Scientists know how to think properly; strip the nonsense away and get to the facts that when interpreted properly bring you to the truth. Science made the world as we enjoy it today, and science will save the world from its own carelessness. Science is everything, from business to art, books and language, churches and skyscrapers. Don’t become a scientist, but learn how to think like one.

You can apply pragmatism to anything, from your finances to your love life to God. It’s the careful scrutiny and puzzle solving that is the practice, add the flavorings of the arts, emotions, spiritual experiences and you can achieve profound levels of mental acuity and quality of life that exceeds stay in your lane mentalities. In the process you stir the pot causing disruptions and discomfort, but that can be a rich experience, and it will only bring you out the other side better for it; maybe a little battered and beaten, but c’mon that’s the joy of the process.

I’m a Pastor, Artist and Poet, the opposite of a scientist you may think, but not as much as you may think. I do everything with the scrutiny of a tinkering brain; a forensic frenzy for the essence of whatever I’m working on, applying an intense study to the tasks at hand, whether studying God and religion, developing a painting, or hammering out concepts in a poem requiring restrictive language on the one hand and anything goes on the other, the process is akin to the scientific rigor in a lab; I should know, I ran a Genetics lab at Columbia for well over a decade.

I’m no scientist, not even close. They’re brilliant. I’m smart enough to get the job done. It’s the way of thinking that is the key, not in the specifics, but in the process of question and answer that is applied to my work as a Paster, artist and writer. My philosophy professor in college introduced the semester by saying he wasn’t going to tell us what to think, or teach us endless philosophical concepts, but he was going to teach us ‘how to think’, and if he was successful, he’d create a power in us that we can apply to any subject or task for the rest of our lives. He was right. It worked.

It works in part because the process can make up for deficiencies in your abilities. The power of effective scrutiny enables and unlocks your potentials that pure raw talent alone cannot, especially if you’re deficient. Fake it until you make it is the outward mask, but on the inside you’re a raging computer calculating with relentless willpower.

Pragmatism is a way of thinking, not necessarily a way of living or being. Extra human powers like passion and intuition, following your gut, can all be employed by pragmatic philosophy, just like any tool, it’s how you utilize those powers that make them useful. Unfettered passion leads to chaos, pragmatic passion leads to inspiration.

My belief in God began from intuition (and some supernatural nudging), but it was the pragmatic filter that enabled truthfulness, hence solidifying intuition into grounded knowledge of God’s existence. That is why I’m so confident. I didn’t drink the Kool-Aid, I inspected God’s nature and concluded its validity. Underlying the artistic and theatrical art and ministry is a foundation of straightforward no nonsense understanding. God is real, not made up. 

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