We need to state some basic lore of truth about how reality works. Keep in mind that our fundamental message is that reality is defined as Creation, what God has made. It should be obvious without having to state that Creation/Reality is imbued with His divine moral character. He didn’t construct something radically different from Himself in that sense; it’s all consistent with His personality.
The next point is that it is utterly possible to discern His character via revelation; we are equipped for it, and it is obligatory. Reality is not discernible at all without revelation. If all you have is your sensory data (however much you might enhance your senses with all manner of high tech sensing equipment) and your logic, it won’t matter how much you believe you know. It won’t matter how many more great minds and vast human experience you throw at the question; you still won’t be able to discern the character of God. And you sure as Hell won’t have a clue about the nature of reality. At the same time, you will be utterly convinced that you do understand it all.
Do I need to waste electrons here describing how vast swathes of humanity have agreed to accept the same delusion? Reality does not respond to democratic vote. The whole world could conspire together to assert “reality is thus” and even make harsh demands that it act so, but it won’t change what God has done. So we have a vast ocean of humanity refusing to see what’s actually there. Instead, they have embraced the silly notion that only so much as the senses and reason can handle is all there is. Nothing else exists beyond the pitiful limits of human intellect.
And when this mad system fails, we see all kinds of efforts to insist it didn’t fail. It’s a mixed bag of trying to talk it away, brutal demands that you simply not notice it failed, harsh treatment for anyone who betrays an awareness that it failed, and some earthly type of damnation for those who don’t cower before the authority of the human intellect.
The single greatest failure of the system is its grasp of human nature. Now, this is highly variable in itself, simply because the winds of fashion can move the current doctrine back and forth. There are observable cycles in this, some very long across multiple generations, and some very short in a matter of weeks. There are also characteristic trends that have to do with the fundamentally different outlook between sexes, and between various different cultural, racial and social groups on every different scale imaginable. In other words, it’s such a huge freaking mess of lies because it requires looking in the mirror and seeing beyond the limits of what eyes can detect, and what human intellect and make of it. It’s meta knowledge, and it’s the hardest thing to get right.
From God’s revelation we learn that human nature is not very malleable. Humans seem utterly incapable of realizing that certain things are immutable because such knowledge doesn’t sit well with human logic. The only way to make significant changes is by the power of God Himself. Even then, you can predict on the basis of revelation that such a miraculous change is confined to certain characteristic shifts. For the most part, a person’s character before and after redemption is a kind of mirror image. What they are made of didn’t really change; it’s what they are oriented upon that has changed.
But all significant change is divine miracle. No amount of human effort, even on the most nightmarish scale of manipulation with chemicals and energy fields, will change the core nature of what a person is from birth. All you can do is reduce them to something less than human. Yes, you can take away certain freedoms of choice, but you cannot remake human nature into some imaginary improved model. As soon as the dehumanizing influence is reduced, the core characteristics reassert themselves.
Thus, it stands to reason that all manner of external environmental factors cannot shape the personality. The most you can do with such conditioning is to shape some few outward behaviors. Again, you can reduce humanity to something less than human, but you cannot change someone’s personality. And when you reduce someone’s opportunities for self-expression, you lose some of their talents. You become a dehumanizing force.
You will also come under judgment from reality, because dehumanizing is working for the Devil.
Absotootly, amen.