Show of Hands

I explained my thoughts. If you're having trouble reading or comprehending, I can't help you...

Thinking and feelings work together in a continuous cycle, where thoughts can trigger feelings, and feelings can influence your thoughts. This connection is central to how we experience and interpret situations. For example, a negative thought can lead to distressing emotions, which in turn can lead to behaviors that reinforce the original thought.

It depends what you're doing. If you're trying to fix a machine, thoughts are probably gonna be more useful than feelings. But in deciding what politics to hold and how society should be organized, thoughts are absolutely useless without consideration of feelings, as feelings are the whole experience of life.

I would not want to live an existence without feelings - just a thinking machine, but thinking must always be the dominant driver.

I feel that the answer is thinking....

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Many ( especially on the left) agree with you DJ.

They only feel they do.

Cap'n obvious.

You’ve told us what you feel. That carries some information. I think we’d get more from what you think, thus the question.

Very unusual for me, but I completely agree with Bob's statement as well. Thinking without considering feelings leads to a cold, robotic existence with no meaning. You need feelings to decide which thoughts to follow. Even something as simple as choosing to eat only makes logical sense because of one's feelings about health and starvation.

I chose “thinking,” but honestly both are essential. Feelings and emotions can deepen and guide our reasoning — they’re part of what makes decisions human. Dr. Spock and Data are fun ideals, but they’re imaginary outliers. The rest of us have emotions… unless we’re sociopaths. 😁

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I got to agree with Bob. Pushed to the extreme, an excellent thinker entirely deprived of emotions is also commonly known as a psychopath.

Thank you...

I think it's a balancing act and if you depend solely on thinking because emotions can be deceptive you're ignoring that thinking can be deceptive if emotions aren't a portion of your thought process.

So, you're saying my feeling is wrong. Thinking isn't the right answer....hmmm...lol

It depends on what you’re talking about. For many things, they work hand in hand. For example, we can think when studying the Bible, and feel the love of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

As to marital love, you often lose the feelings that you once had, but if you make a conscious effort to show love, those feelings can return.

Good answer DJ

Thinking. Feelings are deceptive and mostly just an irrelevant hindrance.

We agree.

Thinking uses your brain. Feeling is caused by hormones affecting your brain. I'm going with thinking.

Thinking, but oh how those feelings try to control us sometimes. Feelings are especially hard to conquer when combined with strong memories.

Then again, AI is getting much better than humans at the former, while not making much progress at the latter.

Wow! Nonthinkum Dominum.

You’ll have to explain that one to me.

And there’s your problem.

I really love Data as a character in part because of his character arc directly dealing with this topic. He is primarily designed to think logically, but is constantly seeking feelings to guide those thoughts. Definitely my favourite character in TNG, might be my favourite in the whole franchise. But I also love Janeway and Tuvok and the doctor in Voyager. I think Voyager is my favourite series of star trek.

I also love Tilly and Saru from Discovery, but I dont like the path that series takes with the Burn, it feels inappropriately grimdark for my beloved spacefaring socialist utopian show.

Mark, I'm not sure you're catching the point. Those feelings and thoughts are intertwined. One cannot exist meaningfully without the other. They told us what they feel as well as what they think because if and about those feelings.

Feelings are thoughts.

Both the heart and the mind are important in learning and knowing truth, in receiving revelation from God.

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