Everlasting Place
  • Home
  • One way
    • Proof
  • Sadie Sparrow
    • Sadie Sparrow Excerpt
    • Author Chat
    • Articles
    • Book Reviews
  • Memoir
    • Memoir Excerpts
    • Reviews, interviews & endorsements
  • Blogs
    • Eternal eyes: a blog about forever
    • Golden years: a blog about the elderly
  • Old folks
    • Planting tips for Christians
  • Messages from Chris Carrillo
  • Library
  • Bookstore
  • Contact

In the throes of cognitive dissonance?

3/27/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
I learned a lot of garbage in the mid-‘70s while working on my B.A. in Journalism.  It wasn’t that I was focusing solely on fluffy subjects; I spent all my electives on modern American, Russian, and German history, earning my lone C in the latter class because I had succeeded only in mastering the material, without adding anything particularly brilliant to the discourse.
 
Alas, it was the university’s journalism curriculum that left so much to be desired.  Instead of challenging us to work hard and hone our skills, our professors spoon-fed us worldly philosophies that sent many of us down the broad way to destruction (see Matthew 7:13-14).
 
For example: There is no such thing as objective truth, they said. Every report is a product of the observed and the observer, whose preconceived notions inevitably sway his interpretation of the facts. Ergo, a journalist can only report “his” truth or “her” truth, never “the” truth, because “the” truth doesn’t exist.
 
Another example: If you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. That includes fairies, elves, demons and gods. In my early 20s at the time and in full rebellion against the teachings of my Christian upbringing, I gladly embraced this idea. After all, if there was no all-seeing, goody-two-shoes God to judge me, I could do whatever I pleased. Which may explain why I never bothered to ask my professors, “But what about love and hate? Selfishness and sacrifice? Courage and fear? We can’t see things like these, either, but we know they exist.”
 
I must have missed the lecture on critical thinking.
 
At any rate, that’s what universities were teaching Wannabe Reporters as far back as the 1970s. Which probably explains a lot about the current state of journalism.
 
But I did pick up one interesting and most likely truthful concept in college: the idea of cognitive dissonance.
 
Here’s a good description of the phenomenon, compliments of Encyclopedia Britannica: Cognitive dissonance is “the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. The unease or tension that the conflict arouses in people is relieved by one of several defensive maneuvers: they reject, explain away, or avoid the new information; persuade themselves that no conflict really exists; reconcile the differences; or resort to any other defensive means of preserving stability or order in their conceptions of the world and of themselves.”
 
Or maybe they simply go mad.
 
I think cognitive dissonance must be epidemic in the western world today. I’ve never before heard so many people trying to justify the unjustifiable in a vain attempt to squelch mental conflict.
 
This is what happens when we refuse to recognize an absolute standard of right and wrong and instead consult our own desires. The Bible describes it as doing what seems right in our own eyes. Often, the result is cognitive dissonance – at least at first, until our hearts become so hardened that we are able to bury such conflict under mountains of excuses and distractions.
 
Happily, there is a worldview that eliminates this problem, requiring absolutely no mental gymnastics to ensure peace under any circumstances. That worldview is biblical Christianity.  
 
Biblical Christianity makes it easy to know which path to follow in any situation. There’s no need for guesswork; God has provided us with all the answers in His word.
 
“It’s in the Book,” my friend Pam has been known to say. “If you want to know what’s right, just look in the Book!”
 
Does your boss want you to fudge your hours in order to pad a client’s bill? “You shall not bear false witness” (Exodus 20:16). Are you tempted to cheat on your taxes? “Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” (Mark 12:17). Feeling unhappy with your neighbor for pointing out, quite rightly, that your lawn could use a good mowing? “Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22).
 
And so on. I don’t imagine there’s an issue in this world that the Bible will not resolve for us, if we can only be bothered to study and follow its advice.
 
Christianity doesn’t protect us from life’s problems. But it sure does put an end to cognitive dissonance. I’m grateful to my alma mater for alerting me to this phenomenon, and to the Lord for wiping it out of His children’s lives. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

    Archives

    December 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Care to subscribe?

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from tracie7779, Luci Correia, Maxwell Hamilton, giardinaggio, Doug1021, Angel Xavier Viera, Damian Gadal, Reboots, leoncillo sabino, mRio, HikingArtist.com, guymoll, csath07, Guudmorning!, fred_v, homegets.com, ishaip, jinxmcc, freeparking :-|, CallMeWhatEver, BryonLippincott, simpleinsomnia, csread, nicephore, Doug Beckers, mandydale, berniedup, tontantravel, h.koppdelaney, Jill Clardy, anieto2k, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, QuidoX, Ryo | [ addme. ], ShebleyCL, TinyTall, proggy-yahoo, Infiniteyes, Genista, kippster, Speculum Mundi, HerPhotographer, Tauralbus, megallypuff, harshxpatel, Waiting For The Word, CoreBurn, Gordon Chirgwin, {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, John McLinden, Patrick Feller, jikatu, Peter O'Connor aka anemoneprojectors, byzantiumbooks, bizmac, H o l l y., Peter Blanchard, sheriffmitchell, Tony Webster, hectorir, City of Overland Park, luis_cunha, Sam Howzit, bertknot, QuotesEverlasting, iturde, ejmc, VARNISHdesign, Cimm, Good Book Reader, Renaud Camus, banjipark, romana klee, 00alexx, erix!, branestawm2002, amsfrank, m01229, cbcmemberphotos2477, rhode.nel, Veronique Debord, joshjanssen, zenjazzygeek, h.koppdelaney, Laurel Mill Players, quinn.anya, *ErinBrierley*, Ben Pugh, Photographing Travis, BarnImages.com, anees.waqas, swambo, Alan Miles NYC, glenngould, Patrick Feller, davecito, wade in da water, Endre Majoros, France1978, dainamara, theseanster93, insightpest, eliduke, volker-kannacher, cogdogblog, Editor B, poshdee, brewbooks, J D Mack, ThomasKohler, mayeesherr. (in West Bengal!), TEDxHouston, Ms. Phoenix, PBoGS, Eselsmann™, Inside Guide To London, ShironekoEuro, Tom Anderson, flequi, cogdogblog, njaminjami, Search Engine People Blog, ShanMcG213, Julie Edgley, randihausken, pescatello, Waiting For The Word, moriza, Iain Farrell, Arizona Parrot, digitalmindphotography, enjosmith, www.WeisserPhotography.com, STC4blues, Holidayextras, Randy Roe, goprogresswent, BenDibble, kstoyer, Rennett Stowe, williac, ImNotQuiteJack, Life Mental Health, Jose Antonio Cotallo Lopez, gruntzooki, electricinca, adactio, miheco, Zemlinki!, bnilsen, chispita_666