{"id":37001,"date":"2024-03-22T14:26:04","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T21:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37001"},"modified":"2024-03-22T14:26:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T21:26:44","slug":"the-people-who-walk-in-darkness-will-see-a-great-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-people-who-walk-in-darkness-will-see-a-great-light\/","title":{"rendered":"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As I write this, the last call to prayer of the day is sounding all around me. It is the eleventh day of Ramadan. The majority around me are fasting. They are not drinking, eating, swallowing their sputum, or smoking during sunlight hours (approximately 5:30 am until 7:30 pm). Thankfully, today was not very hot for the sake of those fasting. Last week temperatures soared over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). While I do not appreciate the grouchy attitudes, the uninhibited driving patterns, and the mad rush to get home before sunset, I suspect I would react similarly if I too was not eating or drinking in the blazing heat. On a side note, it is rare to find a fully air-conditioned building, so reprieve from the heat is hard to find. All this to say, Ramadan is not an enjoyable season for me. I can recognize that I have some misconstrued perceptions of my world given what I am absorbing from my external environment mixed with my own biases. One of those biases I have is people thinking they know it all, especially concerning faith and religion.<\/p>\n

Bobby Duffy addresses these issues in his book Why We Are Wrong About Nearly Everything<\/em>. He talks about how humans get most things wrong by how we process information in our brains (and our biases) and through what we are told from information gathered around us.[1]<\/a> Duffy presents data from a large study that confirms people are usually very wrong about things. One of the concluding points was the world is not as bad as we think it is. It has indeed improved over the years.[2]<\/a> Why then do I, an enthusiastic optimist, still feel frustrated and hopeless as I come to the end of the book?<\/p>\n

These emotions are partly from my internal bias that I do not fully believe my world is better, especially in Africa. It is also partly from the information I am receiving from those around me, especially during Ramadan. People who think they are right all the time (perhaps I exaggerated a bit) try to convince me that I am the one wrong. They are blind to the Truth, especially when it comes to faith. Kathryn Schultz says it well, \u201cTo be blind without realizing our blindness is, figuratively, the situation of all of us when we are in error.\u201d[3]<\/a> They are in error and blind.<\/p>\n

Duffy addresses this issue of blindness regarding our misconceptions. Through the study presented in the book, three areas were identified to have some correlation concerning misconceptions people have\u2014emotional expressiveness, education levels, and media and politics.[4]<\/a> Of these three correlations, the education levels most resonated with me and what I experienced in my host culture.<\/p>\n

The study showed that the higher an individual\u2019s education, the more accurate his or her perceptions are. This is not necessarily true at a national level but is true from person to person.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 This resonates with my experience in my host country. Quality higher education here is limited. Last year, just under 15,89% of the students passed the final high school exam[6]<\/a>, le baccalaur\u00e9at (le bac). <\/em>This is even slightly higher than the pass rate in 2022.[<\/a>7]<\/a> Good education is limited. As this is a discussion on being wrong about nearly everything, I will put in the caveat that in France, the pass rate for students who took le bac<\/em> in 2023 was about 90%.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

The staff I led provided a classic example of the correlation between education and perceptions. Upon becoming clinic director, I learned quickly that those with more formalized training and education understood their limits and gave the most appropriate care. Those with less education and training were confident in what they thought they knew but did not seem to know their limits. The results were wrong diagnostic and treatment choices by those less educated. In a healthcare setting, this can be detrimental. It was vital to recognize and set measures in place. Accountability and scope of practice guidelines helped maintain that everyone worked within their abilities, whether they agreed with it. Duffy identifies this as the \u201cDunning\u2013Kruger effect\u201d where there is a direct correlation between confidence and inaccuracy.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is good to recognize biases and how we form perceptions. It is good to know areas that need to change. The world in which I live may not be as bad as I think it is. We may not be as closed-minded as I sometimes perceive. But the world is walking in darkness. The solution is in the words of Jesus, \u201cI am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.\u201d John 8:12b (ESV). As a follower of Jesus, I have the light of life. I can cling to this hope, even when overwhelmed by my own biases and perceptions. Jesus is the hope for this world.<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything: Professor Bobby Duffy<\/em>, 2020, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=86tfiGCmiNE.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Bobby Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/em> (New York: Basic Books, 2019), 189.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error<\/em> (New York City, NY: Haper Collins Publishers, Inc, 2010), Kindle, 68.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything, 196-197<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Duffy, 196.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> The term \u201chigh school\u201d is used here in English to represent the French secondary school level lyc\u00e9e, <\/em>which is the final stage before entering University in France and other countries that follow the French education system.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u201cBAC 2023,\u201d CRIDEM, July 15, 2023, http:\/\/www.cridem.org\/C_Info.php?article=766837.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> \u201cBaccalaur\u00e9at 2023,\u201d Le Parisien, July 8, 2023, https:\/\/www.leparisien.fr\/etudiant\/examens\/bac\/baccalaureat-2023-taux-de-reussite-legerement-en-baisse-par-rapport-a-lan-passe-NMITYOWDABGCHOUHVWHN4KKFWY.php.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Duffy, Why We\u2019re Wrong about Nearly Everything, 199<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I write this, the last call to prayer of the day is sounding all around me. It is the eleventh day of Ramadan. The majority around me are fasting. They are not drinking, eating, swallowing their sputum, or smoking during sunlight hours (approximately 5:30 am until 7:30 pm). Thankfully, today was not very hot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"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":[2640,2967],"class_list":["post-37001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-duffy","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37001","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\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37005,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37001\/revisions\/37005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}