You need to think out again, whether it is appropriate for the situation you are in. The Emperor Julian, on his Persian expedition, burned his boats in imitation of Alexander the Great. Unfortunately conditions had changed; and what was wisdom for Alexander was folly for Julian. It cost him his life, and irretrievable disaster for the expedition. Unless we are all going to be monks in monasteries, salvation as preached by Jesus is in danger of becoming irrelevant. It is utterly inappropriate as a guide to conduct in an honourable profession in the secular world today. One has to use one’s own vision, and one’s own judgement, and initiative if one has any.
Why I am so confident that my Theory of Consciousness has substantial truth in it? It is because it worked. It enabled me to master the technique of persuading witnesses whom I considered dishonest to tell stupid obvious lies, of their own freewill. This involved being able to read their minds to some extent. Some people would say this was telepathy; but I would say it was just ordinary cross-examination, just doing a professional job. Without verification like this, there is no means of knowing whether the speculations of a particular frame of mind are reality or fantasy. The frame of mind does not verify itself. It is no good saying, “It was so vivid, it must be real”. Nor, “It is so logical, it must be true”. It may be vivid and logical, and false! The only verification is proof by subsequent experience. For example, if someone says they experience vividly the presence of God, if God exists (as I believe He does), they may indeed be experiencing His presence; and the experience may be so vivid (as St. Paul’s was on the road to Damascus) that they feel compelled to act upon it. But the vividness of the experience does not prove its reality, because no experience is self-verifying. Until proved true, in one’s own mind at least, by subsequent events, one must always be prepared to admit one may be indulging in delightful day-dreams. Or again, the monumental theological structure of the Middle Ages, which proclaimed that God created the Universe, though wonderfully complete, logically self-consistent, and even beautiful, still collapsed. It collapsed because the foundation of fact, on which this monumental speculation had been made to rest, was found to be false by the work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton.
But what happens when events do bring verification? The thrill of verification makes it tempting to press on deeper and deeper into the particular attitude of mind, regardless of the consequences and possible penalties for so doing. For example; Bismarck’s three wars, in which he continued political intercourse by other means, each bolder than the last, had an unhappy ending. The first was the Schleswig-Holstein affair in 1864; the second the Austro-Prussian war of 1866; the third the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. All of them were fought for limited political aims. All were effectively decided within weeks.