{"id":71073,"date":"2020-03-01T12:49:40","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T10:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=71073"},"modified":"2023-10-19T16:31:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T13:31:51","slug":"confirmation-bias-telling-us-what-we-want-to-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/confirmation-bias-telling-us-what-we-want-to-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"Confirmation Bias: Telling Us What We Want To Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[390,463,685],"acf":{"old_id":"71073","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39778,"related_cahpter":"427","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"They needed to get out of their comfort zone. So do we.","content":"

In the times of the last kings of Israel, political advice was readily available from a whole slew of prophets and magicians, the pundits of the ancient world. Who\u2019s right? Only Jeremiah \u2013 and only because he speaks the word of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Jeremiah 27, we see the next symbolic action Jeremiah is asked to undertake. He is to take a yoke and send it to the kings of the surrounding nations. He encloses a message, on behalf of God:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is I who made the earth, and the men and beasts who are on the earth, by My great might and My outstretched arm; and I give it to whomever I deem proper\u201d (verse 5).<\/span><\/p>\n

God has given Nebuchadnezzar the land, but only for a short time: \u201cAll nations shall serve him, his son and his grandson\u2014until the turn of his own land comes, when many nations and great kings shall subjugate him\u201d (verse 7).<\/span><\/p>\n

Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s great success is only the result of God\u2019s will, and only temporary. The purpose of the yoke is twofold: explicitly, to tell the other nations that they will be forced to submit to Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s yoke. Implicitly, it\u2019s also clear that Nebuchadnezzar is beholden to the yoke of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

This message is also delivered to the people of Israel in the time of Zedekiah. Jeremiah tells the people to submit themselves to the yoke of Babylonia so that they will survive. If they do not do so, they will fall prey to sword, famine and pestilence.<\/span><\/p>\n

God is reminding the reader here that he used his outstretched arm (v. 5) to save the nascent Jewish nation from Egypt with pestilence (v.13) and he can turn the tables on the Jewish people if their conduct warrants it. As they have sinned, their empire will fall, regardless of what their prophets say.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were, in fact, prophets in Israel forecasting a win over Babylon, as described in verse 16. The kings, including Zedekiah, were tempted by their good news message because of \u2018confirmation bias\u2019, our desire to confirm the truth of what we already believe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hearing bad news or contradictory information is much harder for our brains, but the truly open-minded (whose hearts are loyal to God, the prophet would add) considers fully even information that goes against what we already want to believe.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this era of political echo chambers, the pundits and prognosticators don\u2019t call themselves prophets, but they exist in great number. Their words are in our newspapers and internet; their faces and voices are on our cable television. It is easy to find someone to tell us what we want to believe.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if we ascribe to the yoke of heaven, then we have to consider information that appeals to our Jewish values, even if it\u2019s politically inconvenient. Jeremiah didn\u2019t have a \u2018yoke of truth\u2019, but we ought to consider putting one on, even if it will force us out of comfortable (but inaccurate) beliefs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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