Cognition is to know the truth

If cognition is to know then you must use your mind to understand. When you become "a new creature . . . new things have come" (2Co 5:17). But you seem to still think and learn the way you did before. However, you used to conform "to the pattern of this world" (Ro 12:2) and your mind was on "earthly things" (Col 3:2). At that time "the mind of sinful man is death . . . and hostile to God" (Ro 8:6-7). To make the transition make sure your "mind is steadfast, because he trusts you" (Isa 26:3). You now "set your minds on things above" (Col 3:2) and are "transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Ro 12:2). You will now "be able to test and approve what God's will is" (:2). "The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace" (8:6) and God will keep you "in perfect peace" (Isa 26:3).

A troubled world can produce emotional challenges. There are those "who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Heb 2:15). If you are not in control you are subject to depression. The Vet Center has a fifty-eight page cognitive-behavioral workbook to educate vets to improve their coping skills. Cognition is knowing or perceiving the truth of something. However, if your analytical mind allowed you to think illogically in the first place, you'd have to trust that cognitive counseling could modify your thoughts to go back in the right direction. "Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established" (Pr 5:26).

In the age of reason, Descarte was suspicious of reason itself. What is a cognitive thought? Does it need specific content to qualify? However, when that mechanism isn't generating certain thoughts it is still self-aware. Therefore if we are conscious of our thoughts then consciousness is at a higher level than thinking. He said that if thinking could doubt the veracity of something, the reasoning was in the context of the existence of a higher entity responsible for the faculty of thinking in the first place. The well-known quote of his conclusion is "I am, I exist" for which a cognate has been created saying "I think, therefore I am." Apparently with that he was satisfied with who he was. Moses asked God for a name and he said, "'I AM WHO I AM'" (Ex 3:14). God isn't like Descarte whose identity was in his thought. He says "'I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me'" (Is 44:6).