Following up on yesterday's post:
Since Confirmation Bias keeps us from seeing the truth of a situation, is it what Jesus is talking about in the 13th chapter of Matthew?
Immediately after Jesus shares the parable of the seed that is scattered in four places (path, rocky soil, among thorns, and good soil), the disciples ask Jesus the point of speaking in parables:
10Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do You speak to the people in parables?”
11He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
‘Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’
14In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled:
‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people’s heart has grown callous;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn, and I would heal them.’
16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.
The Pharisees of Jesus' day had the worst case of Confirmation Bias in all of recorded human history. They were convinced that Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah and so everything they heard and witnessed was put through that filter.
If Jesus forgave someone's sins, he was "blaspheming". If he cast out a demon, he did it through the power of Satan. Etc.
There was literally nothing that he could say or do that could reach them.
So I am left with this question: How do we overcome our own confirmation bias?
Is that something that only the power of the Holy Spirit can break through? Or can we combat our own bias?
If we CAN combat our own confirmation bias, it starts with the awareness that we ARE susceptible.
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