Confirmation Bias Spiral
When we really want to believe something, we will find ways to support what we believe, no matter the evidence to the contrary. We say that we have researched a subject, but we minimize or ignore mitigating factors and evidence to the contrary. This is called confirmation bias. If you don’t like the Democrats or Republicans, everything they do, even if they agree with you at times, is seen as evidence against them. If you believe the war in Iran was justified or not, every piece of evidence confirms your judgment.
Confirmation bias exists in an echo chamber where you don’t allow other voices in to challenge you with evidence. You already know what you believe, and you only accept evidence that supports your belief. This reality is only exacerbated today in social media. We can tailor the groups we join so that we feed off of one another and deepen our commitments to whatever we are for or against. It is not a bad thing to have these types of groups, unless they blind you to sound reason by examining other evidence or acknowledging that your knowledge is limited.
Confirmation bias creates a bad relationship with reality. If you don’t get out of the spiral, you become blind to any other possibilities and live in self-deception because that is where you are comfortable.
The Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus. They have been wanting to kill Jesus for a while. Even if he gives them evidence that their judgment of him is wrong, they can’t see it. They have already determined what they believe about him, and all evidence to the contrary is dismissed. Everything Jesus says and does confirms their belief about him because they see him through these darkened eyes.
This is never more evident in the Gospels than in John 9 with the man born blind. Jesus healed this on the Sabbath by making clay out of saliva, anointing his eyes, and telling him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam. The Jewish leadership already wanted to kill Jesus, a fact established in a similar story with many parallels in John 5 (the healing of the paralytic). Everything Jesus does only confirms their opinion of him. He again heals on the Sabbath, which means he has violated their rules about what constitutes work on the Sabbath. They won’t see, first, that as God in the flesh, Jesus fulfills the Sabbath by providing rest for those under his authority. Second, they won’t see that never in the history of the world has a man who was born blind been healed. That is nothing less than the power to raise the dead, the power that only God has. They have become futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts are darkened (Rom 1:21).
As the story progresses, while the healed man moves into greater and greater light, understanding who Jesus is, the Jews spiral into greater and greater darkness. The longer they continue, the greater their blindness.
Neither sin nor righteousness is static. We are never in a neutral position. We are either growing into greater insight or devolving into greater blindness. The only way to avoid the darkness is to humbly submit to the light. Pray that God’s Spirit will keep your mind submitted to his revelation. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Find friends who will challenge you and not simply agree with you on everything. Stay out of echo chambers
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