Thursday, August 28, 2008
An Interesting Human Phenomenon
Heard this story the other day...
There was once this guy who woke up one morning. He had had a dream that he had died. He looked around and saw everything as it was, but decided that the dream was true. He told his wife that he would not be needing breakfast because he was dead. She was a bit amused, but she didn't fix breakfast that morning. As the day went on, the man kept insisting that he was dead. He had not need to get dressed, brush his teeth, go to work, etc. He was dead, after all.
After two days of this, the wife was no longer amused. She was concerned, so she made an appointment at the psychiatrist to have her husband evaluated. The man went through the same litany as before until the psychiatrist decided to reason with the man. He took him to the morgue. He showed him a dead body. He discussed the different body systems that cease to function when a body has died, especially focusing on the circulatory system. The man was in full agreement that "dead men do not bleed". They even went so far as to poke the dead body's finger to see if blood could be drawn and of course, no blood came. The man was not surprised because, as he reiterated, "dead men do not bleed!" Now was the time for the psychiatrist to prove his point. He took a clean needle and quickly poked the man's finger and immediately a blood drop formed.
The man stared in amazement! He was nearly speechless. Finally he said in awe, "I guess dead men DO bleed."
I'm learning more and more each day (especially in light of all the election year debates), that we "choose" to believe something, then we fit the FACTS into our belief. I just pray that as we make our belief-choices, we would measure each "belief" with the unchanging Word of God. The ones that don't fit with the facts of the Word, change or discard. The ones that do, hold on to them tightly.
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I learned this in a major way when Kristen was having meetings with the JWs and also when I tried to come to grips with some of the traditional debates in the church which I mistakenly though would be easy. Man can it be depressing and difficult having your beliefs challenged in a serious way. But they are kind of worthless if they aren't. For me it did make me trust God and the Bible more since that's all I was left with.
And then there's the problem of rightly understanding the Bible, often a difficult task.
I'm gonna go get some beers and watch some classic NFL.
I'm gonna go get some beers and watch some classic NFL.
Yeah, I think the difficulty / difference in interpretation (of some things) can often lead to these kinds of misunderstandings.
The problem as I see it is that we (humans) are too quick to allow our opinions and assumptions (well grounded or not, biblical or otherwise) to be categorized in our minds as "facts" when that might not actually be correct or conclusive.
That was the case with the guy in this story: he had accepted the "fact" that he was dead, and it was therefore very difficult to convince him otherwise, or even to get him to consider other possibilities, since they didn't align with the "fact" he was weighing them against in his mind, even though it was a misconception.
While I certainly often fail in my efforts in this regard, I believe it's best to always keep in mind the fact that I could be wrong, and make an earnest effort to understand the point of view of those who disagree with me. In many cases, opposing points of view are often also founded in a reasonable evaluation of a different set of foundational aspects.
There is certainly absolute truth (of which clear biblical principles are the highest example), but short of those clearly stated and proven things, I think we need to be careful not to be too dogmatic in our discussions (including and especially political subjects, since you mentioned them).
The problem as I see it is that we (humans) are too quick to allow our opinions and assumptions (well grounded or not, biblical or otherwise) to be categorized in our minds as "facts" when that might not actually be correct or conclusive.
That was the case with the guy in this story: he had accepted the "fact" that he was dead, and it was therefore very difficult to convince him otherwise, or even to get him to consider other possibilities, since they didn't align with the "fact" he was weighing them against in his mind, even though it was a misconception.
While I certainly often fail in my efforts in this regard, I believe it's best to always keep in mind the fact that I could be wrong, and make an earnest effort to understand the point of view of those who disagree with me. In many cases, opposing points of view are often also founded in a reasonable evaluation of a different set of foundational aspects.
There is certainly absolute truth (of which clear biblical principles are the highest example), but short of those clearly stated and proven things, I think we need to be careful not to be too dogmatic in our discussions (including and especially political subjects, since you mentioned them).
That's funny. I was thinking that "being dead" was his opinion, and the blood drop from his finger was the fact. So, instead of changing his opinion to align with the facts, he changed the facts to support his opinion.
Anyway, I think the point is about the same.
I know we all do it. I just was reminding myself (and anyone else who wanted to listen) to be careful, especially in the middle of all of this election stuff.
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Anyway, I think the point is about the same.
I know we all do it. I just was reminding myself (and anyone else who wanted to listen) to be careful, especially in the middle of all of this election stuff.
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