§356 types of knowledge: references 201
people who are affi rmatively disposed toward the truths of faith, it is
legitimate to use facts intellectually to confi rm them, but not for people
who are negatively disposed: 2568 , 2588 , 4760 , 6047. People who will not
believe divine truths unless they are convinced by the facts will never
believe: 2094 , 2832. To enter into the truths of faith from factual infor-
mation is disorderly: 10236. People who do this become insane in matters
that concern heaven and the church: 128 – 130. They fall into the distor-
tions of evil: 232 , 233 , 6047. In the other life, when they think about
spiritual matters, they seem to become drunk: 1072. More on their nature:
- Examples illustrating that spiritual matters cannot be grasped if they
are entered from factual information: 233 , 2094 , 2196 , 2203 , 2209. Many
of the learned are more insane in spiritual matters than simple people
because they are negatively disposed, confi rming [their opinions] by the
information that is constantly and abundantly in their view: 4760 , 8629.
[ 11 ] People who argue against the truths of faith on the basis of infor-
mation argue keenly because they depend on sensory illusions, which
captivate and convince because they are hard to dispel: 5700. What sen-
sory illusions are and what they are like: 5084 , 5094 , 6400 , 6948. People
who understand nothing of the truth and who are also involved in evil
can argue about what is true and good in matters of faith without under-
standing them: 4213 [ 4214 ]. It is not a matter of intelligence simply to
confi rm a dogma, but to see whether it is true or not before one confi rms
it: 4741 , 6047.
[ 12 ] After death, factual knowledge makes no difference—[what
make a difference are] the things we have drawn out for understanding
and life: 2480. Everything we have learned still endures after death; it
merely becomes dormant: 2476 – 2479 , 2481 – 2486.
[ 13 ] The same facts are false for evil people, because they are applied
to evil ends, that are true for good people because they are applied to
good ends: 6917. True information is not true for evil people, even
though things seem true when they say them, because there is evil within
them: 10331.
[ 14 ] An example of the kind of craving for knowledge spirits have:
1993 [ 1973 ]. Angels have a tremendous desire to know and to be wise,
because information, intelligence, and wisdom are spiritual food: 3114 ,
4459 , 4792 , 4976 , 5147 , 5293 , 5340 , 5342 , 5410 , 5426 , 5576 , 5582 , 5588 , 5656
[ 5655 ], 6277 , 8562 , 9003. The knowledge of the ancients was a knowledge
of symbols and images, through which they led themselves into a famil-
iarity with spiritual matters; but at the present time this knowledge has
been totally effaced: 4844 , 4749 , 4964 , 4965.