Thread by @BrianZahnd

Empiricism and logical positivism insist that you can only accept that which is empirically verifiable; i.e. discernible to the five physical senses.

This is a dogma in modernity and it has deeply shaped all who live in our secular age. 1/5

But religion insists that what you experience by the heart can be every bit as real and trustworthy as what you empirically discern.

Yes, your heart can be deceived; but so can your senses. 2/5

Through healthy practices of prayer rooted in wisdom traditions you can form a heart you can trust.

You can experience God!

This is an experience of the *heart* — an experience as real as seeing a sunset, hearing thunder, feeling the wind, smelling a rose, tasting a peach. 3/5

But if our heart is hard (to use biblical language), we are like one deprived of a sense. In this case we may be tempted to think the divine does not exist, when the truth is we simply have a diminished capacity to sense the divine.

This problem is epidemic in modernity. 4/5

This is why it is so important to learn to pray well.

The primary purpose of prayer is not to get God to do what we think God ought to do, but to be properly formed.

And the purpose of proper formation is the experience of God. 5/5