I recently came across a blog post containing a list of cognitive biases (taken from a WikiPedia page). I quickly took interest as I read through it, because it exposed me to the terminology used to describe cognitive and social phenomena which I’ve already come to recognize, though only in a vague and informal way. I draw your attention to a few which I believe should be relevant to Christians. We should all be aware of our bias blind spot. That is, we should know and understand cognitive bias, and aim to avoid it in our own thinking, so that our Christian beliefs can be seen to be logical and rational.
“Status quo bias is a cognitive bias for the status quo; in other words, people like things to stay relatively the same.” Don’t resist change only because it is change. be open to changeIt’s always more comfortable and less taxing to maintain your beliefs, but we should generally reexamine our beliefs when they are challenged in novel ways against which we have not already provided adequate defense. Our goal should be to conform ourselves to Him who is Truth and Righteousness, not to cling to the status quo out of avoidance of discomfort and confrontation.
It is unfair to expect others to change their minds about something as crucial as their core beliefs if you are unwilling to change yours. When I engage in apologetic discussion, fairly early on I make my willingness to change known to the other person.
“The bandwagon effect is the observation that people often do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same.” it’s not true just because many believe itAlthough popular agreement and affirmation by your peers can make you feel good about your decision to believe something, using this as a basis for belief is logically fallacious. The truth of Christian doctrine does not depend on its popularity.
“Confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions and avoid information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs.” Keep an open mind. When others provide you with references or further reading, do not immediately dismiss them simply because the source is non-Christian, or even outright anti-Christian. don’t dismiss sources outrightAt least give the material a skim, and let its content stand up for itself. If there is little or no merit, then you can gently point out flaws. If there is merit, you will have learned something, and will have been given a good challenge. If our beliefs are true and right, then we needn’t fear any arguments. If Jesus is Truth incarnate, then if we seek the truth, we will be brought to Him.
On the other hand, just because a source is Christian, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is sound. Giving undue preferential treatment to Christian authors would be ingroup bias. scrutinize agreeable sources tooTake care to think critically even about content which does nothing but confirm your beliefs. Once in a while, I’ll find Christian content which has some flawed argument or logical fallacy, or unChristian tone or manner of speech. These problems need to be admitted where they exist, especially when brought to your attention by your conversation partner.
Confirmation bias takes on a particular form among some Christians: Anything that isn’t in Scripture is discounted or devalued. scripture alone?I dare posit that this is erroneous thinking. The truth of Christianity does not need to shy away from the facts of history nor the discoveries of science. God created all things, and he is the very author of history itself. He is in control, so these two would never contradict true Christianity.
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“Once in a while, I’ll find Christian content which has some flawed argument or logical fallacy”
cough the bible COUGH 384 contradictions COUGHCOUGHcough ahemhem http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html
frostbyte:
Thank you for visiting and contributing your thoughts. It is often brought up that the Bible has contradictions. I respond: Yes, but only at a surface level. Scripture often differs in some specific details when separate narratives describe the same event. However, they agree with respect to the key issues. It doesn’t really matter to me when exactly Jesus ascended to heaven relative to his resurrection. It matters to me whether or not he ascended, period — and Scripture and Tradition are unanimous in saying that he did.
We must also bear in mind the nature of a given text. Not all of Scripture is meant to be precise historical narrative.
A little bit of sincere websearching turns up sites like Bible Contradictions Answered and an indexed response to many of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible.
What is important to us as believers is to ask: What are the core truths and doctrines that we are to take away from Scripture as a whole? We must have the right interpretation of texts, and must draw meaning out of passages in their context, and together with other relevant passages as a cohesive organism. Catholics have the Magisterium of the Church to provide this right interpretation.
It is certainly a core belief that Zombie Jesus used his Jet pack to get up to heaven. Everything else is irrelevant.
[if you don't get it, Jesus rose from the dead, thus become undead. And Christians believe not just his soul, but his body went to heaven, so one MUST assume it was a jet pack.]
It is hard to commit the intellectual suicide it required to buy into any religion.
Why must a jet pack have been used? Under the assumption of his divinity, Jesus’ ascension seems entirely plausible to me.
I always thought that undead meant “animated”, as opposed to actually living. I don’t believe what occurred was merely an animation of Jesus’ corpse.
Why is intellectual suicide involved? Belief in Jesus as God and Christ is entirely rational, and in no way contradicts reason.
when I need moral guidance, I turn to a random page in the bible and see what yahweh commands. sometimes you have try a few times before you get something other than who begat who, but it’s always rewarding. for instance:
Deuteronomy 13
12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in 13 that wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), 14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, 15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, [a] both its people and its livestock. 16 Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt.
frankly the idea that anyone would use this book as their moral compass is hilarious to me. i grant you, generally we skip all the parts about how mass murder is a great idea, but really, was this the best book you could find?
if you go pick up “where do we go from here: chaos or community?” by martin luther king, you may be amazed to find that you don’t need to skip the parts where he tells you to commit genocide. because there aren’t any.
and come to think of it, he rarely mentions slavery in a positive light.
frostbyte: Your comment confuses me.
I’m not sure which side or points you’re trying to argue for or against.
It deserves to be mentioned that Catholics rely not just on Scripture, but Scripture, Magisterium and Tradition altogether as (among other things) their “moral compass”, as you put it.
The Jewish people and the Law God gave them are a prototype of the new, full people of God of the new covenant (inaugurated by Jesus the Messiah). I try to understand the commands and punishments God gave and inflicted upon them in the Old Testament eras as prototypes of the spiritual life we are to lead in the new covenant.
i mean, really it’s hard to find a WORSE source of moral advice than the bible. Harry Potter would be better. The Wilton 1996 Book of Cake Decorating would be better. at least it doesn’t ACTIVELY PROMOTE hatred and murder.
i’m trying to think of something worse, and it’s just not coming up… i mean, even the necronomicon, at least you know where you stand with cthulhu and such. the lovecraft mythology is very simple and transparent, in that nobody is on your side at all. with christianity, good and evil are both puppets operated by the same guy, playing what is essentially a sick little game.
Cthulhu may be an ancient beast of unspeakable evil, but at least he’s not a hypocrite.
The Catholic Church has always affirmed that God grants everyone free will, a will that interoperates with his sovereignty. I don’t believe your assertion that we are puppets is true.
God himself does not and cannot turn against or contradict himself. A certain degree of sincerity and open-mindedness provides the deeper understanding needed to scratch past the surface and any apparent contradictions in Christianity. I have not yet found any significant contradiction in the doctrines taught by the Catholic Church.
Two little kids, Joe and God, are playing cops and robbers. Joe shoots and kills God. God decides that Joe has missed, and proceeds to deny any attempt on his life.
Similarly, you don’t judge a criminal in Mexico with American law.
But God doesn’t even live in a country. He operates beyond the piteous constraints of “making sense” or “rules” or what have you; those concepts that we use to properly order the world.
He’s not very much fun to play cops and robbers with, I’ll tell you that…