Conservative Truth - How Should You Think? - Paul Hayden

There can be an important difference between asking "How should I think?" and "What should I think?" It might be seen as merely semantic, but I think not. Are you (we) being told how to think, or what to think?

Just because you think something does not make it true or real. But if you think something long enough you can come to believe that it is true - it becomes true to you, even if it is not inherently true. That is when you need help.

We just simply need to think. If we are told WHAT to think, as contrasted with HOW to think, then we are presented merely with facts. If we are taught and learn HOW to think, then we develop mental tools that will help all our life. It can be a combination of logic, critical examination, analysis, openness to learning, and freedom to diverge from long-held assumptions.

I have heard that we should not try to talk someone into something because then someone else can possibly talk them out of it. That may not always be true if the person truly finds meaning in the given thought or action or lifestyle being presented. But the truth of it is that we each must take what we hear or read and give it serious thought, reflection, and testing through study and observation, and then apply it to our lives if we wish.

In our country right now, we are seeing many who would tell us WHAT we should think. It comes from so-called "News" sources, from the government and schools, from churches, from advertising, from the obscenely wealthy who think their abundance of money makes them authorities on anything - from EVERYWHERE around us. Information is bombarding us constantly. Even if we could trust what we are being told, and that is a worthless assumption, how do we know what to believe or what is true?

For instance, take these examples.

Many right now believe that some girls are boys! Some believe that some boys are girls. Really??? Sheer lunacy is coming to be seen as "normal."

This is being picked up and spread widely by major once-trusted and foundational sources of information and truth. Take this article by Time magazine, for example. (1) It concerns a young lady who as she was growing up could only see herself as a boy. Her mom eventually relented, following a growing trend in our country and the world right now, and helped her identify as a boy, now known as Elliot Page.

Unfortunately, it has been shown that around 42% of transgenders have attempted suicide. Is that because of the rejection or unacceptance they have experienced, or is it possibly because of their wrong thinking, and their corresponding desperate reaction to serious mental problems?

There is reality that we must all face, and it should be a learning process.

The vast majority of us do not believe children up to later teen years are mature enough to drink alcohol, smoke, get married, drive cars, fly airplanes, become politicians, own guns, or even stay at home unattended (under a certain age-maturity). Yet many believe these children are old and mature enough to have sex, choose to get an abortion, even without their parent's knowledge, or choose to "transition" from their sex-gender of birth to the opposite one. Sorry, but I and many others believe this is absolute idiocy!!!

If I were to see myself ("identify") as a pig, or horse, or dog, even over a long period of time, would that make it so?

Just because we might think we can fly, or that gravity is not real, our thinking does not make it possible for a human being to jump out the window of a tall building and survive very long. Why is it that tags on some "Superman" capes say things like "This cape does not enable the wearer to fly"? Who in their right mind would attempt to fly just because they are wearing a Superman cape? Anyone who can read the tag should by all rights know better, and if the wearer can't read, he/she should be under the "supervision" of someone who takes responsibility for their well-being, keeping them from trying to fly, especially from great heights.

There is nothing wrong with "make-believe" or "pretend" when we are having fun as kids. But as we become adults we are to become responsible for our actions, our thoughts, our lives. We are to pass this thinking process on to our progeny, as well as all else that is good, and pure, and true, and healthy. That is our responsibility as good parents.

Hate is wrong! But seeing and opposing wrong thinking or actions such is not hate!

Opposing what is wrong or bad or false is just how it should be. As a culture and society in the form of a country, we must stand up for what is "right" and good and true. And that is determined collectively, not by a select few, but by the collective majority. It comes through dialogue of many, not by pronouncement or whimsical laws declared by a few.

There are those who believe that men marrying other men is absolutely right. Or women marrying women. They have changed from the world view that is taught in the Bible, and in many cultures through history. They believe they are "right" to think this way. What if others believe they can marry animals, their pets or livestock like a horse or cow, for instance? Who is to say these new aberrations are "wrong"? I have actually heard from a mutual friend of someone who had a service to marry their art. Seriously!?

Some cultures believe that older men can "marry" quite young girls, or boys for that matter. Who is to say they are "wrong"? What right do we have to dictate to others that this is wrong? Who decides?

No matter where we are, we must find peace with God, and have His peace within us! No matter what is going on around us, we must look where we can find truth, real answers that don't flit around like a gnat flying around in front of our eyes that you can't catch, kill, or shoo away!

Something inside us yearns for truth, something solid that we can trust, that we can put our FAITH in, that we can grab with whole hearts, that will provide fulfillment for our lives.

I deeply, firmly believe that God has revealed Himself to us in His Son Jesus Christ, who is the embodiment of the Word of God, as well as in the written revelation of His Word in the Bible. Though the Bible has been abused and misused through the ages, I truly believe in what it says. I have studied it for seven decades now, and have heard many of the arguments against it. But in my thoughts and experience and life, there is nothing, literally nothing, that comes as close to having the answers to all the important questions that life presents.

If you come to God with an honest heart, asking Him for truth and revelation and understanding about life and who you are, I truly believe He will meet your honesty and sincerity with His love and kindness and mercy, and He will reward you with the most satisfying answers you could possibly ever know. No matter who you are, no matter what your life has been, you can look to God who made you, the God who loves you more than you can ever fully know, and He will be there for you.

Blessings from the very heart of God, and from me.

NOTES:
1. https://time.com/5947032/elliot-page/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

How Should You Think?

It's not always what you think!

March 22, 2021