True or false, Emotions are not an adequate method of understanding reality?

[worldscolide]

I would say this is truth personally. There is a rule i follow, A big rule, and one that is hard to follow because we are emotional beings.

The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.

The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists; what is, is; and from this irreducible bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. It is the foundation from which life is embraced.

Thinking is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts nor are they a means to discover them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality; it is our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss that we refuse to see. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reason's light. In rejecting reason, refusing to think, one embraces Idiocy.

Faith and feelings, are a device of self-delusion, a sleight of hand done with words and emotions founded on any irrational notion that can be dreamed up. Faith is the attempt to coerce truth to surrender to whim. In simple terms, it is trying to breathe life into a lie by trying to outshine reality with the beauty of wishes. Faith is the refuge of fools, the ignorant, and the deluded, not of thinking, rational people.

True

False

[BCRanger10]

I voted "false", but mainly because I think you're conflating and misunderstanding the functions and faculties of the mind here.

First of all, there are "laws of thought", but those are the principles of logical thinking (excluded middle, non-contradiction, economy, etc.). What you quoted is from a book series.

The main thing to clarify here is that faith and feeling are not the same. Likewise, faith and reason are not contradictory, nor are the mutually exclusive. Faith, understood properly, is the adhesion of the intellect to the word of another and it is rooted in the truthfulness, authority, and knowledge of the one speaking; it is a free and conscious choice. Reason, on the other hand, is the process by which the mind comes to arrive at the truth; this makes the choice of faith an informed one.

A good analogy is that of a journey: Faith (or the object thereof) is the destination and reason is the map. Faith therefore cannot reject reason if it is to function properly. Reason without faith is...well, what is it? I disagree completely that reason is how we "grasp reality". What good is grasping reality in and of itself? There ought to be a formal cause to it, which is ultimately what gives reason its purpose. Otherwise, you're just Forrest Gump running across the country because he "felt like running". If you ask me, reason isolated from faith risks becoming emotionalism as much as faith isolated from reason.

[BCRanger10]

Thank you for MHO 🙌

[BCRanger10]

I'd also recommend reading Pope John Paul II's letter Fides et Ratio.

[dustybiker2]

They often use emotions on trial, no? "How did this make you feel?" A reaction to something is emotion. Also described as gut feel or instinct. This primal reaction has been proven a reliable source. I would say emotions are adequate enough depending the circumstances.

[Agape93]

True. Emotion is how you express yourself in reaction to reality

[worldscolide]

You kinda need both. Reason is reality, emotion is the color in reality if that makes sense.

[IslaTheWitch]

emotions are part of our reality... it could be hard to understand reason if you don't understand emotions that are behind...