Factual-Thinking

The truth is uncomfortable and when forced to face the dislikable-truth, our emotional tendency is to deny, ignore or deflect the truth in order to preserve and reinforce our preferred-thoughts that make us feel good. We ignore, deny and even attack the truth or the messenger because the truth does not support our preferred feel-good perspective even though that perspective might be incorrect, fallacious and nonfactual. We often think things and we do things not because they are correct or that they are good for us but because they help us avoid pain, make us feel good, or at the minimum, they make us feel less-bad. In other words;

We are much more in touch with our feelings than we are with our thoughts that cause our feelings hence the reason why we act or react based on our emotions instead of acting and reacting based on our thoughts. Although what and how we feel is always valid, this does not mean our feelings are always rational, correct or based on reality. As a matter of facts, feelings have no rationality on their own just as emotions could not exist on their own. Emotions only exist and are only as rational as the rationality of their underlying-thoughts that create them. However, if the underlying-thoughts are uncomfortable, undesirable or painful; instead of us changing the facts that cause our dislikable-thoughts, we often attempt to create fallacious-thoughts in order to improve our feelings quickly because creating falsity is immediate but changing things for the better takes time and effort. And when we become addicted to getting quick fallacious and nonfactual shot-in-the-arm thoughts and beliefs, we end up wasting time that could’ve been used to change and improve facts and circumstance in our favor hence genuinely improve our feelings. This is how faith, hope and beliefs such as magical-thinking, superstitions and the supernatural are created.

There is a big difference between validity and value just as there is a big difference between what is factual and what is real. Although value is often perceived therefore value of something could vary and change; however factual-value or existential-value is always consistent and never changes unless the underlying facts change. Therefore, despite the fact that something is valid it doesn’t necessarily mean that it has factual-value. For example, we might feel and believe that we are the smartest person in the world. What we feel and believe is definitely valid to us because we are feeling it however what feels real to us might not have factual-value; in other words, it might not be the factual-truth.

Hence there is a big difference between factual-truth which is absolute and reality which could be subjective and based on interpretation. The reason why factual-truth is absolute is because facts are not open to interpretation and the reason why reality is not absolute is because in the absence of factual or evidence-based verification, reality is open to subjective-interpretation. When something is open to interpretation it will also be open to modification, manipulation and deception. According to Theory of Self-Relativity,

Facts are facts and only one form of fact exists for every situation therefore facts are not open to interpretation hence facts are not open to manipulation. Although facts can be open to examination; facts cannot be open to interpretation. Since facts are not open to interpretation, facts are the only dependable criteria that could be used for our personal system of checks and balances; therefore,

Therefore, truth which is always supported by facts, remains the undisputed-truth until and unless the supporting facts change or are proven to be incorrect as new facts emerge or are discovered. Although facts are not open to interpretation facts are open to replacement because the space that a fact occupies could only house one fact, hence the strongest evidence of fact fills the gap in that space.

Therefore, in order for us to be able to be in sync and in balance with factual-reality, we must learn to base our thinking on facts and not on how we want to feel.