ï»żDid you know that, in most instances, you can choose whether you are going to be offended or not? Itâs true.
In our society today, we are so QUICK to feel offended, to be offended, to have our feelings hurtâŠand we feel like we have to then make sure that nobody out there makes us âfeelâ offended. But did you catch what I said? Feeling offended is a choice!
And you know what most people say: Choose?!? I donât choose that! I canât help but be offended when someone does or says __(fill in the blank)____. Iâm here to tell you, yes you can.
When you are constantly getting offended & upset by the things people around you say or do, youâre riding a never-ending emotional rollercoaster. Guys, this is ridiculous! This is a terrible way to live! Nobody elseâs thoughts & opinions should make you âfeel offendedâ. What they think is what they think and it has no effect on you whatsoever, unless you choose to let it affect you.
This is a segue to enemy number one, and itâs name is Emotionalism: Emotionalism is elevating your emotions as the most important thing. Itâs when the way a thought or an idea makes you FEEL has become more important than whether the thought or idea is good or true. Itâs where emotions are elevated above reasoning.
We live in a âfollow your heartâ society, where we are all encouraged to do âwhatever makes you happyâ and if it feels good, it must be good. We mistake feelings for facts.
The reality is, yes, God gave us our emotions and theyâre neither good nor bad, they just are. But our emotions arenât meant to be substitutions for good thinking and facts.
I want to challenge you to start wrapping your brain around the idea that you donât have to be led by your emotions, regardless of who is trying to get you all wrapped up in your feelings!
Hereâs the deal, and hereâs why Iâm talking about this early in this podcast: you wonât be able to hear what Iâm teaching you if you get offended by the examples Iâm using.
You will never be able to learn good solid thinking if youâre always led by your emotions.
This actually leads us to the second biggest threat to good thinking, which is Relativism: the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.
In other words, whatâs true and right changes based on what society decides is true or right, and most of that is based off of feelings and emotions. You see how that works together? Itâs like this vicious cycle of being tumbled in the waves of emotions and relativism over & over again, according to the newest flavor of the month. This has resulted in an ever-growing epidemic of emotional & mental health crisis in our country, and it has to stop.
Learning the skills of critical thinking gets your feet back on solid ground and gives you the tools to be able to see through all the tactics and allows you to start getting closer to the truth.
Thinking is the hardest thing youâll ever do, which is why so few people do it. It is so much easier to just take & believe what youâre being told. Let me ask youâŠwhen was the last time you took an ideaâŠany ideaâŠand said, âHmâŠI wonder if this idea is a good one or not. I wonder if this idea is a virtuous oneâŠor if this idea is even correct! Let me think about this idea from all angles so that I can deconstruct it and see the value or the lack thereof in it.â Thatâs crazy! We donât do that!
But our ideas are powerful b/c ideas precede action. You never take any kind of action without it coming from a thought or idea first. And in todayâs world, most of those ideas are fed to us from others, and we havenât taken the time to evaluate the merits of these ideas.
âWe must exercise our minds so that it doesnât hurt anymore when we try to use them.â -Fallacy Detective
Very few people are willing to question their own position on something.
I believe there is truth, and we can know itâŠand itâs part of our job as human beings to seek it out.
The reality is this- logical fallacies & thinking errors are everywhere - EVERYWHERE - including the church or religion youâre a part ofâŠ.the political or social party you identify withâŠthe hobbies you enjoyâŠetc, etc, etc. And Iâm going to point them out for what they are, REGARDLESS OF WHO OR WHAT GROUP IS COMMITTING THE FALLACY!
That doesnât mean the person, group or organization is BADâŠa lot of times, they donât even know theyâre committing a logical fallacy! (although sometimes they do and theyâre doing it on purpose to get a certain response )...but most people havenât learned this stuff, so they donât even realize theyâre doing it.
So, if you think you need to get offended by any comment or idea that goes against whatever group or party or organization youâre in or aligned withâŠyouâre going to struggle listening to this podcast, lol, b/c youâre not going to learn anything if you keep riding this emotional rollercoaster & getting offended.
But, if you feel like you can say, âokâŠI can choose to not take everything so personally & I can choose to stop getting âoffendedâ or getting my feelings hurt by every little thing - as if the whole world is out to get meâ - then I promise you, youâll start to see the truth in places you never saw it before.
You CAN see truth in someone you disagree with. And you CAN see errors in someone you do agree with. And I would say, we NEED to be able to do both!
Watch out for Emotionalism and Relativism on your journey to learning to think well.
Ok, that wraps up the introductory episodesâŠcoming up next, in episode 5, weâre diving into the fallacies and weâre going to start with whatâs called the Either/Or Fallacy.
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: âIs that really true?â
