Emotion as a Form of Knowledge in Spiritual Matters

Throughout the world cultures have tried to find a way to justify what they know. Ancient Sumer came up with Enki and other gods. The Arabs followed Allah, the Hebrews worshiped Jehovah and the largest group in the world worships Jesus Christ. The people in each time decided which one was their personal god, and their decision to follow their god came from emotion. Some synonyms to emotion are passion and feeling. To understand religion you must have another sense in you, which allows you to know who is your god.

In the King James Bible, Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. ” Matthew 21:21 says “If ye have faith, and doubt not… if ye say unto the mountain Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. ” Romans 10:17 says “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. ” All of these passages address the idea of faith in that which is not seen. On the outside, faith in another life may appear pure fantasy, so for a mind based on logic there must be another source of decision.

Emotion prompts the bearer, and this is sometimes called ‘feeling the spirit of God. ‘ The verse in Romans shows that faith comes from hearing the words, but to internalize their meaning the hearer must be in tune with the spirit. John 6:35 shows this point well, saying “He that believeth on me shall never thirst. ” Since thirst is a mortal need, in this case Jesus is telling his followers that their souls will be satisfied. This is a belief in a nice future, but a purely logical mind would rationalize that it is impossible to deny your physical body because of a belief in a man on earth.

Believing in God comes from a deeper portion of the human mind, from the subconscious areas where rational thought is not the only way to know. Emotion is the key that this lower level, or soul, believes or knows to be true. In the Book of Mormon, Ether 12:6 says “faith is things which are hoped for but not seen. Most people have lived their whole lives without ever seeing the god they believe in, but still fervently protect their knowledge. A robot with artificial intelligence sparked by creative thought would not have the necessary parts in the brain to comprehend this.

To this robot, it would appear irrational to believe in the supernatural, because there exists no proof. Rational thought helps to create this doubt, but also it is needed to teach. To proselyte you must organize your beliefs to show others, but rational thought could argue against this. The best way to teach others is to touch their soul, whether through prayer or simply the message you are sharing. Emotion fundamental to a belief in God or in a higher power, because only through it can belief in a god grow.