A, B, C, D or RCT?

Ok, so related to my last post, I've been thinking about an idea I was exposed to as 'Rational Christian Thinking' (RCT). I'm not sure how much of it I recall (ok, probably quite a bit), but the short version was that our emotions are generally a consequence of our beliefs. If I believe the large Doberman pincher is dangerous, I feel fear. If I think the hooded serpent playing with a mongoose is a garden snake, I'm unconcerned (and stupid).

Anyway, I've always thought the concept was very neat in that RCT has often been helpful for figuring out why I feel the way I do, especially when I'm having a strong reaction to something but can't easily identify it. (It's not like this happens to me a lot, of course, being an engineer. Engineers, of course, are very in touch with their inner selves. ;)) I've also found it really cool that as my beliefs change, so does my emotional response to events.

I can't do the entire idea justice in a blog entry, but here's a quick overview. The core idea is that the most visible aspect of our emotion is the demonstratable action (D). And yes, someone was stretching for a mnemonic that could be remembered. Each event is the result of a triggering action (A). It had a cooler name, but I can't remember it. From the triggering action, one constructed the consequential feelings (C), and from the feelings one found the beliefs (B).

For example, I ran away from the dog (D). The triggering event (A) was seeing a large snarling dog weighing approximately 70.3lbs lumbering toward me at a rate of roughly 5mph. The feeling (C) was intense fear. The underlying belief: The the dog was going to attack and hurt me.

The idea is that often our beliefs are not rational to the situation. We read into situations or believe things that aren't true. As we more accurately understand what we actually saw verses what we believed, we can change our beliefs. For example, say I spend the day idle at work getting very little done. The trigger event was my boss ignoring me in the hall when I went into work 15 minutes late. The consequential feeling was nervousness because I believed that my boss was upset with me and will come chew me out. (Why was I so worried because my boss might be upset with me? Because I tend to link self-identity and my accomplishments at work together.)

It's helpful for me to realize that "my boss ignored me" is a belief; a more accurate statement is that "my boss did not greet me" - possibly he ignored me, or didn't see me, or was rushing off to an important meeting. I don't have any direct information about how my boss felt about my arriving at work 15 minutes late.

The other aspect of it is looking at whether or not a belief (such as whether or not my work performance should be so closely linked to my confidence) is biblical, and then looking at how our beliefs change.