I’ll go on and disappoint several of you. I am not a Trekkie. I have only seen two episodes of Star Trek in my life. However, I think that the idea of Mr. Spock is well known. For those who know even less about it than I do, Mr. Spock is a character that is purely rational and does not possess emotions. I am sure this is true generally. Maybe some Star Trek buffs might want to point to times Spock does show emotion I don’t know about. If so, fair enough. I write today about the personality type that is represented by such.
I will also not disappoint in telling you that I am an intellectual. However, I tend to be more emotional than most people realize and my emotions can carry me away and take my rationality hostage. That happens more times than you would realize. I realized it was happening some yesterday at my friend’s wedding and has been happening in knowing that day was coming closer.
It really gets a guy like me thinking. I am sure that if we all used our minds and our rationality, we would all be Christians. Why is that? Because rationality is that which conforms to the truth and Christianity is the truth. Thus, the more rational we become, the closer we get to the truth of God. When we become irrational, it is at that point that we deny the truth of God.
Some of you might be wondering what I was wondering last night when I thought about this, and I am still thinking my thoughts out on it. Why did God give us emotions then? If we all were created and God has a desire for us to become a part of the family, why not create us all like Mr. Spock?
The honest truth must be that God wants us to reflect not just his mind but his heart as well. He wants us to have deep and abiding love which is also somewhat emotional. No. Love is not an emotion, but I believe that true love will in some way involve an emotional response just as true hate will.
If so, then it is not only our minds that need to be conformed to the truth of God, but it must be our emotions. Our minds are that which are the tool for finding the truth of God, but it is our emotions that help us measure our response. Do we respond in love or do we respond in hate? Many of us who are honest I think would say that it’s a little of both. If it was totally love all the time, we’d all live much better lives.
I wrote some time ago on feelings and how we overplay. A good friend wanted to be sure of one thing though. We’re not underplaying them as well. They have to be good things. Why? Because we’re not meant to be like Mr. Spock. We’re meant to respond to God in an emotional way rather than simple mental assent. It is a matter of the giving of our whole selves to God. Yeah. Some of us may be more intellectual and some may be more emotional, but each of us is to give our whole selves to God.
However, even if we are more emotional, I firmly believe that emotion is to be subject to reason. Unfortunately, we tend to place emotion above reason and I believe this is a result of overtones of naturalism where we have been forced to become little gods to ourselves and it is we who determine truth and one way we do that is feelings. We need to realize that we have a God outside of us who is determining the truth. (I personally hesitate to say that as I don’t see how truth can be created seeing as all truth exists in the mind of God eternally. There just isn’t much of a better way to say it.)
What do we do then? Do we ditch our emotions? Not at all. We give thanks for them. We just realize they have a proper way to function the same way that our minds do. God does not want us to be Mr. Spock. He also doesn’t want us to be fully emotional as well. He wants both.
He wants creatures that are like himself. He wants creatures that love, and love rejoices in the truth.
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