Listen to the Heart – Sunday, February 01, 1981
There is written a traditional Dutch proverb which states simply: “The Heart Never Lies.”
Whether we should rely upon the intuition of our inner feelings in every case, as the proverb suggests, is subject for debate. Certainly, intuition must be tempered with reason. A judgement or decision which is made wholly on the basis of one’s own internal response, with a total disregard for the evidence or experience, is generally an unwise judgement.
But perhaps our reliance on modern technology in all areas of human endeavor has made us too objective, too prone to look outward for decision making support, rather than inward to the proofs which each person carries as conscience or inspiration.
We now look to computers, recorders, data processors, and a wide assortment of additional information systems to provide us a base for almost every major decision. And so, we arrange the diagrams, the computer print-outs, the statistical reports—and then we decide which stock to buy, or which market will produce the most yield, or even, which automobile we will buy.
Thus, like the ostrich which lost the use of its wings because of its reliance on its legs, we who rely totally upon the faculties of deductive logic may lose the powers of intuition, powers which can extend the faculties of reason and in some cases provide the answers where empirical proofs or experience fail.
Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician, made this observation about the respective roles of intuition and reason: “The heart has reasons which reason cannot know.”1 Pascal’s defense of faith spoken three centuries ago still rings true.
For there are yet truths which are inscribed only upon the fleshy tablets of the heart, truths which cannot be proven, or disproven, with logic or observation.
Indeed, what is faith in God, if not an acceptance of the subtle doctrines of belief which spring from our own internal font of knowledge.
With all of our sophistication and technology, may we still, at times, turn inward, and listen patiently to the soft but audible whisperings of the heart.
1 Blaise Pascal. Pensees, A New Dictionary of Quotations, New York: 1978, p 519.
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February 01, 1981
Broadcast Number 2,685