...where the Two become the One
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ~Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV) Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad […] Read more »
Moving from religious conformity to internalized wisdom Humanity’s search for meaning has long been channeled through the great edifices of organized religion. These systems offer structure, community, and a framework for morality, promising a guiding light in a complex world. Yet, for countless individuals, that promised light can feel more like a cage. When institutions demand adherence to rigid, unchallengeable doctrines, they cease to be tools for liberation and instead […] Read more »
Certainty or Truth? Recovering the Logos from Sola Scriptura Sola Scriptura is a core Protestant doctrine asserting that the Bible alone is the ultimate, infallible authority for Christian faith, doctrine, and practice, superseding traditions or other sources unless aligned with Scripture, while emphasizing its sufficiency and clarity for deriving truths through study and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. The belief that Jesus is the Logos—translated as “Word” rather than “Logic”—reinforces this […] Read more »
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out […] Read more »
Human consciousness often clings to a zoomed-in state, fixated on personal narratives, viewpoints, and structures that provide an illusion of control. This hyper-focused perspective stems from a primal need for safety, where individuals anchor themselves to familiar stories and rigid frameworks to navigate life’s uncertainties. By staying zoomed-in, people believe they can manage their environment, relationships, and outcomes. However, this narrow focus creates a self-imposed “control Matrix”—a mental construct reinforced […] Read more »
A victim mindset is a cognitive pattern where individuals consistently perceive themselves as powerless targets of external circumstances, blaming others or events for their difficulties. This mindset resists personal responsibility and change, often clinging to a narrative of helplessness to avoid confronting uncomfortable truths. Socratic humility is the intellectual virtue of recognizing and embracing the limits of one’s knowledge, fostering openness to learning and growth. It counters arrogance by encouraging a […] Read more »
Deductive rigidity refers to the strict application of fixed premises to reach conclusions, often stifling inquiry by treating those premises as unchallengeable, leading to inflexible and potentially flawed outcomes. In contrast, abductive reasoning offers flexibility by inferring the best explanation from observed facts, adapting to new evidence and context to align further with truth. The maxim “You can be dead sure and dead wrong” exposes a fundamental flaw in human cognition: the tendency to […] Read more »
A rational process is a moral process. You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or you may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest – but if devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of […] Read more »
John Locke’s “law of reason” refers to the natural capacity of human beings to use rational thought to discern moral and ethical principles that govern just interactions, independent of external authority. It is an internal guide, accessible through reflection, that aligns individual actions with objective truths about reality and human rights. Law, at its core, represents a fundamental failure to trust in individual reason. While proponents often frame it as […] Read more »
Deductive rigidity refers to the strict application of fixed premises to reach conclusions, often stifling inquiry by treating those premises as unchallengeable, leading to inflexible and potentially flawed outcomes. In contrast, abductive reasoning offers flexibility by inferring the best explanation from observed facts, adapting to new evidence and context to align further with truth. Transactional Love is a conditional exchange where affection or care is offered with the expectation of receiving something in return, […] Read more »
The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts. It is a secondary consequence. The primary act—the process of reason—must be performed by each man alone. We can divide a meal among many […] Read more »
Deductive rigidity refers to the strict application of fixed premises to reach conclusions, often stifling inquiry by treating those premises as unchallengeable, leading to inflexible and potentially flawed outcomes. In contrast, abductive reasoning offers flexibility by inferring the best explanation from observed facts, adapting to new evidence and context to align further with truth. Human reasoning shapes our worldviews, moral frameworks, and spiritual lives through two primary modes: deductive and […] Read more »
*Note: the examples in this article aren’t necessarily based in our experience with CPS and ex-partner, but they’re there to help understand and clarify the problems and patterns that I am exploring here. Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and refining new ideas or creative solutions to address needs or problems, often relying on imaginative thinking to envision possibilities. In personal relationships and family law, the interplay between creativity […] Read more »
Deductive reasoning, defined as starting with general premises assumed true and deriving specific conclusions—like “all dissenters disrupt order, so Jane, a dissenter, is disruptive”—often shapes how people perceive reality, mistaking their subjective lens for universal truth. This process can create a thought matrix, a rigid mental framework where premises from culture, authority, or personal experience dictate thought’s boundaries, defended dogmatically as reality itself. For example, someone shaped by childhood trauma […] Read more »
The angry mob, fueled by ignorance and prejudice, stormed the castle, their shallow understanding of the world reduced to simplistic labels and stereotypes, as they sought to destroy the monster, which they called “Depth” – a symbol of complexity and nuance that threatened to shatter their comfortable illusions. With each blow, they struck not at the monster’s heart, but at their own limitations, attempting to silence the whispers of doubt […] Read more »