Yeah, I don't really know. It just depends on your paradigm—according to rationalists like yourself, it seems, a cold rational analysis is most "correct" and reliable. For some others, the process involves fasting and prayer. I'm not going to say either is infallible. Certainly logic is a wonderful thing which has its place in our lives. But taken too far it's not always helpful or accurate, especially in us subjective humans.
Well, I certainly agree about fallibility. Humans don't have access to infallible epistemologies.
That said, if fasting and prayer reliably gets me the most useful confidence levels in propositions for achieving my goals, then I should engage in fasting and prayer because that's part of the most reliable process for evaluating evidence.
If it doesn't, then that's not a reason for me to engage in fasting and prayer, though I may choose to do so for other reasons.
Either one of those things is true, or the other is. And I may not know enough about the world ... (read more)
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.