4.4.25
Good morning
During this passover season, I hope to bring you significant truths for you to consider, implement and bring about great fruit in the days ahead.
Do you remember the religious cult, heaven‘s gate? Those individuals who believe that a spaceship was traveling in the wake of Haley‘s comet and that it would pick them up in order to ascend to the next level to some higher being?
On January 30, 1997, the cult leader, Marshall, Applewhite, and a disciple named John Craig went Down to Oceanside, CA and bought a $3645 computerized telescope so that they could see the flying saucer behind the Haleys comet. A week later, they went back to the store, demanding a refund.
When the manager asked why they complained That the refrigerator size telescope was defective, they said it couldn’t see the spaceship following the comment.
Two months later, 39 people in their newly purchased black and white Nikes put plastic bags over their heads to shed their earthly containers and they killed themselves. Nothing. Not even direct visual proof was going to convince them against their belief. Crazy, right? Well, aren’t we just as crazy too? But you say, I wouldn’t believe something that would kill me. Well, let’s take some inventory and see how much that’s true:
let’s take, for example, people who smoke. They’ve been shown the repeated evidence that it causes cancer and contributes to various other chronic health conditions,p. But, smokers often rationalize their smoking by saying they need the cigarettes to help deal with anxiety, or helps them remain thin, because you know, being overweight is a health risk too. Or they say they don’t smoke nearly enough to cause any serious harm or by flatly denying the evidence that supports its health risks.
People who eat poorly do the same. How many times have you committed to healthy eating when a donut, muffin, piece of cake, fries, or raw cookie dough took you off your course? Maybe you thought,, it’s only one donut. I’ll skip lunch today to make up for the calories. Or it’s not actually that many calories. Or you told yourself you didn’t actually intend to be that strict about the diet anyway…or that the diet is only part of your weight loss plan…or your exercising later. So teasing a little bit now is OK. Or once again, flatly, denying any evidence, pointing out the effects of those choices.
We do this about drinking…getting into a car… staying in unhealthy relationships… staying in unhealthy careers…recycling, or not, etc. We have a deep motivational mechanism that under lies our reluctance to admit mistakes or except scientific findings even when those findings can save our lives. This is what’s called cognitive dissidents.
All the decisions that we make about what we believe, what we buy, where we go, what we do, and how we live, our lives is driven by seeking consistency With our self identity. We are all powerfully motivated to maintain mental identity and consistency, not just crazy cult, people, or even social deviance. All of us. We are all terrorized by anything that clashes with closely held ideas and beliefs. We will do whatever mental gymnastics are necessary to reject, debunk, or simply avoid any new information that would threaten our pre-existing convictions or your new desires.
By the way, the formation of the idea of cognitive dissonance arose when social psychologist Leon Festinger infiltrated a doomsday cult, UFO religion. The seekers prophesied an apocalypse that failed to be realized. Committed followers, adopted an array of bizarre coping mechanisms to deal with their disconfirmed expectancy and prophecy. Most of the heavily invested members reinterpreted the evidence that the world didn’t end as proof that they were right all along. The world was going to be destroyed, but was spared because their faith and prayers saved it. In other words, instead of dealing with the discomfort of having been wrong-headed, the whole rootin-tootin time, they just adjusted their belief to be consistent with their perspective evidence. Crazy, right?
You know what’s really sad?We all do that. Any existing belief that you have, this religion is good. That one is bad. The leftist are bad, the fascist radical right are bad. Trump is the devil incarnate. Trump is the God appointed Savior of America, pro life, Pro choice, guns, good guns, bad climate, change, vaccination, gender, fluidity, racist, anti-racist woke, non-woke…not just deeply ingrained beliefs. Any decision that we make, I’ll buy this car. I’ll eat this pizza. I’m not going to the gym today. I’m gonna vote for this candidate, we will be begin to justify the wisdom of our choice And find reasons to dismiss the alternative. Before long, any mixed feelings we might have had or felt at the time of decision, we will have none of that. And we will justify each step taken after the original decision. We will find it harder to admit That we were wrong at the outset, especially when the end result proves self-defeating, wrongheaded or harmful.
This, by the way explains why changing your brother-in-law‘s political opinion is so hard, if not impossible; especially if he has thrown time, money, effort, and his vote at them. Also, note, he can’t change your mind for, similar reasons; Let alone anything spiritual.
So what can you do about this so at least You aren’t so crazy. A few things: One, get comfortable being uncomfortable. The world doesn’t have to line up to your limited understanding and perception of it. Allow conflicts to exist.
When you and a friend disagree. Take the correct mindset. A friend is always a friend and a mistake is always a mistake. Or you can throw away the friendship and not minimize the conflict. I’ve always said it’s easy to tell the difference between adult and children. Children always choose relationship over being right and adults always choose right over relationship.
Here’s number two. Don’t buy into this cancel culture. People who are brilliant, entertainers, sports stars, actors, comedians, business leaders, Religious leaders…they say or do something that contradicts your need for their identity, consistency, and Without a moments notice, they are canceled. Careers ended, their entire lives resumes, but a lifetime of contributions terminated.
I’m sure you can think of many personal examples that have happened to you and possibly even examples of what you’ve done to others. Personally, I think we should allow humans to be flawsome. Awesome, but flawed. Flawsome! You may find this hard to believe, butI have several awesome friends who have made mistakes… And just as surprising,I’ve made those mistake mistakes too, or even believed in stuff I find a little crazy. But that doesn’t cancel out all the other amazing things of who they are and what they are about.
And number three see the gray. Nothing is black and white I assure you. Whatever absolute fact you believe in there’s another way to see or interpret the same absolute fact. Let it be OK that they’re always nuances, contradictions, hypocrisies, complexities, and grey areas to anything and everything. Don’t believe or try to make everything black or white. Thereis alot of gray out there.
What I know for sure is, I am sure that I don’t know Everything that I think I know.I might think I know, but I also know simultaneously that I probably don’t know all there is to know about it. So in actuality, I don’t know, and That’s OK with me.
I believe as Socrates said, Though I am not a big Socrates fan, “the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Can you deal with that or does that make you even more crazy? The answer to that question will determine your sanity, if not your longevity.
And since this is a scriptural blog and study for him, I think you can make all the applications to your spiritual life without me be laboring thepoint (Prov. 16:25).
“There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end only leads to destruction“ (Prov. 16:25)
Happy feast season and happy preparation day!
Shalom
Zoom call tonight “Really, it was God‘s idea to use animals sacrifice to draw near to him“? Why? (Lev. 1-5). Or, “so much to learn and so much I don’t know!“
Do you remember the religious cult, heaven‘s gate? Those individuals who believe that a spaceship was traveling in the wake of Haley‘s comet and that it would pick them up in order to ascend to the next level to some higher being?
On January 30, 1997, the cult leader, Marshall, Applewhite, and a disciple named John Craig went Down to Oceanside, CA and bought a $3645 computerized telescope so that they could see the flying saucer behind the Haleys comet. A week later, they went back to the store, demanding a refund.
When the manager asked why they complained That the refrigerator size telescope was defective, they said it couldn’t see the spaceship following the comment.
Two months later, 39 people in their newly purchased black and white Nikes put plastic bags over their heads to shed their earthly containers and they killed themselves. Nothing. Not even direct visual proof was going to convince them against their belief. Crazy, right? Well, aren’t we just as crazy too? But you say, I wouldn’t believe something that would kill me. Well, let’s take some inventory and see how much that’s true:
let’s take, for example, people who smoke. They’ve been shown the repeated evidence that it causes cancer and contributes to various other chronic health conditions,p. But, smokers often rationalize their smoking by saying they need the cigarettes to help deal with anxiety, or helps them remain thin, because you know, being overweight is a health risk too. Or they say they don’t smoke nearly enough to cause any serious harm or by flatly denying the evidence that supports its health risks.
People who eat poorly do the same. How many times have you committed to healthy eating when a donut, muffin, piece of cake, fries, or raw cookie dough took you off your course? Maybe you thought,, it’s only one donut. I’ll skip lunch today to make up for the calories. Or it’s not actually that many calories. Or you told yourself you didn’t actually intend to be that strict about the diet anyway…or that the diet is only part of your weight loss plan…or your exercising later. So teasing a little bit now is OK. Or once again, flatly, denying any evidence, pointing out the effects of those choices.
We do this about drinking…getting into a car… staying in unhealthy relationships… staying in unhealthy careers…recycling, or not, etc. We have a deep motivational mechanism that under lies our reluctance to admit mistakes or except scientific findings even when those findings can save our lives. This is what’s called cognitive dissidents.
All the decisions that we make about what we believe, what we buy, where we go, what we do, and how we live, our lives is driven by seeking consistency With our self identity. We are all powerfully motivated to maintain mental identity and consistency, not just crazy cult, people, or even social deviance. All of us. We are all terrorized by anything that clashes with closely held ideas and beliefs. We will do whatever mental gymnastics are necessary to reject, debunk, or simply avoid any new information that would threaten our pre-existing convictions or your new desires.
By the way, the formation of the idea of cognitive dissonance arose when social psychologist Leon Festinger infiltrated a doomsday cult, UFO religion. The seekers prophesied an apocalypse that failed to be realized. Committed followers, adopted an array of bizarre coping mechanisms to deal with their disconfirmed expectancy and prophecy. Most of the heavily invested members reinterpreted the evidence that the world didn’t end as proof that they were right all along. The world was going to be destroyed, but was spared because their faith and prayers saved it. In other words, instead of dealing with the discomfort of having been wrong-headed, the whole rootin-tootin time, they just adjusted their belief to be consistent with their perspective evidence. Crazy, right?
You know what’s really sad?We all do that. Any existing belief that you have, this religion is good. That one is bad. The leftist are bad, the fascist radical right are bad. Trump is the devil incarnate. Trump is the God appointed Savior of America, pro life, Pro choice, guns, good guns, bad climate, change, vaccination, gender, fluidity, racist, anti-racist woke, non-woke…not just deeply ingrained beliefs. Any decision that we make, I’ll buy this car. I’ll eat this pizza. I’m not going to the gym today. I’m gonna vote for this candidate, we will be begin to justify the wisdom of our choice And find reasons to dismiss the alternative. Before long, any mixed feelings we might have had or felt at the time of decision, we will have none of that. And we will justify each step taken after the original decision. We will find it harder to admit That we were wrong at the outset, especially when the end result proves self-defeating, wrongheaded or harmful.
This, by the way explains why changing your brother-in-law‘s political opinion is so hard, if not impossible; especially if he has thrown time, money, effort, and his vote at them. Also, note, he can’t change your mind for, similar reasons; Let alone anything spiritual.
So what can you do about this so at least You aren’t so crazy. A few things: One, get comfortable being uncomfortable. The world doesn’t have to line up to your limited understanding and perception of it. Allow conflicts to exist.
When you and a friend disagree. Take the correct mindset. A friend is always a friend and a mistake is always a mistake. Or you can throw away the friendship and not minimize the conflict. I’ve always said it’s easy to tell the difference between adult and children. Children always choose relationship over being right and adults always choose right over relationship.
Here’s number two. Don’t buy into this cancel culture. People who are brilliant, entertainers, sports stars, actors, comedians, business leaders, Religious leaders…they say or do something that contradicts your need for their identity, consistency, and Without a moments notice, they are canceled. Careers ended, their entire lives resumes, but a lifetime of contributions terminated.
I’m sure you can think of many personal examples that have happened to you and possibly even examples of what you’ve done to others. Personally, I think we should allow humans to be flawsome. Awesome, but flawed. Flawsome! You may find this hard to believe, butI have several awesome friends who have made mistakes… And just as surprising,I’ve made those mistake mistakes too, or even believed in stuff I find a little crazy. But that doesn’t cancel out all the other amazing things of who they are and what they are about.
And number three see the gray. Nothing is black and white I assure you. Whatever absolute fact you believe in there’s another way to see or interpret the same absolute fact. Let it be OK that they’re always nuances, contradictions, hypocrisies, complexities, and grey areas to anything and everything. Don’t believe or try to make everything black or white. Thereis alot of gray out there.
What I know for sure is, I am sure that I don’t know Everything that I think I know.I might think I know, but I also know simultaneously that I probably don’t know all there is to know about it. So in actuality, I don’t know, and That’s OK with me.
I believe as Socrates said, Though I am not a big Socrates fan, “the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Can you deal with that or does that make you even more crazy? The answer to that question will determine your sanity, if not your longevity.
And since this is a scriptural blog and study for him, I think you can make all the applications to your spiritual life without me be laboring thepoint (Prov. 16:25).
“There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end only leads to destruction“ (Prov. 16:25)
Happy feast season and happy preparation day!
Shalom
Zoom call tonight “Really, it was God‘s idea to use animals sacrifice to draw near to him“? Why? (Lev. 1-5). Or, “so much to learn and so much I don’t know!“
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