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Belief - unbelief.... intellectual thinking - knowledge....

The independence of human thinking is to be appreciated where earthly questions and their answers are concerned, but the greatest danger is where spiritual problems are to be solved. Man endeavours to prove the correctness of his thinking and he will also succeed in doing so in purely earthly results of his thinking. However, spiritual matters cannot be proven with evidence, consequently nothing can ever be intellectually declared right or wrong as far as spiritual questions are concerned. The many-sidedness of earthly understanding requires proof of what is put forward as doctrine. Spiritual knowledge, however, cannot be forced into a fixed doctrine because proof cannot be provided. But just as one cannot prove the truth of what has been gained as spiritual thought, so one cannot prove that it is untrue, for even the highly developed intellect cannot penetrate an area that remains closed to it as long as it does not utilize spiritual strength to do so. One will only ever be able to speak of 'faith'; faith, however, is a matter of the heart, not of the intellect. Through faith, man arrives at a knowledge that he can never acquire intellectually. But it is not possible to prove this knowledge, nor can he be proven wrong about what he believes he knows. And since no proof can be provided, it must also be left to the fellow human being to appropriate the knowledge of the believer. The acceptance of this wisdom is a completely free matter of will. On the other hand, however, his fellow human being does not have the right to make him out to be a fantasist or a liar, for he cannot provide any proof of this either, and his intellectual thinking, no matter how sharp and clear, is inadequate in the face of spiritual truths. The believer accepts these, the unbeliever refuses.... The believer has travelled a path that the unbeliever can also travel if he wants to.... But then he must gather the same knowledge, and only then can he convince himself of the truth of what he previously rejected. Belief or disbelief determines the degree of knowledge or complete ignorance.... But where faith is lacking, even the sharpest reasoning is of no use; it leads astray. Human wisdom investigates earthly problems and yet does not penetrate into areas that lie beyond the earthly. Deep faith, however, lifts the veil of what is hidden and the deepest secrets are revealed to man. And even if nothing can be proven.... the likewise believer will unconditionally recognize as truth that which is imparted to him by a believer. The same knowledge will be made accessible to him, he will defend with blissful certainty what he recognizes as truth, and intellectual wisdom will not be able to convince him of the opposite because his heart will confirm that he is thinking correctly. Thus the truth can only be conveyed to his fellow human being, yet in order to be able to accept it as truth he must likewise shape himself into a believing person who desires truth, only then will he recognize the value of what is offered to him and then he will not allow himself to be put off if the truth is intellectually refuted and presented to him as untruth or doubted. Impressions presented purely intellectually should therefore not be evaluated, but the feelings of the heart should be heeded, for this is more credible than wisdom acquired on earth....

Amen

VERA - NEVERA.... RAZUMNO RAZMIŠLJANJE - ZNANJE....

Neodvisnost človeškega razmišljanja je še kako dragocena tam, kje gre za zemeljska vprašanja in njihove odgovore, vendar obstaja največja nevarnost tam, kjer je treba razrešiti duhovna vprašanja. Človek si prizadeva dokazati pravilnost svojega razmišljanja in to mu bo uspelo v čisto zemeljskih rezultatih njegovega razmišljanja. Toda duhovnih stvari ni mogoče podpreti z dokazi. Iz tega sledi, da nečesa, kar je povezano z duhovnimi zadevami, nikoli ni mogoče racionalno razložiti kot pravilno ali napačno. Večplastnost zemeljskih pojmov pogojuje dokazovanje tega, kar se predstavlja kot nauk. Toda duhovnega znanja ni mogoče stisniti v trdno učenje, saj ni mogoče zagotoviti dokazov. In kot človek ne more dokazati resničnosti tega, kar je pridobil kot duhovno znanje, tudi ne more dokazati njegove lažnosti, saj tudi visoko razvit um ne more prodreti v področje, ki mu je nedostopno, dokler za to ne uporabi duhovne moči. Človek bo vedno moral govoriti le o »verovanju«; in vera je stvar srca, ne uma. Z vero človek pride do spoznanja, ki ga z razumom nikoli ne more pridobiti. Toda to znanje je nemogoče dokazati, prav tako je nemogoče dokazati lažnost tega, kar verjame, da ve. In ker ni mogoče predložiti nobenih dokazov, je treba človeku prepustiti izbiro, da sprejme znanje vernikov. Sprejemanje teh modrosti je popolnoma svobodna stvar volje. In po drugi strani ga bližnji nima pravice imenovati sanjač ali lažnivec, ker za to tudi ne more zagotoviti dokazov, njegov intelekt, pa naj bo še tako oster in jasen, je premajhen v odnosu do duhovnih resnic. Verujoč človek jih sprejme, neverujoči jih zavrne.... Človek vere je šel po poti, po kateri lahko hodi tudi nevernik, če želi... in takrat mora zbirati isto znanje in šele takrat se lahko prepriča o resničnosti tega, kar je prej zavračal. Vera ali nevera določa stopnjo znanja ali popolne nevednosti.... Kjer manjka vera, tudi najbolj ostro razumsko razmišljanje ne zadostuje, vodi v napačno smer. Človeška modrost raziskuje zemeljske težave in ne prodira v področja onkraj zemeljskega. In globoka vera odgrne tančico skritega in človeku se odkrijejo najgloblje skrivnosti. Tudi če se nič ne da dokazati... človek, ki je poleg tega tudi vermik, bo brezpogojno prepoznal kot resnico tisto, kar mu verniki predstatavijo. Na voljo mu bo enako znanje, z osupljivo gotovostjo bo predstavljal tisto, kar prepoznava kot Resnico, razumsko razmišljanje pa ga ne bo moglo prepričati v nasprotno, saj mu srce daje potrditev, da misli prav. Resnico se lahko preda le bližnjemu, da pa jo ta lahko sprejme kot Resnico, se mora oblikovati v človeka vere, ki hrepeni po Resnici in šele takrat bo spoznal vrednost tega, kar mu je ponujeno, in takrat se ne bo pustil zmesti, če mu bo Resnica razumsko zanikana in predstavljena kot neresnica ali če se vanjo dvomi. Čisto razumskih trditev torej ne bi smeli sprejemati, upoštevati pa je treba zaznavanje srca, ker je to zanesljivejše od zemeljske modrosti...

AMEN