Blog:Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25: Difference between revisions
Blog:Salvation is for the "childlike"? Matthew 11:25 (view source)
Revision as of 11:01, 31 July 2024
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We often wonder that we ourselves would never have been skeptical like the pharisees, or had we been there ourselves, we'd be entirely free of doubt. Doubtful. | We often wonder that we ourselves would never have been skeptical like the pharisees, or had we been there ourselves, we'd be entirely free of doubt. Doubtful. | ||
Confirmation bias | === Confirmation bias === | ||
You may have seen the "dancing bear" video, a short film of a group of people running in circles, passing around a basketball. Especially when told to count how many times the ball has been passed between them, viewers fail to see that amidst the shuffle, a moon-breaking bear dances right through the group. Called "confirmation bias," we tend to see what we assume. I do it all the time. | |||
It is not necessarily harmful, and, in fact, can lead to great insight, such as that of Columbus who saw only an earth that was 8,000 miles around. Had he opened his mind to, say, Eratosthenes, who in 240 BC measured it to near perfect accuracy,<ref>Earth's circumference - Wikipedia "an error on the real value between −2.4% and +0.8%"</ref> he never would have sailed west from Spain.<ref>At the time, the "Atlantic" and "Pacific" oceans were thought of as a single "Ocean." </ref> Great insight frequently follows biased vision. | |||
On the other hand, confirmation bias is the stuff of Satan. It keeps us apart. It leads to conflict. It shields us from truth. Not to excuse them, but the pharisees were counting blemished sheep and entirely missed the dancing God. Our [[Sin|three-fold concupiscence]] drives our biases: ''what our flesh desires, what we jealously see around us, and what we think we are over others.'' When any of those tendencies toward sin feel threatened, they lash us, bind us, take us where we know we ought not to go. | |||
And to get around the "cognitive dissonance" of doing wrong while knowing right through rationalization. That is, if we're lucky enough to even know what is right. The worst form of confirmation bias is that which completely binds us to an entrenched point of view. I use the word "bind" where "blind" would seem to fit. But if you think about it, "blind" can mean not being fooled by our eyes -- or our flawed perceptions.<ref>All kinds of interesting places to wander with the miracles of healing the blind. As opposed to the ancient world's view that the blind are wise because they are not blinded by what they see -- such as the blind Greek poet Homer. Jesus inverts the paradigm and gives sight (faith) to the blind (unbelieving).</ref> | |||
=== The Maid of Orleans === | |||
The Archangel Michael first appeared to Saint Joan of Arc when she was thirteen -- no longer a child, but young, indeed. And at sixteen, when she announced her mission, she was certainly young enough to be dismissed by nearly all as mere delusioned, annoying child. When the most magnificent Maiden, ''Jeanne la Pucelle'', as she called herself, came to head the French Army she was but seventeen.-- legally, in our day, a child. | The Archangel Michael first appeared to Saint Joan of Arc when she was thirteen -- no longer a child, but young, indeed. And at sixteen, when she announced her mission, she was certainly young enough to be dismissed by nearly all as mere delusioned, annoying child. When the most magnificent Maiden, ''Jeanne la Pucelle'', as she called herself, came to head the French Army she was but seventeen.-- legally, in our day, a child. | ||