{"id":36261,"date":"2024-02-29T23:33:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T07:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36261"},"modified":"2024-02-29T23:48:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T07:48:42","slug":"slowing-down-in-important-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/slowing-down-in-important-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Slowing Down in the Important Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was a challenging book. I found each idea made sense on its own, but I struggled to connect the ideas to get the big picture. I became a bit suspicious that I might be part of Kahneman\u2019s research project to observe ways doctoral students panic when they do not fully understand the assigned reading. I am sure my reaction mirrored that of examples given in Thinking Fast and Slow: <\/em>tensed muscles, heart rate increased, and dilated pupils as I tried to work my way through the book. However, I will give my System 1 and System 2 a pat on the back for doing their best.<\/p>\n

As I ruminated over Kahneman\u2019s Thinking Fast and Slow<\/em>, the word that kept coming to mind was remember<\/em>. This is likely due to my intrigue by Kahneman\u2019s idea of the experiencing self<\/em> and the remembering self<\/em>. [1] Kahneman writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experiencing self is the one that answers the question: \u2018Does it hurt now?\u2019 The remembering self is the one that answers the question: \u2018How was it, on the whole?\u2019 Memories are all we get to keep from our experience of living, and the only perspective that we can adopt as we think about our lives is therefore that of the remembering self.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n

With this concept of the experiencing and remembering self, I couldn\u2019t help but make connection to the significance of the word remember <\/em>in Scripture. For example, when Moses instructs the Israelites in Exodus chapter thirteen, \u201cRemember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place.\u201d [3] Throughout Scripture we see the emphasis on the idea of remembrance. Jesus also gave instruction to his disciples, \u201cDo\u00a0this\u00a0in\u00a0remembrance\u00a0of\u00a0me.\u201d [4] Much of faith is based on this idea of remembrance. Memories. It is fascinating to think the memories of others, in this case, those in Scripture impact much of our remembering self<\/em>. Kahneman writes, \u201cThis is how the remembering self works: it composes stories and keeps them for future reference.\u201d [5] It is incredible to think these stories give so such meaning to our faith and comprise the foundation of what we believe and how we believe it, and it continues.<\/p>\n

This leads me to consider the idea of System 1 and System 2 thinking concerning faith. Kahneman states, \u201cMemory is an attribute of System 1. However, everyone has the option of slowing down to conduct an active search of memory for all possibly relevant facts.\u201d [6] This causes me to think how much of our faith becomes an automatic response. Especially, in the case of Christians who were raised in believing homes, attended Christian schools, and work in primarily Christian circles. This is not necessarily a negative thing, but it would be very different for someone who was new to the Christian faith and navigating a new belief system. For example, when the \u201clife-timer\u201d hears the words, \u201cDo this in remembrance of me\u201d, they would automatically know this meaning and it would not require much thought. Whereas the new Christian would engage System 1 and System 2 thinking to make sense of the words and decide what to do with those words. It would require slowing down and an active memory search. Therefore, the mature believer and the new believer would have completely different memories of the same event (e.g. Communion).<\/p>\n

Thinking Fast and Slow <\/em>was a difficult read for me. I struggled to connect ideas to get the big picture. However, it did provide valuable insight on System 1 and 2 thinking and the experiencing self and remembering self. Furthermore, these ideas have caused me to consider how they play out in the faith journey. In Scripture there is much emphasis on the idea of remembrance. Memories give meaning to our faith. We remember Jesus\u2019 words to his disciples as well as remember the moment Jesus became more than a just \u201cnice man\u201d to us. In addition, Kahneman\u2019s ideas brought awareness to the different systems of thinking that would be engaged for a new Christian or unbelievers verses the mature believer. I feel a bit ridiculous admitting that I did not think about this much until now. I desire to be more sensitive to this in the future. Lastly, after reading this book, I realize I engage System 1 thinking more than I realize. It\u2019s how I survive! However, I want to make sure I am slowing down and engaging System 2 thinking in the important things. Especially, things of faith.<\/p>\n

Well, now that I have come to the end of my post, my muscles can relax and my heart rate can decrease.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em>. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[2] Daniel Kahneman. Thinking, Fast and Slow.<\/em> (p. 381). Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[3] Exodus 13:3 (ESV)<\/p>\n

[4] 1 Corinthians 11:24b (ESV)<\/p>\n

[5] Daniel Kahneman. Thinking, Fast and Slow.<\/em> (p. 387). Kindle Edition<\/p>\n

[6] Daniel Kahneman. Thinking, Fast and Slow.<\/em> (p. 46). Kindle Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was a challenging book. I found each idea made sense on its own, but I struggled to connect the ideas to get the big picture. I became a bit suspicious that I might be part of Kahneman\u2019s research project to observe ways doctoral students panic when they do not fully understand the assigned reading. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2967,2052],"class_list":["post-36261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03","tag-kahneman","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36261"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36274,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36261\/revisions\/36274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}