We do not change our minds. We adjust them. We only modify our thinking. Survival of the organism is priority over all others. The safety, protection and security of the brain is the primary operating principle. We like to think we are changing because this comforts our sensibilities that we ought to be. Whenever we receive any new piece of information, no matter how wonderful, we find ways to select the parts we want and reject the parts we don’t. Our brains, completely resistant to transformation, only absorbs that which can be integrated without upsetting the system already securely embedded in our thinking. We think that we change incrementally, so we continue our endless search for new information that will only entrench us further in our own precious presuppositions.
I’m not talking about knowledge. I’m not talking about facts. I’m not talking about, say, 1+3=4. Knowledge is incremental. We have to learn what one is, then what three is, then what four is, before we can understand the mathematical problem. Same with geography, science, etc. I am talking about transformation. I am talking about change. Transformation is not incremental, but traumatic. It means death, then resurrection. In other words, I need to die in order to live. My mind needs to die in order to be transformed. Truth, if it is real, will overthrow my existent thought-patterns. I might think that I have transformed incrementally. But this is only because I have experienced a series of crises, or deaths and resurrections, that resemble incremental growth. But it is not the same.
This is why, when I speak on a Sunday morning, I assume that everyone listening is going to nod their head in agreement or shake them in disagreement. I assume, because I believe I have an understanding about the way the brain works, that everyone listening is going to integrate what they agree with and reject what they don’t agree with. Even questions, guised under a desire to learn, are almost always dogmatic statements of the questioner seeking affirmation for what they already believe. No change is going to occur unless someone experiences a crisis in their thinking. But this is rare.
2 reactions.:
Good read! I like the distinction between "change" and "adjust." I think it describes accurately what happens to our brains over time.
But I am usually frustrated with these sorts of semantics. Priests and philosophers are often guilty of it, which says a little bit about how similar they are. There's a school of thought which says most philosophical problems are just semantic misunderstandings, which I sort of agree with.
Actually, it's funny that you say that. I have a friend who is in seminary to be a priest and he told me it's necessary for each priest to have an undergrad, or at least a strong basis, in philosophy. This David guy isn't specifically a priest, but he is a pastor. They're similar, but different.
Which is kind of the same thing that he's saying here, the differences and similarities in the words we use. How we often use the word "change" to describe what our minds do. But it's like he's pointing out the differences between changing our minds, and actually transforming our minds. Like how we learn in a sort of linear fashion, overtime.
Don't you find it exciting and kind of scary when you learn something and it completely changes the way you think? I think it's so rare, but so incredible!
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