Positive thinking

I’m not overweight, I’m under height.

Peace to you

 

Better to light a match, than curse the darkness.
Better to seek the light, than scurry to darkness.
Jesus enlightens every person.

One day when I was in elementary school, we were all herded into our large auditorium. The stage curtain was closed when we came in. After a little while, a deep male voice said, "Are you ready?" Nobody or not many responded.

A minute or so later, the voice again said, Are you ready? This time the whole audience responded loudly with "Yes!!"

A minute later, the voice said, "Are you sure you are ready?" Again, we screamed, "Yes we are!!"

Then in an even deeper voice, we heard, "Are you positive?" We had no idea what that meant, but we screamed anyway, Yes we are.

Silence for a minute or so, then the voice again, "Only fools are positive." Now it was our turn to be silent, and not "positive."

 

Seems a little deep and dark for elementary school children to understand

peace to you

 

Right, I remembered it always, but probably had a better grasp in the 11th grade. We studied the scientific method in Chemistry.

 

Should have shouted back "Are you positive about that?".

 

Or yell, “that’s not what Joe and Angie believe”

peace to you

 

Cool thinking and positivity. It is beauty within.

 

The bible tells us to "test" the spirits (other humans) and to "examine ourselves" to see if we are of the faith, thus recognizing our understanding of reality can be in error is a healthy viewpoint. If you look at the history of science, you see beliefs held in the past give way to a better understanding. Consider how Geologists thought mountains formed before plate tectonics.

When we study scripture, sometimes we find truth that was consistently believed back to the Apostles. And sometimes we find fiction formulated hundreds of years ago and still believed by some today. Rather than accept the beliefs of others, we are to study ourselves, and under-girding that study must be a mind open to new insight.

 

Would you give an example of fiction found in scripture.

peace to you

 

How about the JW understanding of the Trinity?

The idea is if we are positive about what scripture says, then our study will suffer for confirmation bias.

 

I’d rather not derail a positive thread, so I’ll withdraw.

peace to you

 

Objective analysis yields actual evidence, confirmation bias yields eisegesis.

 

One of my favorite movies is "Heaven loves Mr. Allison" with Robert Mitchum and Debra Kerr (rhymes with Star).

She asks him if he is sure, and he nods and says "pretty sure." I love that movie...

 

Does a parable qualify?

 

The film is Heaven Knows Mr. Allison.

The fiction found in scripture refers to beliefs perhaps we, and certainly others presented as scriptural, but upon study is revealed as falsehood. Perhaps I should have said fictitious beliefs wrongly thought to be biblical.

For example some believe you must be water baptized to be saved. My study convinced me that view was bogus.

I grew up in a Calvinism leaning church, and so once I learned how to study, I set about to base by beliefs on scripture. But when I studied the much cited verses, I found they did not actually support the doctrine.

And of course, I found the TULI of the TULIP to not actually to have any support.

But this issue is bigger than factious debate, it is about how to study and critically consider biblical text, such that we can be "pretty sure" of its intended meaning.