PARADIGM

definition: par•a•digm (pār'ə-dīm', -dĭm')

3. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/paradigm

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this blog is four-fold:
(1)
to recognize that every person functions within a basic paradigm, which affects how all information is processed;
(2) to understand the paradigms of others;
(3) to discuss, in particular, paradigms which are related to science, religion, and philosophy.

(4) to reveal the paradigm shifts in my own life, a process that has completely changed the direction and purpose of my existence.

The purpose of this blog is NOT to convince anyone that their paradigms or beliefs are correct or incorrect. I am hoping for an honest dialog, but the discussions must remain respectful of others, even if there is profound disagreement. If any comments are not respectful, they will be removed.
(Revised 1/13/09)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

"My Way is Right"--A Paradigm of Deception

For most people, strong religious beliefs are formed in one of two ways--either by growing up with them or by using rational thought to change an existing opinion that has already become unstable. But how can an individual person know what is the real truth? Existential skeptics might say that there is no way to find out the truth, so don't bother. I tend to disagree. I think that each person has a place, deep inside, that recognizes real truth. I am not a psychologist. Nor am I a theologian. I only know that when I put aside all the masks, and strip away obsessions, compulsions, and that little voice of false conscience that is really just an influential person in your past--that I sometimes have a powerful feeling, deep inside, when I recognize something that is absolute truth. I believe that, whether the source of that feeling is spiritual (e.g., God-driven) or whether it is something that is built into the human psyche, each person has this capacity. I don't think that it is rational or emotional, but I think it is very real. Therefore, in spite of our interest in debating the merits of different religions, opinions are never changed by debate. Real change is very personal and occurs deep inside, where intellectual thoughts never go. When you recognize the truth, your know-that-you-know-that-you-know that it is truth...................

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Very well done!!! Nonetheless: may we be mindful of the fact that our Heavenly Father will speak unto us through other people. Therefore: there is a great danger unto thinking that nothing good can come from debating (as long as it is kept civil, of course). The bottom-line is as you have already so eloquently stated, however. For it is only after He confirms something, which often comes from a thought or feeling deep within ourselves, that we can be confident of its absolute truth.

LucyS said...

"Without counsel, plans go awry,
But in the multitude of counselors they are established." Proverbs 15:22