Wednesday, May 26, 2021

The Limited Malleability Of Emotions

Spending a lifetime warring with nonsinful desires is a legalistic waste of time found easily in the evangelical world, but it would be even more difficult for a Christian to endure a lifetime of thinking that all feelings can be controlled at whim or that it should not be particularly difficult for a mature Christian to simply will certain emotions in and out of their experiences.  The potential depths of emotion can resist attempts to force them to change.  Moreover, the very introspective process of trying to dictate which emotions one feels and to what extent one feels them could even backfire and make unwanted emotions intensify.

Never does God instruct people to completely change all of their subjective feelings, a command that would at least sometimes be impossible to obey.  Instead, he demands that people act in certain ways and have certain ideological priorities.  These are things within the power of everyone to control.  No matter how a person feels, they can act or not act on their desires and emotions in a given way.  Likewise, they can reason out if it truly does follow or not follow from their desires that it would be rational or Biblically moral to believe or act as the desire compels.  Never does having the emotion or desire, even if willpower does not dispel it, amount to sin on a Biblical worldview.

Emotions cannot always be chosen.  In fact, it is often the case either that they are present no matter one's circumstances or that they partially fluctuate as a reaction to other thoughts and experiences.  In light of this, it would actually be irrational of God to condemn people for that which humans cannot avoid!  Thankfully, emotions do not have to lead to any particular act.  There is no action, obligatory or immoral, strenuous or easy, which a human could commit that they are fated to inevitably perform.  In other words, behaviors can be controlled, withheld, and carried out in accordance with a person's will, which is in turn affected by their rationality and sense of individuality.  Instructions in the Bible focus on priorities, stances, actions, and the restraint of certain desires, all of which are manageable.

A deity with the characteristics ascribed to Yahweh in the Bible would be fully aware that it can sometimes be futile for humans to try to change the feelings they experience.  They might struggle intensely to erase certain emotions or desires, and sometimes they might even succeed.  Sometimes they might struggle in vain.  In either case, being a righteous person does not reduce down to how one feels about something, but it does reduce down to beliefs (rationality) and actions (justice).  No person can validly blame their worldview and behaviors on whatever set of subjective emotions they might not be able to wish away.  It is impossible to rationally believe that emotions either inescapably lead to unwanted or sinful behaviors or disappear when it is personally convenient.

Because of this, no Christian needs to suffer self-imposed guilt over how they feel about any given issue if those feelings are not what shape their worldview.  Emotions can have a limited malleability in cases where they can be amplified, diminished, or silenced as one wishes; it is still true, and vitally so, that people (Christians and otherwise) need to understand that even emotions that cannot be strictly dismissed do not have to be enslaving and do not ultimately dictate one's moral and broader philosophical standing.  Confining certain feelings when possible can be incredibly helpful for experiencing a sense of motivation to do that which God commands, yet Biblical ethics and Christian life do not hinge on this.

No comments:

Post a Comment