Expert: Mr. McClellan - 5/5/2009

Question
QUESTION: I felt your answer was middle of the road and the 2 verses you mentioned to read; Deut 18 and John 3:1-3 wouldn't necessarily help a struggling person.  Your additional readings are good reading especially Wm Durant but do you really think she will engross herself in this quest by the encouragement, though the Word of God is always very true and good, this seems a bit off target??  I'm not criticizing, just don't grasp the answer fully to this question. As a learned man, where am I going wrong??

ANSWER: Hello Robert,
Thanks for your question.
I want to try to assure you that my answer was not "middle of the road." Those two verses, plus others on the topic, actually reveal the answer to the question asked. I just didn't explain how because I wanted to provoke her to try to recognize the rather "obvious" answer herself causing it to mean more to her than if I just told her right out. There's an old saying that goes, "Things too easily obtained are just as easily dispised." So, if I can get a person to think more carefully about something and try to discover where they've made a critical error in reaching a conclusion, then they can appreciate the answer much more. They will have discovered it virtually by themselves and be far more likely to accept it rather than argue about it due to not having thought carefully and logically enough about it.
Now, as for the other readings. Similar to what I explained above, the extra readings provide a very valuable form of evidence, or proof, that must be accurately reasoned on. But, if that is done, the answers they arrive at will be legitimate and accurate and far more acceptible to them, and they will most likely be the truth.
I've said before and I'll say it again. The truth is actually quite in plain sight but our prejudices get in the way of seeing it and just telling someone straight out what the truth is does not often do away with those prejudices and the problem of them not being able to recognize the truth is still as it was.
Don't get me wrong. I do sometimes, maybe even often, say straight out what the facts are. But, it's usually when I think that the person is far enough along in their ability to reason accurately that they can easily see that the answer I give them is the correct answer and not just a prejudiced opinion. It's likely that I don't always succeed at my goal, but I try because I think it's very important for people to figure things out for themselves as much as possible in order, hopefully, to learn how to recognize their prejudices and to be better able to discover the truth when it can be known.
I appreciate that you're not being critical. I see this as strong evidence that you are a person who really struggles to learn the truth, especailly when you sense that it is one important enough to struggle earnestly for until it is found. Too few people do this, or are willing to do it and want their answers handed to them without a struggle. There's a saying that I've come to appreciate a great deal that goes, "While you might guess the right answer, or be right for the wrong reasons, you should not consider yourself to be correct until you're sure you know why."
Thanks again for your message. I hope to publish a little book in the future that I think will light up the world with the answer to how to really know the truth. Believe it or not, it really is "right in front" of everybody all the time.
Sincerely,
Mr. McClellan


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I do agree with your approach here just that I perhaps read through her question and felt her 'foundation' is on sand and that is where I would of started - "Who is God, Does He exist, Why was I created, what is my destiny?"  I fully agree the answer is 'right in front' of everyone who looks without prejudice and does not give up too easily.  This was my only observation perhaps thinking of my own life's search for the truth.  I'm glad you didn't take it the wrong way and showed a kindly patience with your reply.  I wish you success with your 'little book' (like in Revelations?) and hope we all eventually find the way of Isaiah.

Answer
Hi Robert,
I agree that her foundation is on "sand," but I've discovered that the same is true of virtually every person on the earth. Not that I've met every single one of them, but I know where the thinking of all the noteworthy "thinkers," and a great many of those not so noteworthy, has gone wrong. It seems that a lot of people can sense that there is a truth, but they can't put their finger on it. They guess all around it but never recognize it. When I was quite young, I realized that there had to be a correct answer to such questions and we had to be able to know them for certain else God, if indeed there was one, could not be just. So, I spent the next several decades turning over every possible stone and checking and rechecking everything. I spent many thousands of dollars on books and carefully read them all, I attended live debates, I went to school, I memorized large portions of the Bible, I talked about it and listened to other learned people, or at least people who are popularly believed to be learned and who believed themselves to be learned, I questioned everything over and over and over until one day it finally hit me square in the face what the truth is and how to know for certian that it is the truth. I don't have to guess anymore. What's more is the fact that the truth, the real truth, is really surprisingly simple and quite rational and objective and I've often wanted to kick myself for not having seen it sooner. It's so simple that I'm really going to have to work at making a book out of showing what it is and how to recognize that it really is the irrefutable truth. Even then, however, I feel certain that there will be a lot of "unbelievers," people who will just refuse to admit what should be so obvious.
Well, I hope that "she" will be strong enough, curious enough, sincere enough, and serious enough to begin the journey in earnest. I've pointed the way but she will have to take the steps.
Maybe you've heard the story of the woman who was at a party where there was a piano player playing live music and was really making that piano sing. At the end of one piece, she said to the piano player, "I'd have give half my life to play the piano the way you do." The piano player said, "No, you wouldn't." The woman, taken aback, said, "Why, what do you mean?" The piano player said, "Well, if you had really wanted to play the piano like I do, you'd have given half your life to do so just like I did." Most people just don't want to know bad enough to put out the energy and expense of finding out for themselves. They'd rather let others do the work and then sit in pretend expert judgement on whether or not it is really true.
Sincerely,
Mr McClellan