Watch how easy it is to dispense with beliefs in the world of the unseen and non-material.  Just cast doubts!  Casting doubts is child’s play.  All you have to do is ask someone if they are really sure, absolutely certain, about something they just said.  You can ask, “Are you sure you are sure?” and the answer usually comes back conditioned — at least a little.    Why?  We are limited beings and, therefore, don’t know everything about almost anything.  We come to most day-to-day conclusions on less than complete knowledge — usually based on repeated experiences that have convinced us that we know.  Because we don’t know everything, there is always an opportunity for the negative skeptics to cast doubts and trouble our beliefs about anything.  So, are doubts “crooked thinking”?

The Skepticism of Our Age

Skeptics who seek to tear a belief down are in the business of casting doubts.  Critics also don’t have to know anything for certain to state their opinions and seem intelligent.  All they need to do is raise the fear in us that we may be wrong, and our beliefs begin to shake.  

Uncertainty Breeds Fear

Bartlett’s Roget’s Thesaurus lists 825 phobias or fears that can plague humans.  I’m sure that’s not a complete list.  Fear sweeps in with one or more of its quivering faces whenever we are less than certain.  It unsettles us with its frightening range of influence, from creating mere doubt to rampant blind panic.  So the one who spreads doubt can achieve almost anything if they persist with repeating their doubts.  Some even become famous for raising doubts.  Imagine that!  (We will meet one famous doubter in a future article.)  

Are Doubts “Crooked Thinking” or Is Believing Really Seeing?

Just think about it for a moment.  Whatever we have not seen, felt, heard, or touched — anything that has not activated our physical senses (the undetected, the non-material) — is the easiest target for those who thrive on casting doubts. They even think it is intelligent to think up new reasons to doubt something.  God, as you might expect, is a choice example because if he does exist, it is a reality unseen and un-sensed by our physical senses.  Spirit is obviously an easy target.  Simply put, God is beyond the radar of our physical senses.  

Humans have always had difficulty believing in what they cannot see.  Recall the often-used statement, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”  It is also common for humans to wonder.  The beginnings of doubt are often hidden in wonder.  Our thinking has to move to another realm (called faith or belief, together with reason) to detect what we can’t sense.  Therefore, we will have to exercise belief when we move beyond the realm of matter.  So, are our doubts really “crooked thinking”?

With God or anything we can’t “prove scientifically,” we may have to keep asking, “Is this real or just an idea or a thought in our minds?”  In all the assumptions of science or in any mental discipline, we have to admit that faith plays a large part.  Of course, the problem always seems to be for the pilgrim.  I haven’t seen, heard, or touched God.  So, since my physical senses don’t tell me he exists, is there something else I can rely on?  

Evidence Dispels Doubt and Assures Straight Thinking

Yes!  I was told dinosaurs had walked in the hills around Morrison in Colorado, so I asked, “How do you know that?  Have you seen, heard, or touched them, or perhaps even smelled them?”  Well, my informant was most likely right in saying they walked the hills of Morrison, even though he had not seen or otherwise sensed them.  Why might he have been right? Because I was taken to a place where the tracks of dinosaurs could be clearly seen in the rocks.  No other creature that I knew of could have left such tracks.  It was now hard to doubt the evidence of their having walked there.  It was now rational to believe what I was told. 

So those who believe there is a God point to the evidence that we can see in the universe.  And when it is compelling, it creates a greater certainty that there is a God, thus minimizing the leap of faith.  It is the same with all those assumptions.  Evidence helps us believe them.  

Finding the evidence takes time and effort.  To those who see the evidence in everything around them (the presence of living creatures, beauty, and purposeful design in all they see), they conclude this wonderfully designed universe proves God’s existence.  They can more firmly believe in God for themselves (still an act of faith, but a strengthened faith).  The evidence is where all things beyond scientific proof can be found: in a rational act of faith. 

Why Cast Doubts Against Evidence?

Casting doubts when the evidence is convincing is crooked thinking, don’t you think?

Parents, there are many points in the brief comments above on doubt that will give you a lot to talk about to educate your children in the productive use of their minds.  

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from the above link!)

NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIO FROM:

LIBRO.FM   Kobo, Walmart  Google Play  Scribd  NOOK Audiobooks  Apple  Audible, Amazon

DISCOVER THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE!

Lean into the whole truth.  Discover the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation.  An InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post Are Doubts “Crooked Thinking”? appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

We will never understand what has gone on in the beliefs of our day until we understand the rise of Scientific Materialism.  So what follows is a very brief survey.  We don’t need in-depth knowledge.  A simple and accurate knowledge of what has happened is adequate.  We will also need to understand its impact on the thinking of our day and what has caused a misunderstanding of its ultimate authority.  Some crooked thinking is also involved in that misunderstanding if by “crooked” we mean a refusal to accept what does not fit into its self-appointed parameters.  

How did the rise of Scientific Materialism happen?

We could think of Scientific Materialism as the age in which we live.  How do we know that?  Because it has become by far the most dominant way people in the West think about their world and themselves.  For most people, this happened without fully understanding the implications and influence of what they were accepting and believing.

Institutions of higher learning contribute to the rise of Scientific Materialism

The philosophies that all state schools, colleges, and universities are teaching owe their foundations to this way of thinking.  Therefore, our children often go to college (for example) with faith and beliefs akin to their parents.  But they return home believing the opposite and wondering why their parents seem to be so “ignorant.”  If their family beliefs were of a religious persuasion, they come home with that faith shaken to its foundations because its foundations are being ridiculed and undermined.  Their new environment depicts religion as mainly for the psychologically needy and distressed who need some sort of crutch to give them hope.  But as we will see, something can be done about this because scientific materialism (sometimes also called “Naturalism”) lays itself open to clear charges of intellectual dishonesty by selecting what facts it will and won’t talk about.  We will soon understand the truth of this statement.  

When was Scientific Materialism born?

Scientific Materialism arose long ago — actually, during the Enlightenment (17th and 18th centuries).  However, it had its roots in the 16th and 15th centuries.  That’s six centuries ago!  It has developed slowly and with purpose and determination.  

The power of human reason became the shining star of the Enlightenment.  It began to replace belief in anything other than what we can know by the “scientific method.”  Science quickly became the authority for what people could believe was true.  Western science first arose accepting the validity of God’s authority as creator and sustainer of the universe.  But a greater trust in the drumbeat of provable scientific discoveries was sounding louder with every dramatic revelation.  

The progressive rise of Scientific Materialism

Think of Copernicus’s heliocentric theory of the sun at the center of the solar system.  This undermined, for some, the belief of the earth’s place in the universe, which was falsely but commonly accepted to be at the center of the solar system.  If the earth were no longer the center of the solar system, then it seemed to cast doubts on the importance of humankind in relation to the universe.  It also seemed to make the record of Genesis, chapter one, feel like a myth.  

If humans were made in the image of God, why was the earth not in the center of the solar system?  Something about the Judeo-Christian religion seemed wrong.  Actually, the conclusions of science and the beliefs of the Bible were not contradictory.  They were only perceived to be so.  The right moment for the power of science and human reason to come together had come. 

The apparent freedom of the power of reason

Ancient civilizations had also valued the power of reason, of course.  But it was as though science and reason were now marketed under a new slogan:  “The Real Truth” or “The New Authority.”  Scientific successes impressed the intellectually elite.  The belief in there being nothing else in this universe but physical matter (Scientific Materialism) was beating its drum.  It proved to be, conveniently, a way to hand over the authority for all things human to human minds, free from the restrictions of any divine authority.  

Perhaps to oversimplify the shift: man, not God, could take the reigns of knowledge and demonstrate “Reason’s” powers as the real source of authoritative knowledge.  Philosophers began, during the Enlightenment, to accept misguided “Reason’s” answers to the big questions of life and our universe.  The confidence in the human mind continued to rise unrestrained, building faith in science and its governing self-appointed philosophy that “The cosmos is all that is or ever was, or ever will be.”  That’s Scientific Materialism in a nutshell.  

Is science, via the human mind, infallible?

But is the human mind capable of finding and knowing all truth?  Caution!  Are humans not fallible and limited?  Even that fact did not slow down those who found new freedom in being able to ditch all authority over their lives except the authority of their own minds.  It was convenient to think and live this way.  And so, the modern era was ushered in with a surprising turnaround of beliefs.   

Reason and science could function without reference to God or anything that did not consist of matter.  Nature, with the aid of reason, could explain itself.  It was and still is a heady concept.  Religious beliefs and scientific investigation, for many, began to part ways.  But, of course, this was not true for all thinkers. 

It was the subtle argument that began:  that the design we overwhelmingly see in the universe was only apparent design, not real design.  Three scientists in different fields — Darwin, Marx, and Freud — led the way to our modern culture and materialistic beliefs.  

As with many merely human ways of thinking, this path, too, has turned out to be premature and mistaken.  

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from the above link!)

NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIO FROM:

LIBRO.FM   Kobo, Walmart  Google Play  Scribd  NOOK Audiobooks  Apple  Audible, Amazon

DISCOVER THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE!

Lean into the whole truth.  Discover the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation.  An InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post How Scientific Materialism Began and Developed appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

High on the list of safety for all of us is to be able to think with understanding, skill, and wisdom, a word that has fallen out of fashion in the changing culture.  These attributes would come high on the list of needs for identifying mind dangers.  So, let’s rescue that last much-needed word from shameful neglect. 

Wisdom Describes Smart Thinking

The substitute meanings listed in Bartlett’s Roget’s Thesaurus are adult, educated, skillful, advisable, prudent, intelligent, reasoning, judicious, knowledgable, and profound.  Impressive?  I can’t think of a more desirable word than wisdom to describe smart thinking, can you?  There’s no substitute for thinking straight and being able to quickly identify crooked thinking.  None, also for penetrating the confusion that crooked thinking produces in our minds.   Nor for finding the truth about a simple question like “what’s the best way to live?”  We all should settle that one, of course.  Can a person arrive at life’s truths without knowledge, understanding, common sense, and wisdom?

Mind Dangers from Crooked Thinking

Are we training our children to avoid the traps commonly bombarding their minds from our culture’s crooked thinking?  Our children are thinking differently.  That’s why we are astounded at their decisions at times.  Are we taking the time to educate them with the skill of sound thinking and wise judgments?  

Let’s not leave it to their peers, school, or college to teach them unless we are totally happy with all our child is bringing home from their education and peers.  Children are ravenous to absorb something new.  Especially about the main item on their mental agenda: how to live life with constant excitement and get the most acceptance from peers (not parents).  And doesn’t the phrasing of their search suggest a lot of holes and traps to fall into if their search lacks the wisdom to identify those traps before they tumble?  The emotional appeals of our current culture’s crooked thinking are absorbed quickly by a child.  If left unchallenged, their minds can be easily turned from sense and wisdom.  

Skilled and Successful Thinking Enables in Identifying Mind Dangers

A child is self-protected by becoming a skilled and successful thinker.  What parent sees safety in being gullible, shallow, and unable to tell truth from falsehood and straight thinking from crooked thinking?  Unfortunately, parents swallow much of what permeates our changing culture and influences a child’s world.  The lack of sense and reason in our culture leaves gaping holes that an elephant could fall through, such as repudiating the need for correction and constructive judgment lest their tender feelings of worth are wounded.  Parents, take note of the need for our education in this matter.   

Expose Foolish Thinking

We must expose foolish thinking unless we think our child has the wisdom of experience and knowledge beyond their age.  We must teach straight thinking and defend it with sound reasons and the appeal of being wise because deception often comes dressed as an angel of light.  Consider: can your child think straight when hot emotions rage inside them?  Can they find what is the real truth behind an argument or a statement — even a beguiling question — without guidance and teaching?   We can hardly blame them when advertising is more often than not designed to bypass the whole truth.  

Without the Skill for Identifying Mind Dangers

What will people become without the basic skill to identify mind dangers?  Perhaps they will become unwitting slaves to the verbal aggressions of the loudest, most financed, or the most popular voice.  We can’t sort out the right from the wrong in the simple quest (What’s the best way to live?) if we can’t spot what is deceitful and fallacious.  “Think straight and make wise judgments” should be the cry of all parents and we must embrace the teaching that achieves that goal.  

Do you recall the advertising grabber “Food for thought”?  Well, we will be preparing a gourmet meal for you and your mind if you want to feast on clear, sane, sensible ways to teach yourself and your child how to think straight.  Have you noticed it is unlikely that you will find a course on this topic in a college or university?  

Next:  How will we do that?  By equipping our minds for life’s journey.  Next installment soon.

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from the above link!)

NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIO FROM:

LIBRO.FM   Kobo, Walmart  Google Play  Scribd  NOOK Audiobooks  Apple  Audible, Amazon

DISCOVER THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE!

Lean into the whole truth by discovering the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation and an InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post Identifying Mind Dangers appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

As we continue our search to cure a distorted worldview, let’s address what is happening with our language in today’s culture. Changes in our speech are symptoms of the fabrications of crooked thinking.  What we think and how we think soon become our language.  Furthermore, our language changes with our thinking.  We are even being told today what is politically correct speech — and what is not. That’s a red flag that warns us of the loss of mental freedom.  Conversation has also degraded these days in its deceptiveness to a low level not taught and modeled so convincingly since the early days of the Greeks.  Sophist teachers, politicians, ideologists, and philosophers lead us on this slippery slope of crooked thinking.  

Fraudulent Thinking Has Never Elevated a Culture  

The shameless selling to the unwary public (particularly our youth) of counterfeit arguments is commonplace in education today.  It is an intellectual sleight of hand.  And it is perpetuated in our institutions of higher learning as well.  Our children do not possess the knowledge and experience to detect this dishonest trickery.  Because of a lack of candor, even adults, at times, do not know what is dishonest as opposed to what is sound logic and trustworthy thinking.  In fact, the abundant use in our culture of counterfeit arguments is a deceitful attempt to influence an unwary public.

What Can We Do to Prevent These Half-Truths and “Embellishments” of the Truth from Causing Crooked Thining?

Parents need support and help to guide and train their children’s minds as they continue to watchfully guide and care for their children’s physical health and mental development.  Unfortunately, little correction of the crooked thinking is found in most educational systems.  Furthermore, seldom is honest thinking even taught.  

Our Mission: To Become a Guide to Personal Honesty and Freedom of the Mind

Are you tired of being lied to?  Tired of getting angry with your children’s devious arguments?  Tired of all the questionable “help” your child is getting from others?  One might say, becoming the guide to the personal honesty and freedom of your child’s mind (and your own) can become your mission — your much-needed legacy to come.  

The Road Ahead

Without attempting a philosophical treatise in this series, we will point to the cause of spurious thinking, which has been born in biased minds and has invented our culture.  The layperson will grasp and will be able to use this knowledge to change their own thinking if needed.  And having the knowledge can help us in correcting the thinking of others.  

We begin our journey with a reminder that reason, as well as emotion — the use of head and heart — forms the foundation of a solid faith or belief.  But if reason is to be a part of faith’s solid and logical foundation, we need to understand how to think clearly and accurately.  

Think Effectively

Even though we think all day long, most of us never know how to think in an effective manner (as opposed to an ineffective manner).  Therefore, we should develop a passion to learn more about how to think straight and how to be able to spot false and deceptive arguments (crooked thinking) that convince many of us — especially our youth.  To give our children the skill of straight thinking and to teach them to spot crooked thinking and false narratives are priceless pieces of training parents can offer.  This is the direction we propose in this series.

Finally, remember that we are what we think.  And this hint to an effective methodology is the way crooked thinkers are changing the culture of our day.  The methodology is not wrong.  But, at times, it is used in a blatantly deceptive manner.  It easily convinces our youth of ideas that are false to the core.  Our use of the same method, however,  empowers parents as prime influencers for our children’s full and effective use of their mental faculties.  Therefore, it is of utmost importance to keep the family unit strong and influential!

The post Crooked Thinking – Part Two: Curing a Distorted Worldview appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

All of us — especially parents — are concerned about our culture because we face the imposition of the unreal values of this cultural revolution.  Realistically, it is impossible to cover all of the changes postmodernism has infused into our society.  It has changed political thinking, educational curriculums, daily life, and the attitudes that have molded the lives of so many.  Nonetheless, in the next several articles, I will highlight most of the important changes for comment and critical assessment of its straight or crooked thinking.  This will help all of us to think straight and help others to consider the impact of this culture’s crooked thinking.  The way the mind thinks is the way we all turn out to be.

Both Parent and Child MUST Understand Our Culture

Importantly, it’s not only we adults who need to understand and counter the cultural changes that have transformed human behavior in our day.  Our children need to understand what is going on and why it is destructive in so many ways.  So, without further ado, let’s provide straight thinking for parents who need it to combat the leanings of the educational systems that favor the new culture of our age.  Straight thinking will address the details of what is subtly and dramatically changing the way we and our children think and behave.  In contrast, Postmodernism is the philosophy behind the changes and is the thinking that has propelled this cultural revolution.

Back to some straight thinking for our culture!  Or is it “forward to sense and reason”?

Postmodernism’s Popular Appeal in Our Culture

Postmodernism’s trumpet calls and popular appeals feature the following (among others): tolerance for all, freedom of expression, and freedom from judgment.  Wow! That has huge appeal for many!  And these things have been the energy behind our culture’s changes.  Additionally, think of how the promise of social justice is appealing to the masses — especially to all who have some gripe about the world or their perception of the way others treat or do not treat them.  How can our younger generation resist the attraction of what amounts to a mental takeover of their minds?

Postmodernism’s Repudiation of Fact Will Cause Its Own Demise

In the long run, Postmodernism’s repudiation of fact (“no facts, only interpretations”), denial of objective reality, destruction of all moral and universal standards, together with their bitter rejection of all that they criticize will cause their fall by all who value sense, reason, logic, religion, and science.  Let’s hope there are enough people who stand for truth and true love.  However, in the meantime, we will have to resist its speed and take back lost territory.

Next article:  Is tolerance all it is thought to be?  Is there something better?

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from that link!)

Lean into the whole truth by discovering the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation and an InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

THE WAY TO HAVE A HEALTHY MENTAL SYSTEM

Weekly Help for Your Mind/Brain

This weekly addition to my articles provides practical guidance for the application of commonly known facts about brain health. 

A special note on coconut oil.  Until recently, coconut oil was condemned as unhealthy and damaging to the heart.  It still is thought of in this way by some, unfortunately.

Consider the following:

1. The natives of the Pacific islands and tropical cultures have consumed it for millenniums, as far as we can gather.  Only recently has science begun to catch up with its wonders.
2. Science previously condemned it, along with all saturated fats — a mistake on both counts.  It is a medium-chain triglyceride (MCT), which is now seen to be of great benefit.  The liver converts the oil into ketones, which we now know are an important source of energy for brain cells.
3. Also, it helps in the production of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factors), which aid the brain in the creation of new cells and other essential maintenance functions.
4. It contributes to aiding short-term memory issues, focus, and mental clarity along with benefitting the health of skin and hair.
5. Easily add forms of it that are flavorless to a cup of coffee or tea. Or you can add forms that maintain the natural flavor to many sautéed dishes, giving an added flavor of coconut — delicious.

Proponents recommend two tablespoons daily of coconut oil or 1 tablespoon of MCT oil (which is a derivative from coconut and palm kernel oil).    Dr. William Davis (MD) advises adding olive oil or coconut oil to everything — eggs, soup, vegetables.  We are told we don’t actually grow fat from the consumption of healthy fats.  That’s a surprise for all of us who were brought up on eliminating almost all fats.

Take care of your brain!

The post Our Culture and How To Confront It as Individuals and Parents appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

You may remember the song “What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love.”  It’s never been in greater need.  Crooked thinking leads to crooked speaking, and hate in the heart will produce crooked thinking any day.  Continuing from our previous discussions, in the next few articles, we will dig a little deeper into what causes crooked thinking and how we can personally deal with its root causes.  That will open the path to teaching ourselves and others by our words and example the way to a clean mind from which our thinking and feeling can develop.

Have you heard this kind of evidence of crooked thinking?

To demonstrate for our discussion today, have you ever been subjected to this kind of discussion?

Kent:  “You know Joe.  He’s so pigheaded (substitute religious conservative, anything you choose).  He’s one of those despicable bigots.”

Charlie:  “ Really?  But didn’t he help you the other day with your landscaping?  And you said he didn’t mention his beliefs and you were thankful for the help.  Remember?”

Kent:  “It wasn’t landscaping.  He didn’t do much — just a few plants.  I just hate bigots anyhow, and all those pigheaded religious nuts are bigots.  Everyone knows that!”

Charlie:  “Why do you think they are ALL bigots?”

Kent:  “Everyone knows they are bigots.  Wait a minute.  Are you one of those fanatics, too?  Don’t tell me you defend them!  Do you?  I thought you had more sense.” 

Kent:  mumbles and fumes. 

This crooked thinking conversation displays a pile of errors and accusations.  They have nothing to do with the subject, be it pigheadedness, religion, or whatever is the target of a person’s hate.

Three common errors that produce crooked thinking

Here is where the air gets thick.  There are three common errors Kent falls into.

1. He uses an emotionally powerful word, bigot, without defining why this truthfully describes Joe.  Bigotry is apparently whatever Kent doesn’t approve of.  It is simply a personal opinion and a word he feels will stir feelings of hate in other people.
2. Perhaps Kent is tossing around an accusation regardless of whether it is true or not.
3. It is a generalization meant to include all those that belong to the despised group Kent hates.

All of this crooked thinking has a single driver: hate.

It is unjust, to say the very least, because Kent is accusing Joe without evidence of any sort.  Has your child ever done this to you?  (I guess that’s an unnecessary question).  In such instances, logic, truth, and reason are being trampled on as though they don’t matter.  The bigoted one appears not to be Joe, but Kent.

Do we want to create this kind of reputation for ourselves — hateful people, who show ample evidence they don’t think straight?  I hope not.  Do we want our children to think like this when they enter the world of adulthood?  Parents have an enormous task seeking to change this kind of speech and thinking in their home and outside its walls.

How we think is who we are!

Of course, who we are all starts with how we learn to think.  Therefore, doesn’t it behoove all fair, just, and honest people to avoid any hint of this self-condemning talk, if for no other reason than that our world is in more danger of being contaminated and poisoned from this kind of thinking than from global warming or even war?  It has started too many wars.  I think you would agree.  The poison, unfortunately, permeates our society.

If you are a parent, you no doubt have been assaulted with hate and hateful speech, and parents know how it stings and creates discord.  A home quickly turns into a war zone.  When hate or any negative emotion is given expression, if not arrested, it quickly proliferates and seeks fertile soil to feed its bitterness.

What is the source of this crooked thinking?

So, what do we do about it?  The way we think must change.  But what drives this crooked and poisonous thinking?  It finds its original source in us where all our thinking begins.  In the next article, we will discover this source and how to change its nature.

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from that link!)

Lean into the whole truth by discovering the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation and an InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post Crooked Thinking Is In Air That Is Thick with Hate appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

Straight thinking is all about another “moral” necessity: honesty and truthfulness.  Honesty not only includes telling the whole truth accurately, but honesty must be the motivation when seeking to tell the truth.  An attempt to be less than honest will end up in our twisting of the truth for our own purposes.  This is crooked thinking — crooked because it lies and corrupts the truth.  “Truthfully” means without falsification and twisting of the facts.   

History’s Hideous Examples Lacking Honesty and Truthfulness

Honest and truthfulness are very important ingredients of straight thinking.  History is replete with examples of thinking that is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.  Perhaps the most hideous example is in the history of China.  Chinese leaders were killing citizens en mass and boiling the captured, forcing the unfortunate survivors to drink the human soup of their relatives and loved ones.  Consequently, China’s society was nearing total collapse.  Confucius appeared and, remarkably, was able to convince the main leaders of morally responsible behavior that saved the Chinese society from certain implosion. 

The Chinese people honor Confucius and his teachings to this very day, even if they do not adhere to his teachings politically.  Without morals, all societies eventually crumble.  An honest basis for reasoning starts not with our actions, but in the heart as personal moral standards.  We see it emerge from our hearts in our love for others, not our manipulation of them.  We cannot divorce straight thinking (where all our actions begin) from honesty and truth.

Leaders Who Lie and Deceive

An increasing number of the world’s cultures today snub truth and force it to kiss the ring on the hands of political leaders who traffic in lies and deceitfulness.  We and our children can get swept up in crooked representations of facts and beliefs.  That’s one of our major concerns.  Moreover, the world destroys itself and enslaves its people when it treats truth as an expendable element in what is touted as a beneficial society.

Honesty and Truthfulness Are Prerequisites to Survival

What do we do about this state of affairs?  We teach ourselves and our children that lying benefits no one.  It creates people who can no longer be trusted.  Additionally, teach that being honest and truthful is the mark of courage and strength.  And finally, we must teach not with angry attacks on our child’s or our own selves, but with patient and loving care, coupled with the insistence that we must face the consequences of our actions.

Therefore, ask, “What consequences do you want to live with?  And how do you want people to describe you — as an honest person to be trusted or a liar?”  Ask yourself, “Am I courageous and strong — a straight thinker or a crooked liar and weak?

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from that link!)

Lean into the whole truth by discovering the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation and an InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post Straight Thinking Demands Honesty and Truthfulness appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

Meeting the requirement to tell the whole truth to ensure straight thinking is a tough task for us all.  Facts are where we tend to make our most common crooked thinking.  We misrepresent the facts — whether intentionally or unintentionally.  Therefore, the first lesson for all of us to learn is to make sure that our facts are truly facts, not simply opinions that have been repeated so often with emotional power that they become “facts” in people’s minds.  No one, no matter how educated, escapes the dangers of this damaging way of thinking.  With crooked thinking, we never find the truth.

The Whole Truth Is “Real”

And there is a second word we need to focus on if we are to be straight thinkers: real.  It is astounding that the history of human thought and human lives reveals that we so blindly appear to want to shut our eyes to the realities of life and our world.  The appearance comes from the repeated refusal for all of us to look reality in the face and call it what it is.

We can trace the word real from the ancient Sanskrit language through Latin and French to when it made its first appearance in English in 1325 AD.  Both East and West own it as an expression of what truly exists, what is genuine, and the opposite of what is merely fictitious or imagined.  Things like rocks, love, and truth truly exist and are real things.  Facts are what is real.  Opinions, on the other hand, can be nothing but the inaccurate creations of a misinformed mind.

The Whole Truth Must Also Include All the Facts

To speak accurately means telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth about all the facts, not just some of the facts.  The WHOLE truth is the required language of the courts for sound reason.

Sophistry is the skill of creating a clever, but misleading, argument, and it is all too often the way we and our children talk and think.  Not surprisingly, sophistry first appears in the Greek language meaning “wise” and all who use this deceptive way of speaking think themselves wise.  It is “twisted wisdom” if the two words can coexist without fighting each other.  Arguments that have the ring of truth but are in reality misleading are the stock in trade of modern-day sophists.  Don’t be seen as a sophist by your children.  Teach them to think straight by using the wisdom of truth, not the sophistry of dressed-up lies.

Truth Is Not Speculation, Fantasy, or Imagination

Don’t build a case on speculation, fantasy, or imagination and pass it off as truth.  Yes, this is going to challenge all of us, parents included.  Have all of us adults not noticed that children quickly learn to be sophists, speakers of clever falsehoods.  We and they must learn to speak the unadulterated truth.

“Set a watch, oh Lord, at the door of my lips,” requested the psalmist.  Such watchfulness on our part is the only way to stop crooked thinking before it infects others.  We must teach ourselves and others, to examine our thoughts before we fire the loose cannon of crooked thinking.

Parent, when you fail at this, point out your error to your child.  Holding yourself accountable becomes a powerful example of straight thinking and honest parenting.

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from that link!)

Lean into the whole truth by discovering the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation and an InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post “Straight” Thinking Tells the Whole Truth appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

Suppose we want a belief system built on evidence and sound, rational thinking. In that case, we will need straight (analytical, logical) thinking to comprise a convincing faith of our heads as well as our hearts.   And suppose we are going to persuade our children. In that case, we must also have watertight arguments and not forget to model the facts we endeavor to convince them to adopt.   To achieve our goals, we must have a clear understanding and command of straight versus crooked thinking. Straight versus crooked may be easy to identify when it comes to trees, but not so when it comes to thoughts.

Straight thinking is thinking:

• Factually (which means with all the facts fairly represented).
• Accurately (which means telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth about all the facts, not just some of the facts, as specious arguments do). Arguments that have the ring of truth but are, in reality, misleading are the stock in modern-day sophists’ trade.  
• Truthfully (which means without falsification and twisting of the facts).
• Honestly (which includes being motivated by honesty as well as being honest). A legitimate basis for reasoning starts in the heart, in our love for others.  
• Interpreting realistically (not building a case on speculation, fantasy, or imagination and passing it off as truth).
• Verifiably (meaning using facts that we can evidentially verify). We find that evidence in our physical universe (including all the minutest details of living creatures) and in our valid experiences (not forgetting our subjective realities).  
• Consistently (meaning without contradiction or flipping our position, like politicians often do), giving our reasons without changing them in midstream to avoid a trap. This consistency is the bread and butter of a solid argument.  
• Unadulterated by irrelevant facts (means don’t divert from the point under discussion by changing the conversation to facts that are not relevant. Don’t chase irrelevant “rabbits” to shift the debate to trivial details).  
• Just (meaning what is fair and impartial).  
• Logical (what we will call straight thinking and the opposite of crooked thinking). Logical thinking is thinking from accurate and defensible assumptions, then constructing logically rational arguments based on your premise. (Of this, you will find plenty of examples in Who Am I?  If needed, you will learn straight thinking as you read.)

Unfortunately, the way of thinking that lies behind our culture’s latest changes fails on all these counts. Postmodernism and its accepted theories — materialism and natural selection — are classic examples of trampling all over straight and logical thinking.  

What is Crooked Thinking?

It is when our thinking is inaccurate, dishonest, or crooked and when we say or do any or all of the following.  

Crooked thinking is:

• Saying, “Everyone thinks this,” when everyone doesn’t. Or saying “Everyone does it,” when everyone doesn’t — an argument with which parents are all too familiar).  Or stating, “We all know this to be a fact,” when it is not a universal belief. We call this stretching the truth, exaggeration, and sometimes blatant lying in the hope no one will fact-check us. When citing common sense, it is a valid argument only if those listening to you agree that most people would commonly hold it as sensible.  
• Fastening on a trivial point in the discussion while avoiding the main issue. Declaring the whole argument to be false because you observe a minor divergence from accuracy. 
• Arguing the universal acceptance of a dubious point, when in fact, it isn’t widely accepted.
• Resorting to illogical reasoning based on false assumptions. These invalidate the whole argument. One must restate the premise accurately, and the restated assumption must support the logic.  
• Manipulating people’s emotions by making shocking, indefensible statements that do not represent the whole truth to get people to believe what is one is arguing. Because emotions are usually a part of an argument, they must not possess more importance than they should rightly have.  
• Using one’s education or status to claim validity for one’s statements. This is hiding behind status or literacy and asking for trustworthiness on that basis.  

Our Culture’s “Crooked” Tactics

The thinking behind our culture’s latest changes uses these “crooked” tactics to persuade us of their beliefs. It fails to be concerned about straight thinking. The Postmodernists’ minds do not need straight thinking because they do not value or accept the validity of reason and logic, reality, and truth. However, we can still use straight thinking to dispute their arguments.  But understand, we should first have determined the real reasons why our listener is holding firm to their position. Sometimes emotional reasons are dominant. We need to show these emotional reasons to be of less value than the truth and what it offers us, or we will not succeed in challenging their opinions.  We need to help them, as well as ourselves, to identify straight versus crooked thinking. 

Irrational Tactics

Most of these irrational tactics are easily detectable, so be your own judge. However, often dishonest people will also twist the truth and only partly represent it to achieve their goals. This tactic is called sophistry — a way that was taught to the Greeks in order to deceive people as early in our history as 600 BC. The practice of sophistry is why we take the oath in court to speak “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”  No bending or inadequate representation of the truth is allowed. Deception is to be ferreted out. We must use truth alone to form a just verdict. Finding the truth is what we require of our Courts.  

Confusing Our Youngsters

Let’s talk about teens for a moment. Teenage is the time when our youth are searching for answers to who they are. The way a person identifies themselves will take them into their 20’s with a head start on life. However, if they believe themselves to be someone other than who they really are, or if one fails to understand the core of who they are, they will spend the next decade or two frustrated, disappointed, unfulfilled, and confused.

Teenage is a rough passage for most because they do not understand themselves. Each must settle for themselves “who I am” in all its basic requirements during this stage of life.  They must have the understanding to employ straight versus crooked thinking.

Tools for parents are coming up to show how you can best reach your child (and your mind) by learning how to talk to the different temperaments. I’m looking forward to these articles. 

There is more to come!  Stay tuned!

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from that link!)

Discover the truth of who YOU are!

Lean into the whole truth by discovering the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation and an InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post Straight versus Crooked Thinking appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.

These articles will now change in nature somewhat.  My new book (proposed release date in late April of 2021) is titled Who Am I?  We are what we think.  So, the book and these articles will feature tools for adults and children to develop their minds and solid education of how our culture is deliberately molding our minds in self-damaging ways. Additionally, it will offer help to talk effectively to all people, especially our children. We will learn straight thinking versus crooked thinking so that our minds will not be taken captive by twisted and false thinking, which leads to damaging beliefs.  

Our beliefs are very important for our children and us because our beliefs are the filters that play a large part in molding our lives. YOUR MIND IS YOUR MOST PRECIOUS GIFT. Therefore, we will engage its powers as we understand ourselves better.

Our Culture Does Not Teach Straight Thinking

Our culture is teaching all of us a false understanding of our worth as human creatures. For instance, it is attacking what our self-image was designed to be built on and teaching us a way of thinking that is, to say the least, deceptive and false. Postmodernism and a materialistic understanding of who we are as individuals deceptively change our culture in ways most people don’t even detect. (They along with other baggage of beliefs are taught popularly in our educational system).  Maybe many of our beliefs have been absorbed by osmosis. That’s what culture does to us.

Your Mind — Your Greatest Treasure

Your mind is your greatest treasure — even more important than your body. In fact, it controls your body. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” However, learning how to think correctly is typically not taught through early grades or even in university education. For the adult, Who Am I? and the articles that lie ahead will be an education in straight and crooked thinking and the wiles of the changing culture.

Want to be a straight and successful thinker? Want your children’s minds to learn to think straight in our culture and become strong? Then follow as we explore how our world got to where it is and what is the great battleground of the future.  

The Parent’s Mission

For the parent, your mission will be to train your child’s mind so that their greatest treasure is not taken captive and twisted with crooked thinking and false, damaging ideas. They probably are already thinking in ways that are deliberately designed to lead them astray. However, the educational system will not help. Certainly, you are in the seat that can offer them the needed help to sound and truly educated ways of thinking.  

Let Straight Thinking Mold Your Beliefs

We all are going to believe something. Your beliefs (your faith) will guide your life and your decisions. Therefore, think straight.

Are intelligent beliefs guiding your decisions? We will find out if they pass the muster of straight thinking.

Next time, we will dig into an examination of straight thinking versus crooked thinking.

We won’t forget the power of understanding our temperaments and InnerKinetics— I promise — as they interface constantly.

In my new book Who Am I?, I describe how we have become “crooked thinkers” and how to break out of this prison of the mind to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing the source of our value as humans.  You can get your copy HERE.  (Psst!  Subscribers to my weekly updates can receive a 15% discount and free shipping from that link!)

Lean into the whole truth by discovering the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are.  Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth.  Our team at InnerKinetics is ready to provide that help.  If you’d like some assistance, you can request a consultation and an InnerKinetics consultant will call you to answer questions and schedule your meeting. Schedule an Initial Consultation. If you are more independent and want to cut to the chase, you need not wait for a call back because you can get answers to your questions and schedule your session HERE.

The post What Is Straight Thinking? — Introductory Thoughts appeared first on RayWLincoln.com.