joint-replacement surgery during recovery is affected by both the severity of our physical pain and by the degree of our concern about whether we will ever recover. Some people recover very quickly and have a positive outlook all the way through their pain and physical therapy. Others struggle with both the physical pain and the related fear it causes. Why is this? The truth is, how we see our condition at a given time depends on our physical condition (1, “how we feel”) and our frame of mind (2, “how we think about” our situation. The differences in how different people respond to similar situations also depends on how they “choose to think” about their situation.
Rational, Faith-Grounded Responses
Dr. Caroline Leaf, a communication pathologist and audiologist has conducted research for years in the field of cognitive neuroscience. She believes that God created our minds in His image and has given us the free will to choose “how we will think” and react to our circumstances. Therefore, Dr. Leaf has based her research on God’s revelation in Scriptures. In Romans 12: 2, God commands us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and in Deuteronomy 30: 19, God lovingly invites us to choose life in order that you may live….
Free will and choice are real, spiritual, and scientific facts. Your mind (soul) has one foot in the door of the spirit and one foot in the door of the body; you can change your brain with your mind and essentially renew your mind.
The author cites scientific research pointing to a cause-and-effect relationship between “what we believe” (Response #3 above) about God and our capacity to overcome challenges to physical health.
Although feeling, thinking, and believing are interconnected, “feeling” is heavily based on our physical senses; whereas, “thinking and believing” are heavily based on our rational ability, our faith, and our worldview that forms through our experience and learning.
How would you respond if someone were to ask you, “Do you believe there is a God?” Which of the following would your choose to begin your response:
(1) “I feel ….”
(2) “I think ….”
(3) “I believe ….”
Worldview by "Cut-and-Paste"
We have amassed great knowledge, yet increasing numbers of people question whether objective truth even exists. This trend is supported by a recent study.
Barna’s survey, conducted through the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, offered a series of questions designed to determine the personal worldview of each respondent. The results, reported in the American Worldview Inventory 2021, are very disturbing, not because of the views expressed but because the views were not based on well informed and coherent thinking.
Returning to our range of responses, feeling, thinking, and believing, we can explain at least one cause of the troubling trend detected by George Barna’s 2021 worldview inventory; namely, emotion-driven reactions and decisions are replacing those based on careful exercise of critical reasoning. At the very time when our culture faces both great societal challenges and great tools for addressing these challenges, we seem least prepared to respond emotionally, rationally, and spiritually.
The table below lists seven major societal issues followed by a brief statement we might commonly hear in the media or in conversation. Notice the prominence of an emotional component in the responses. However, even though compassion and empathy are important qualities we ought to express toward those who are struggling, these qualities must be guided by rational and moral policies if we are going to solve these problems.
Each of these societal concerns have grown out of a history of what many believe are deviations from God’s commands revealed in the Bible. The Old Testament, in Exodus 20, reveals how God gave His chosen people, the Israelites, the Ten Commandments, or the ten “Thou shalt not’s.” God’s purpose was not to “steal their joy” but to give them a moral foundation for a society that would protect them from evil and help them become a “shining city on a hill” for the rest of the world to see and want to copy. To the extent that Israel followed these commands, they prospered. But deviations from these spiritual laws gradually caused the Jewish nation to lose their godly distinctions and eventually to be exiled by pagan nations.
Out of His mercy in order to redeem His people Israel, God came in the incarnate form of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came not to replace the Law but to fulfill the Law through His sinless life, atoning death on the Cross, and resurrection in victory over death that whoever believes in Him as their Savior from sin “should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3: 16).” Jesus added,
God has already come to us with objective truth claims in the Bible that He is the Creator, His creation reveals His power and nature, and that it is so obvious that we are without excuse if we deny it (Romans 1: 20). The Apostle Paul elaborates about how the tendency of mankind has been to reject and suppress God’s truth (Romans 1: 18). Those who reject God’s truth, will fall prey to accepting nonsense and be morally and spiritually corrupted to the core of their lives. Paul described this awful result in Romans 1: 21-23:
The rest of Romans 1 reveals the tragic downward path of those who reject God’s authority and absolute truth. They are left to live in the darkness of moral relativism in which “truth” is what each individual deems it to be. Returning to the seven (7) commonly heard statements above we can see how each cultural problem results from a deviation from the moral standards given in Scripture. Each statement is also rooted in one or more misconceptions expressed by a person who has rejected or is ignorant of God’s moral and ethical principles. In each of the seven, we briefly point out how the problem can be corrected by addressing the deviation from God’s ideal. However, in no way do we want to imply that the solutions are simple.
Summary: Feeling, Thinking, Believing
In summary, each of us have physical, emotional, rational, and spiritual dimension to our lives. All of these are interrelated components of our personality; but by itself, each is limited as a way of knowing and judging truth and reality. We may answer a question about “how we feel” in words, or by our facial expression, or by pointing to a cartoon face or an emoji. However, to answer questions related to “how we feel about” or “how we choose to react” to our situation, we must draw more heavily upon our rational and spiritual components. We must be aware of our worldview and what we are basing our reasoning upon. Recall Barna’s statistics on poorly grounded worldviews?
Thinking carelessly and communicating with tweets and emojis will not be adequate. And problems in family, church, community, and government resulting from rejection of God’s revealed wisdom in the Bible will certainly not be solved by atheistic, humanistic approaches. First Corinthians 2: 14 states, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The proper function of family, church, school, private corporations, and government depends upon documents such as the U.S. Constitution as well as various bylaws, legal codes, and covenants, all written in words in a rational manner. Most of these in turn, rest upon the objective revelation of the Bible concerning the nature of man. Due to our tendency to lust for power, there is a need to avoid the concentration of power and its corrupting influence, and to incorporate ways to hold individuals morally and spiritually accountable.
God’s Word makes clear that ultimate reality is not this physical, temporary universe which we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell. We can only discern spiritual reality when we submit to the Word of God and His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2: 13) to renew our minds (Romans 12: 2) and teach us to discern spiritual truth (John 14: 26). Then, the Peace of God will replace our anxious feelings, and His love and care will uphold us for the challenges we face.
We hope this article will help you toward better discernment of issues in our world through proper exercise of your capacities for feeling, knowing, and believing. As always, we welcome your “Comments” using the link below; or, please write privately to silviusj@gmail.com. You may want to express how you feel, or what you think about this article, and share what you believe and why.