The cynicism behind the question is alive today. Human beings routinely reject logic and sound reason for decisions and behaviors. Generally, human beings ACT based on feelings, desires, and personal preferences. Unfortunately, this weak foundation for making decisions is firmly established in ecclesiastical, parochial, and general faith-based arenas, and in particular, feelings and desires are used within the Christian church by many individuals as the foundation for their decisions.
Faith is not without reason, logic and principled guidelines. Albeit, within the realm of the supernatural, dogmatic, scientific and repeatable proof can not be used as evidence for the metaphysical claims of the biblical narrative. Nonetheless, one does not have to throw out their brain in order to solidly make decisions within the realm of a Christian and Biblical world view. Yet, most believers do just like their nonreligious neighbors and make decisions based on feelings and other weak and illogical reasons.
One of the biggest foundations for decisions making is personal perspective on an experience. For example, if a religious leader helps me personally achieve a personal goal such as getting out of debt or exercising daily to fulfill my New Years Resolution, then we will not only give them credibility within the specific area they helped us, but they get credibility in spiritual matters that have nothing to do with the achieved goal. At first glance, this may make sense, but it is filled with logical fallacies, starting with the logical fallacy of a "non sequitur" conclusion. We give theological credibility and may even disregard years of validated spiritual knowledge in order to follow someone or something that helped us overcome in an area we have struggled with for years. If you help me stop drinking, you now have full entree into all truth - at least you do for me. The danger here seems obvious, but subtly, over days, weeks, or months, we can switch from a solid foundation based on biblical evidence into a false religious system.
This makes sense in that credibility should be earned and not blindly given. In fact, in John 9 Jesus heals a man born blind who uses a similar argument. When asked what he thinks of the man Jesus who healed him, the previously blind man says, "He [that is Jesus] is a prophet". Yet, the healed blind man does eventually make the separation that I am arguing we do not often make by saying, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!". The blind man acknowledges the experience (I was blind but I can now see), but does not make a theological conclusion about the one who healed him (Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know). We need to do likewise.
This separation is very important because when it comes to the spiritual and theological realm, it's hard to separate results from a biblical framework that is principled based, built on a foundation of non-tangible supernatural claims. As people, it is much easier to grasp a tangible example - for example, someone can help me gain the discipline needed to to succeed in business - than it is to grasp the concepts and principle behind something like the nature of God, what happens at death, or how angels and demons function. Because of this difference, many religious environments may neglect or ignore such areas as salvation, resurrection, eternity, and other areas that break the laws of physics and natural history. We do a little better with relational ideas such as grace, mercy, justice, and love but we will even throw these out, too if I can get tangible results in loosing weight, making money, or even in an altruistic endeavor such as helping the poor. Such results SCREAM at us "TRUTH" but unfortunately, if the foundation for concluding TRUTH is feelings, desires, wants, and the like, it is a weak infrastructure and may lead to very bad and dangerous outcomes over time that are unrelated to the initial results that was the framework for trust in the first place.
Recently, I have witnessed this problem with a couple in the church I attend. The decision to get involved in another ministry - which is not a healthy ministry, but is considered by many, many people to be a dangerous religions group - this decision was based on emotional experience and of course, tangible results in a personal area of struggle, namely, loosing weight. (I might add, someones assessment that a group or ministry is dangerous does not mean it really is - that has to be investigated and thought threw... which is what I'm talking about in the first place!) The overall process with this couple took about two or three months, but the decision when made was clear and could not be challenged. The decision did not include a balanced listening to others - although the couple believed they were balanced. They strictly listened to people who were helping with the results, giving credibility in theological areas that are unrelated to the results, but not asking other people who might differ - such as elders or ministers within their own historical heritage. On top of a decision being based on feelings, the justification - in order to not feel too bad or guilty and to help "get" permission from long standing spiritual relationships - was repeatedly, "we still love everyone".
This type of decision making is exceedingly common. I'm sure I do the same thing. Yet, I pray that I can be corrected and that I will not cynically get to the point where I ask "what is truth". Biblical Truth is knowable in the major areas of theology and the practice of Biblical Christianity. Logic, study, reason, history, and the reasonable contextual reading of most of the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, provides a solid foundation for making spiritual decisions. There is a great deal that we will never know on this side of eternity, but we have plenty of information to guide us in making decisions on how to live and move and serve others as Christians.
It personally hurts, both because of relationships and because I genuinely want to help others follow God, not just authentically, but solidly based on a firm foundation. Following God should not be based on personal results in an area of life - especially if that area does not directly carry over into the realm of eternity such as weight, business, or avoiding substance abuse. Are these areas important - yes, but they do not give the foundation for Biblical, religious and Theological credibility nor do they provide a framework for what is indeed TRUTH.
