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Monday, August 21, 2006

The Emotion of Certainty

There has been criticism of my title "The Emotion of Truth". Surely, Truth is not an emotion, it has been pointed out. No, I suppose not. I should have said the emotion of certainty based upon one's perception of what the Truth is. Or not. Too late now. Most of our life is a ship on the sea of emotions, waves of hormones, winds of neuro-chemistry. Our concepts are wolves who have lost their parents and we adopt them and raise them in a Christian home in a middle-class neighborhood, they learn to play soccer and not snap at the opposing team, go to college, get a job, marry, reproduce,and die. I was reading a column by David Limbaugh. He uses the term "Islamo-fascist" so I had to pretend to understand what he was up to here. I don't understand the tag "Islamo-fascist" unless it applies to Benito Mussolini's Syrian nanny, Fatima. However, the column was of interesting construction: a bite of fear, a bite of indignation, a bite of defiance, a bite of outrage...all assembled in a feast. A switch thrown here, a switch thrown there. No particular substance to the column, just incredible sailing of the neuro-chemical sea. I believe that Jesus' injunction to Humility was advice to turn off these switches. You will point out, then, that a truly humble person would be totally withdrawn from society and exist in a remote anchoritic existence. No. The great command to Charity must prevent us from falling into solipsism. Charity is what binds us to others and creates a centrality of performing good acts for others., whereas Humility turns our understanding from the confused fury of an emotional storm to the eye of the hurricane, which is God.

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