Our superficiality is the consequence of our fear of thinking and encounter with our own responsibility to face God, what is a final result of such thinking. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). For they are afraid of encounter with God, people are afraid of thinking.

For they would, by rational thinking, unmask their mechanisms of the desertion from God and by that very fact their sins as well, many contest the use of reason. They assert: "The use of reason can only be obstruction!"

To justify their unreasonableness they assign to the reason a function which does not belong to it and then criticize it saying that it cannot, for example, save them. Or they refer to the cases of misusing the reason. However, the problem is not in the reason but in the motives of a man who (mis)uses it. Words can be misused too and nevertheless, nobody sees the solution in silence.

The reason has, of course, its purpose and it depends on our will whether it will be misused or used for God's glory. Many contest for the significance of reason saying that by reason it is not possible to acquaint God.

Many deny the significance of the reason claiming that the love is not rational so that therefore love cannot be understood by the reason.

Love is the only thing which can be understood by the reason. It is the concrete answer to man's spiritual and physical needs. Those needs are understandable by the reason and therefore it is possible to give an answer to them. Exactly, the sin is the one which is not understandable by the reason and is therefore confronted by the reason. We already noted that the sin cannot be justified by the reason. It is unreasonable because its choice does not have any purpose and its existence does not have any meaning. When, on the Judgement Day, God poses the question to the Satan, "Why did you induce my people to rise against me?" The Satan will only lower his head. He will not know what to say. To reasonably explain the sin would mean to justify it and that it is not possible. It is impossible to, before the examination of the reason, proclaim the freedom as slavery, senselessness as sense, distress as happiness, sin as goodness. The error just arises as the attempt of the man to justify by the reason (rationalize) the sinful deeds as those being good.

Many also attempt to deny the significance of the reason claiming that by reason it is impossible to know God.

It is true that we can not by reason understand some divine attributes. It is not clear to us how God created time and space; how He is omnipresent; how He maintains gravitation law, etc. However, many human attributes, too, are not clear to us. To me it is not clear really how I succeed to move my legs and arms by my will. A lot of that that happens in my organism is not clear to me but again I miss nothing. I am alive and healthy and so far I have never died.

Those truths which are not rationally understandable are neither important for our life. However, spiritual truths which reveal God's character, His love and mercy, are understandable and their understanding is of the fundamental importance for they reveal to us the difference between good and evil, indicate freedom of our will and tell us how to use it correctly.

"To depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28:28)

Human wish to learn and realize those divine attributes which are not understandable by reason is a sin which had induced Eve to bring her God's disapproval and damnation. Some religions even today induce man to tend toward the experience which corresponds to the eating of forbidden fruit "of knowledge of good and evil". They dissuade man from the use of reason and call him to accept as the criterion of truth a personal experience of the offered way of enlightenment.

So admirers of Krishna say:

"You can not by your limited reason comprehend God. Krishna is absolute. He possesses all qualities simultaneously; both good and evil ones."

Common sense tells us that is impossible that God has mutually exclusive qualities. It would mean that He is simultaneously happy and unhappy (unsatisfied), free and a slave, sensible and senseless, immortal and mortal, alive and dead etc. Upon this comment a follower of Krishna would say:

"Here you see how the reason is limited and unable to understand spiritual truths! If you wish to realize a higher degree of spiritual development meditate, adhere to four regulative principles, and all will be clear to you!"

Followers of many religions promise us that we will be proved that their way is right and true only if we test it and live it ourselves.

Some of them say:

"If you meditated with Hare Krishna mantra, you would realize that this is the right way, and everything would be clear to you."

Others say:

"Try to confess your sins, and you will see that you will be relaxed!"

Still others say:

"Use in your prayer the name Jehovah, and you will see the power of that real God's name."

... etc.

(We noticed how various religions want to draw us close to God through technique, instead of recognizing and personal encounter with God through the revelation of His character. But it is fair to be with God only those who chose Him, who are drawn and overcome by His unselfish love!) We bear great responsibility to God for our life to just like that, blindly, without reasonable checking, accept any way of the enlightenment and thus gamble with our destiny.

Let's assume that, upon accepted council and technique we really experience that enlightenment.

What would it prove? Nothing!

Because the experience alone is not relevant. It cannot serve as any criterion at all because the demons can provoke it as well. The criterion is at the back of the experience and its real function and not in the very experience and its visible sensations.

Let's remember that the Satan promised to Eve the experience which will assert the truthfulness of his promise. He promised to her that her eyes would be opened and that she will come to know what is good and evil only after tasting the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-5).

We are responsible before God for our life to gamble with our destiny, easily accepting some way, without reasonable checking.

Eve had got a simple and reasonable warning that the fruit of knowledge of good and evil is a mortal one.

She already knew what is good and what is evil.

Satan told her that that was only a mistake, that she would not die, but if she ate the forbidden fruit she would become like God. And as many do it today too, Eve took as the criterion of truth her feelings and impressions; the voice of her heart:

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat." (Genesis 3:3-6)

Eve really experienced what the Satan had promised her (Genesis 3:20). But, the tragic epilogue of her experiment is known to all.

We do not have the need to gamble with our destiny experiencing various ways of salvation to find the real one. Risking to choose the wrong way we risk to lose the ability to discern good from evil. And just because of that the mere experience is not the criterion. For instance, the experience can show us that strong toothache has stopped. And is that so because its real cause or only the symptom has been removed (tablet against pain)? That is still the question!

Many try to justify the experimenting with the sin saying: "It is necessary to experience the sin to understand what the love is." But, having chosen the sin we lose the ability to understand the character of the real love. It becomes strange and boring to us.

Is it necessary for us to experience death to understand the worth of the life? We should not be deceived, but dead man is not able to understand anything.

Instead to experiment and thus gamble with the seeking of the right way, God wants us to accept the truth because we understand it.

In order to use correctly our free will in this great conflict between good and evil we must first understand the truth that explains what and between what we are to choose.

We are given the clear revelation of the most important truth in the Bible, especially in God's law and in the life of Jesus Christ. God also reveals Himself to us through the life of His faithful children and through the nature which, although desecrated by the sin of a human kind, still bears His seal. Those revelations of God speak to our mind, conscience and feelings, so the sense has been given to us in order to understand and be able to make a free choice.

It would have been really senseless if God had created a man with whom He would not communicate simply and rationally. If it was like that, man would have an excuse to fall in trance or experience some special and changed states of consciousness in order to reach the truth about God.

"It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?' No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe." (Deuteronomy 30:12-14)

To reach the truth, it is not necessary to be specially intelligent, educated or gifted. To experience "illumination" the only necessary thing is to stop running away from the truth. Then we will recognize it. The truth is always here and with us. And when we close our eyes before it, it still remains the truth.

The problem is not in human inability to understand the truth.

Man does not want to think; he is afraid to use the reason for he fears facing the truth.

When apostle Paul speaks about Jews he says that their zeal is not in accordance with the reason:

"I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened." (Romans 10:2)

Why such honest but still irrational zeal cannot be accepted, is revealed by the next verse:

"Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." (Romans 10:3)

We see a typical example of the absence of the use of reason when we talk about examination of motives of religious zeal. Human righteousness (self-righteousness) which is urged by forces of human sinful nature, interferes with divine righteousness, which is urged by real love. Man fears to think for then he would become conscious that he is driven by: guilt, pride, religious feeling or some other force instead of real divine love. It is not said in vain that "only 5% of people think, 25% think that think, and the remaining 70% would rather commit suicide than to think".

God gave us His Word and sent the force of the Holy Spirit just to move us to think, to make us face our life responsibility and fulfill it in a right way relying upon His mercy, leading and power.

TO BE WISE IS TO BE FREE

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)

We are often limited by the experience and the reason is given to us to exceed that limitation, to really distinguish good from evil.

We have got the right sense for that reason, to be able to believe what we do not see:

"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." (1 John 5:20)

We have got the reason not to be deceived by what we see:

Many appeal to their experiences saying "I believe that it is the real thing, I felt it in the prayer!" or "I believe in reincarnation because I personally experience it!" But, if we should blindly believe in everything we see or hear, we would believe in the most simple missionary trick. We would believe that there is Donald Duck because we see his movements on the screen and hear his voice. If Jesus believed in all that he saw, he would believe that Satan is the angel of light because he presented himself as such when he tempted him in the desert. On the basis of the same event we see that the Satan showed to Jesus "in one moment" all the kingdoms of this world (Luke 4,5). So, the Satan has the power to reproduce adequate exact information and on the basis of additional made up information to reconstruct the experience of reincarnation or any other experience.

The greatest atheists will believe in false Christ, those who believe just in what they see. Rejecting to willingly accept Biblical Christ they will be compelled by the force of experiential proofs (miracles) to accept Anti-Christ.

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great sings and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:24)

Without using the reason there is really not a way to notice the difference between the truth and mistake and to use our will in the great conflict between good and evil.

"The simple beliefeth every word; but the prudent man looketh well to his going." (Proverbs 14:15)

"Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and lifts up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hit treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of he Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh frowart things;

My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken." (Proverbs 2:3-6.9-12. 3:21-24.26)

If we would always act according to reason, then we would not commit a single sin, because the reason is always saying that the sin is meaningless; that it is better to have confidence in God and His love for us, than to have confidence in our own experience. We commit a sin because we submit to the voice of our sinful heart, which assure us that it is better to follow the path with fewest obstacles, that it is better to follow one's natural instincts.