Existential Alignment and the Possibility of Discovering Truth: An Epistemological Analysis of the Cognitive Effects of Rebellion and Devotional Disposition, with Reference to the Theory of the “Cognitive Effects of Sin”

The relationship between the existential condition of the knowing subject and the possibility of discovering truth has been largely marginalized within dominant modern epistemology, where knowledge is reduced to a purely mental and method-centered process under the model of the “neutral subject.” This article challenges this assumption and defends the thesis that the truth of knowledge is not determined solely by the sufficiency of evidence or the validity of reasoning, but fundamentally depends on the existential orientation of the human agent toward reality. Through a philosophical reconstruction of the theory of the noetic effects of sin and its interpretation at an ontological level, it is argued that epistemic distortion cannot be reduced to methodological failures or deficiencies of data, but should instead be understood as the result of a structural rupture between the human subject and truth—one that systematically constrains the horizon of understanding. In contrast, obedience is conceptualized as existential alignment with reality: a condition that is not an irrational alternative to rational inquiry, but rather the condition of possibility for deeper truth-disclosure and the actualization of genuine rationality. The methodology is analytic–conceptual and grounded in a critical dialogue between contemporary epistemology and religious-philosophical sources. The outcome is an ontological model of human knowledge in which the discovery of truth is conceived as an event dependent upon the existential relation between the knowing subject and reality, while sin and obedience function as opposing existential states that structurally close or open the horizon of knowledge.