Tag: knowledge

The Call to Memory

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;” 1 Corinthians 2:6-7

Remembering

Before you were born, you were inspired, breathed, and known by God.  Every bit of information that is your intricate genetic makeup is known and stored within you by God.  You are of a reverberating lineage; one that is vibrant and resounding in space and time. Who still remembers? 

As human beings we think, we develop, and grow.  We acquire knowledge, we reflect on things, we seek answers to questions, we form ideas.  Our knowledge about the world is robust, but the things not yet known are wide and varied; curiosities about the nature of reality that will take you to the very limits of your intellectual ability.

Understanding

Perceiving beyond our knowledge of the natural world with finite sensory experiences is not rational by any means of material standards. It is going beyond all reasonable doubt to its certainty; to confront all of that which is unreasonable doubt.  It is maneuvering paradoxes and coming to that which is the belief in God as the first cause.

Innatism suggests that the mind is born with knowledge, ideas, and beliefs. Memory that transcends our experiences.  Could there be memories encoded before birth?  An intangible faculty of memory stored prior to all mind body experience.

Although the mind is not a blank slate at birth, we need our senses and experiences as keys to unlocking what is stored knowledge and intellect, and even remembrance.  Things that are innate to you are things that you naturally identify with through sensation, reflection, and memory.

Grasping

As human beings, we grow in wisdom and knowledge that springs from an inquiring mind. There springs an eagerness to know how the world works. And God sustains this developmental process all the way through.  There are however many traps, in this world of duality– in a world that increasingly contradicts what is good and true as fallacy, to further us from our intuition and knowledge of our intrinsic value.  

It is as though the world is trying to remember what is true as we grasp at illusions.  The good is absolute, but the world debates the moral good and argues for moral relativism.  How then can we remember eternal truth? 

By sensing it as it connects to memory. 

Knowing

Memory is your brain’s capacity and function to encode, store, retain, and recall information from sensory experiences.  The collection of our experiences since birth and our innate sensibilities.  Every experience and memory shapes us in purposeful ways.  And although specific memories may be forgotten, those memories that truly shape us are never completely gone. 

Sensing

We sense what is true from hearing what is good and true.  From sensory to genetic memory. Firstly, with unaided intellect, then being appropriately receptive to make sense of what’s out there. “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness” Romans 10:10. 

There is a call to remember. But who remembers, and who does not?

“For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.” Isaiah 52:15

What Do The Eyes See

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Corinthians 4:16-18 

Visual Perception

Imagine for a moment, that what your eyes see, which is based on knowledge of visual perception and optics; knowledge which has been formulated through centuries of study, empirical data, and true to form scientific evidence; imagine for a moment that the science on which our interpretation of the visual world is based, has a determined gap or opening for persistent illusion; and that this gap for illusion, can forcefully mislead your senses and your reality in a duplicitous way.

Your eyesight is how you visually see the world. Your eyes collect visual information from light in the environment, and your brain processes and interprets this light. This is your visual perception. Your visual perception, along with all other information from sensory inputs from the environment, make up your perception of the world. 

Visual System

Looking at the world through your eyes is an instantaneous process.  Visible light in your environment reflects off the objects in your field of view and enters your eye.  The reflected light rays enter the eye through the cornea. The cornea refracts (bends) the light rays, the light rays then passes through to the lens which focuses the light into an image onto the retina.  The retina converts the light photons of the image into electrical signals which are carried by the optic nerve to the visual cortex of the brain where it is processed. All in an instant.

What we see is essentially light reflection and refraction.  It’s all about light.  Light informs what our eyes see in the visual world.  It is the basis for our reality of the visual world.

Illusion

Now, visual perception can be tricky. The scientific study of optics shows us that important details of how light behaves and how light properties interact with matter is still a mystery.  Sensory stimuli from light in the environment has a premise of being openly available for tricking the brain.  We see this with illusions.  Illusion can easily interplay with reality.  An illusion is a confusion of the senses and a distortion of how our brains normally interpret sensory stimuli.  Illusions distort our general perception of what we know to be reality or true.

So, if perception is how we understand the world through sensory information; is perception everything in understanding our reality? Can you trust your senses? Can you trust what your eyes see to be true?

What is True

In philosophy there are several schools of thought regarding knowledge of truth.  There is empiricism, which states that knowledge comes only from sensory experience such as observation. Rationalism states that reason and applying logic is the primary source and test of knowledge. And there is innatism, which suggests that not all knowledge is gained from sensory experience but rather that the mind is born with knowledge not learned. 

So, we have two ideas: 1) No knowledge enters the mind except through the senses, 2) There are eternal unchanging truths which are known by the mind not by the senses.

Science is wholly committed to one; the other says the senses can mislead you. 

So, do we wholly accept our interpretation of sensory information presented by the environment? Or are our brains primed to be misled?  Is it prudent to rely solely on our senses to inform our reality, knowing we can be misled by illusion and optics?…

Or is there a divine or innate knowing which we can believe, embrace, and rely on, despite what we see?

1807 – 2027: The tune and the score.

“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.” Proverbs‬ ‭27:12‬

19th Century

Seven delicate years in, and the 19th century was developing proudly.  Puffed up- with a head crowned heavily with death and injustice in its formative years, it knew nothing of true freedom.  Still fixed to stubbornness but the years grew wise in knowledge of what progress looks like.  Injustice had a name, inequality grew shameful. A higher purpose was the calling. Visions of unity echoed out the mouths of babes. 

The future had steam; the years had the momentum of industry.  It pushed us forward come hell or high water.  

20th Century

The 20th century had undercurrents of hope and change not fully realized but inevitable.  We moved with the civil rights movement.  It made us better, humanity became stronger.  

21st Century

Information takes its place, the good and the destructive.  Widespread and primed for manipulation, the 21st century has information technology fast and furious.  Now, as we methodically advance through time, shaking in our knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs- what is our melody? Are we in tune?

The future has a sound.  I hear it.  It is intelligent beyond words.  Beyond our imagination but of our imagination.  The music is captivating. The drums are ominous, but the strings are soothing.  The horns, harmonious.  And the score is arranged for us to abstract the notes of who we are, and where we’re going. 

The Search for Knowledge

“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16: 1-3

The search for knowledge in a wild or aggressive way is rooted in materialism.  It is related to the physical therefore beyond man’s ravenous ambition for transcendence through knowledge.  The wild search for knowledge is built of ego.  And although the ego, in concept is metaphysical, it is bound by the soul and earthly in nature.  Attempts at piercing the veil never was.  The search for secret knowledge is ages old. A search for knowledge beyond the veil, out of one’s mind.  It is the ego’s attempt to be more than special, more than gifted, more than graced, more than loved, more than…

Knowledge, however, is not a power grab.  It is not to be usurped. Knowledge is given as wisdom and insight.  It is graced and gifted through specific and special experience. It is given in love and should be received with patience.

The search for knowledge in a wild or aggressive way is forever carnal.  Forever rabid for divine supremacy.  Knowledge tempting to offer sovereignty beyond your wildest dreams. Gnosis.  As foreboding as Icarus in flight.  This wild knowledge calls from the abyss (outside the bounds).  What then when you stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares into you?