Key Concepts of Spiritual Axioms Embodying Spiritual Values and Beliefs
Most people think they are too smart to fall for propaganda, but this isn’t true. Many people expose themselves to harmful cultural programming every day. If we understand the key concepts of spiritual axioms, we can spot the tactics used in propaganda and mind control.
A mindset is an established routine of thinking. If you want to grow intellectually and spiritually, you need a healthy mindset embodying spiritual values and beliefs.
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Mindset Principles for Spiritual Growth
We firmly agree with Socrates’ assertion that seeking the truth is worthwhile, even if the answers you find only uncover what isn’t true. When you can determine fact from fiction, you open the door to spiritual freedom.
“Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know. When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek the truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It’s true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don’t care. Once you’ve tasted the truth, you won’t ever want to go back to being ignorant.” — Socrates
We can show you twelve simple tools for distinguishing fact from fiction. You won’t need advanced knowledge of mathematics or philosophy.
The Spiritual Axiom
The word axiom comes from the Greek axíōma, which means something worthy or self-evident. Axioms or maxims separate fact from fiction. You can use them in everyday life. It will surprise you with what you discover.
The following tools show us issues with the argument’s construction or premises and help us spot problems with arguments. So review the list to keep these axioms fresh in your mind. In this way, they help us spot issues with arguments attempting to deceive and distract us. These tools are easy to learn.
Embodying Spiritual Values and Beliefs
When people ask where to start with their study of logic and rational thinking, the answer is here with the key concepts of spiritual axioms. They will help you build mindset principles for spiritual growth.
Don’t be afraid; logic is good. These powerful mental tools are easy to use. If you want to discover the truth, these tools are a must. They expose the ways people misuse arguments to mislead and defraud. When you spot violations of these axioms, stop and investigate. Chances are you will uncover other logical fallacies.
These twelve axioms are one of the three components of our rational thinking toolkit. Together, these three tools are essential for today’s world. You’ll find plenty of places to use them. Embodying spiritual values and beliefs that are healthy requires vigilance. Watch out for those who use the following tactics. Let’s jump right in.
The Key Concepts of Spiritual Axioms
People sell us ideas with arguments, so it is important to learn the tactics people use to misuse arguments.
1. Repeating A Lie Does Not Make It True
Repeating a lie is first on the list. It’s the most common tactic of unscrupulous politicians and religion. And it is also the primary element in modern advertising. It’s how to make a false premise acceptable. Repetition gets us to buy useless things like diet, water, and ideologies. The beauty of this ploy is that it’s almost invisible. Unless you look for it, you won’t see it.
It doesn’t matter how absurd the argument is. Repetition can make something believable. The more often we see or hear it, the more we believe it. That’s why advertising works. Using several types of communication methods helps spread and solidify the message.
Slogans or symbols increase the belief in the message, so you repeat your slogans and have the perfect propaganda formula. Everyone will remember the lies about Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. It all came together with the slogan, lock her up!
The argument works like this: XYZ is true because many people think it is accurate or because some charismatic celebrity endorses it. Therefore, wide social acceptance means XYZ is true. Don’t fall for this ploy.
Just remember, false information remains false. Repetition does not make something accurate. And it is a spiritual axiom like this one that will uncover this deception. This is something religion, the advertising industry, and right-wing religion and politics don’t want you to do. When you can spot this one, it will save you a lot of time and money. Don’t buy until you know the truth behind the claims.
2. The Scarcity of Truth Does Not Make it a Lie
When someone tries to discredit facts because of a lack of their occurrence, they may use sacristy as an excuse. New ideas, facts, and sources are often scarce. Otherwise, they would already be well-known facts.
Western religion is well-known for removing sources that contradict their worldview. Some form of the Inquisition survives to this day. It’s what religions do to root out what they call heresy. It’s happening today in the Middle East. Many ancient archeological treasures are being destroyed by wars and religious prejudice.
Remember, the scarcity of data does not mean the data is false, and a fact remains a fact, even if you can only find it in one place. Don’t fall for it. The answer to this fallacy is doing your research. Uncovering deception often reveals how people destroy evidence. We must consider additional facts to know the truth, even contradicts our current understanding.
3. Ad hominem Attack
Ad hominem is short for ‘argumentum ad hominem.’ It is Latin for to the person. In this tactic, you attack the person’s credibility to distract from the real issue. Speakers often use this tactic with crowds to trigger emotions of fear and anger, and it works well as a slogan when repeated.
We’ve already given an example. Lock her up! It’s short, so even the intellectually challenged can follow along, and it avoids dealing with the facts. If someone is embodying spiritual values and beliefs that are healthy, they won’t use these kinds of tactics.
4. The Duck Principle or Plagiarism
If it walks like a duck or quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. And if it also has feathers and webbed feet like a duck, it is a duck. When someone tries to sell you a duck by a different name, it is still just a duck.
Plagiarism is taking the work of another and passing it off as your own. It is a breach of common ethics. You would not expect a religious organization that is supposed to be an example of moral behavior to engage in this type of violation. But you’d be wrong. Western theology is built on plagiarism.
Western theology has an interesting tactic to circumvent the duck principle of plagiarism. To circumvent this dilemma, it must hide its plagiarizing of ancient mystery religions. These are dying god cults from Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Assyria. In its internal documents, it tells the truth in a roundabout way.
… the Church has borrowed without hesitation from the common stock of significant actions known to all periods and to all nations. In such matters as these, Christianity claims no monopoly or originality. — The Catholic Encyclopedia and International Work, Vol. 14 (1907) (1)
How The Originators Become the Heretics
The Church claims earlier pagan traditions are preconceived forgeries of the Devil. In this way, the originators become the forgers. This makes the people who created their doctrines heretics. This gives the Church the right to persecute them for practicing the things they created.
It sounds ridiculous. How does this work? They claim the Devil told Pagans about the future doctrines of the Church so they could duplicate them. And this is how the Pagans could know about all the doctrines, symbols, and rituals eons before the Church existed. Does this argument make sense? No. It also creates another problem.
The problem with this argument is that it assigns omniscience, the ability to know all things, to the Devil. Ops. The Devil shouldn’t have the attribute of omniscience, and only God is supposed to know everything. How is the Devil able to do that? That makes little sense. Still, they hold on to the argument that the earlier Pagan practices are preconceived forgeries. That way, they can plagiarize anything. It is a spiritual axiom organized religion violates at every turn.
Sadly, this argument works with those in the Church. Believers and clergy alike cannot admit their religion is a copy of pagan mythology. It would destroy their credibility and give credence to the original pagan beliefs.
This argument proves the only thing crazier than an imaginary friend is an imaginary enemy.
5. If a Document Says ABC, it doesn’t mean XYZ
It’s a favorite tactic of a used car salesperson. Even though the speedometer says the car has 100,000 miles, trust me, it only has 50,000 miles. It’s how people try to explain away problems with their sacred texts. They claim the text means something other than what it says and then cherry-pick what they hold as authoritative while ignoring the inconsistencies.
The argument is that even though the divinely inspired text says XYZ, what God meant was ABC. This argument is often necessary when a religion develops doctrines that contradict or go beyond its sacred texts’ scope. You will often find this tactic and one or more other logical fallacies. Similarly, they chose which parts of the holy books are sacred and which they could ignore because we don’t believe that way. Their spiritual values and beliefs are on a sliding scale. They use them when it serves their purpose.
The next tool on our list deals with denying science and logical reasoning. Denial is a common tactic in both religion and politics. The spiritual axiom of seeking the truth is based on finding the facts.
6. Discrediting Valid Science Just Because
This violates common sense and is easy to spot. People are often straightforward in their denial of the facts, and some are proud of their denial. Learn to question those who debunk legitimate science. History, chemistry, archaeology, and astronomy are superior to mythology and superstition. Use science, not myths, to confirm the reliability of all data.
Secular sciences and disciplines are not evil, but some religions claim that any sciences that contradict their traditions are equivalent to “a wrong against God.” It’s simple. To believe the evidence of science is heresy. Don’t fall for this ploy. Learn the truth and accept the conclusions of valid scientific evidence. The healthy mindset principles for spiritual growth are based on science.
Of all the key concepts of spiritual axioms, this one has the most profound effect on common sense. A popular culture dominated by religion systematically trains people to deny science.
7. False Positive Association
This tactic links crazy ideas and outright lies with legitimate sources. The idea is to piggyback or closely associate your false premise with facts. It is how religion uses facts to justify outrageous claims. For example, the sky is blue because it is God’s favorite color. This is the kind of logic rampant in Western theology.
Testing validity, applicability, and reliability is the key. Testing the data will often reveal how their premises fail to apply to the data they are trying to piggyback on. They often use circular logic around this dilemma.
Their argument goes like this: Since we think XYZ is valid, whatever they associate with it must also be valid. When this happens, we need to ask if the association is valid.
Here’s a prime example. There is an empty tomb in Israel, and this is a fact. But that doesn’t mean your imaginary friend was buried there and then awoke from the dead. The association with an empty grave has no basis, in fact, with your imaginary friend. False positive association is the spiritual axiom that makes unbelief in facts and evidence possible.
8. False Negative Association
Falsely associating a fact or truth with a lie does not turn it into a lie. Be aware of the attempt to associate a socially unacceptable or religiously undesirable idea with viable data. It’s an attempt to render the fact unsuitable. Some use this ploy to make whole subjects or sources off-limits. In this way, their clientele won’t even approach the subject, let alone turn their brains on and begin thinking about it. Excluding useful sources, topics, or legitimate sciences is limiting and prejudicial.
Another sign of this tactic is banning books and prohibiting subjects or authors. If someone lists what you should not read, that is censorship.
9. The Use of Emotions to Determine truth
It is a natural reaction to protect what you believe from threats.
