Jumping to conclusions bias: How our minds actually work

I’ve been reading a book called Thinking: Fast and Slow by Dr Daniel Kahneman who is a Psychologist and won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. His findings challenge the assumption that human rationality prevails in economic judgement.

Worldview Orbit

It could be said that every worldview has an orbit, a stable and continuous path through which adherents travel that is unaffected as long as there is no external influence. The Christadelphian worldview is no exception and those immersed in the Christadelphian echo chamber will live out their lives in the Christadelphian orbit. Outside that echo chamber things get a little more interesting and, as I’ve previously noted, our conscious minds are biased towards maintaining the orbit we are already in. But occasionally people will find themselves in an unstable orbit for one reason or another, and that is when their worldview can change – and it can change in one of two ways: falling back to earth with a bump or spinning off and becoming lost in space.

Towering Mountains of Ignorance

It's a bit of a slow start, but bear with it. The second half is excellent.

Action Science

I work in the upstream oil and gas industry and over the last few years the Society of Petroleum Engineers has generated some great discussion about decision making under uncertainty. This is a very relevant topic for an industry that excels in extracting oil from harsh environments in hard to reach locations and from politically challenging regions. The extraction of oil requires international, multi-company, multi-agency, multi-discipline, mega projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars to achieve its goals. All this leads to a high level of uncertainty around project outcomes and a requirement for good decisions to be made with limited knowledge.

Logical Coherence

When a worldview is asserted by someone I think it should be checked by the receiving party for logical coherence before being accepted as a possible truth. The three main logical inconsistencies I hear relating to Christianity/theism are these:

Religious Ideology

I’m reading The Divine Magician at the moment which is a book by Peter Rollins who is a prominent figure in ‘Radical Theology’. It’s really interesting and provides some fascinating alternative perspectives on well-known Bible passages. He rails as much against atheism as he does small ‘o’ orthodox Christianity.

One quote from the book that particularly appealed to me is this:

Faith Transitions

If you've never been through a faith transition then you won't know what it's like, and even then everyone has their own experience (you can read a bit about mine on my website over here).

Some transition experiences are described on podcasts from 'The Liturgists' (specifically 'Lost and Found', 'The Other Side of the Mattress' and 'Parenting and Deconstruction'). I started listening to the first of these in the car on the way to work yesterday. It's a discussion between Science Mike and Michael Gungor, both of whom transitioned out of and then back into Christianity. Apart from anything else this makes them hugely interesting people to me in an intellectual way. Anyway, about three or four minutes in part of a Michael Gungor song is played as an interlude "Please Be My Strength".

I tend to bury my emotions pretty deep, but I found the first half of this song really moving. It took me right back to the time I spent asking God to show himself and help me find Him, something that hasn't happened.

I'll never forget the day that came a while after that when I actually wondered...genuinely in the core of my being...not as a mental exercise but emotionally deep within me...for the first time in my life: Does God exist? I was shaken inside, my body ached, I couldn't concentrate, I was terrified the answer was 'no', it really felt like it could be 'no'.

That was a long time ago now and I've had to come to terms with the reality I'm faced with: The God I thought existed doesn't. Perhaps a different one does, and perhaps not. Life journey's on...

Faith transitions are hard. Give people going through them a break.