{"id":41275,"date":"2025-03-20T07:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=41275"},"modified":"2025-03-20T07:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T14:34:14","slug":"how-wrong-i-can-be-and-how-god-brings-me-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-wrong-i-can-be-and-how-god-brings-me-back\/","title":{"rendered":"How Wrong I Can Be and How God Brings Me Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, I read Bobby Duffy’s book, Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/em>. <\/em>By doing surveys of public perception compared to statistics on issues, Duffy showed the human propensity to be wrong. Through a vast amount of research, he showed without “massive misinformation campaigns by automated bots\u2026 we’re still very wrong.”[1]<\/a> Reasons for being wrong are internal and external, with “myriad interactions and feedback loops between them, that together create a system of delusion.”[2]<\/a> Duffy charts internal and external reasons for being wrong as how we think (math and stats, biases, and rational ignorance) and what we’re told (media, social media, politics, our own experience).[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Duffy fits into a narrative that I’m learning through this course. I will connect Duffy to the broader story I’m learning about my propensity to be wrong as part of our shared humanity. I want to connect my bend toward being wrong with the classic Christian discipline of confession. This post is less about Duffy and more about how he spurred me toward confession.<\/p>\n

Duffy notes that we’ve experienced an information shift where information that aligns with views we already hold is easier to access. When coupled with our human tendency to avoid information where we are likely to disagree, this phenomenon has led to a rise in echo chambers. Duffy writes, “The impact of this information shift may not, therefore, be on our estimates of realities, but how certain we are of our worldview-and how wrong we think others are. In other words, how polarized our perspectives are becoming.”[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Echo chambers polarize, making admitting errors harder. Error is fundamentally human, and confession is the human experience God has created for us to live together. Therefore, echo chambers diminish a part of our humanity.<\/p>\n

Duffy\u00a0offers “ten ideas for how we can form more accurate views of the world.”[5]<\/a> These were good, but<\/span>\u00a0I felt that confession was missing.<\/p>\n

In the City of God, Augustine wrote, “If I am wrong, I am.”[6]<\/a> For Augustine, err is human in some way. He is writing about knowing the image of God inside of us and that even if he is wrong, he still exists. Augustine connects knowing the image of God, even as it is in sin and needs redemption,<\/span>\u00a0with a knowledge of being wrong.<\/p>\n

Scripture tells us to confess our sins. James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to one another\u2026” and 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we confess our sins to one another, God forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Whereas sin and error break relationships, confession brings restoration. Our culture struggles with admitting we are wrong; this is made worse by our growing echo chambers.<\/p>\n

Admitting their faults was common practice for early Christians. Didache 14:1 lists confession as a norm in Christian worship: “On the day which is the Day of the Lord, gather together for the breaking of the loaf and giving thanks. However, you should first confess your sins so that your sacrifice may be a pure one”\u00a0[7]<\/a>.\u00a0I think the authors of the Didache knew this needed to be stated because it wouldn’t happen otherwise. They knew that shame would prevent people from confessing their sins.<\/p>\n

Ambrose of Milan (d. 397) wrote, “Let us then not be ashamed to confess our sins unto the Lord. There is indeed shame when each makes known his sins, but that shame, as it were, plows his land, removes the ever-recurring brambles, prunes the thorns, and gives life to the fruits that he believed were dead.”[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Duffy noted that\u00a0when people were shown that they were wrong, a ‘backfire effect’ would occur, resulting in “people more strongly asserting an incorrect belief that fits with their ideological view”[9]<\/a>. I want to be the type of person who can hear and listen when I’m wrong. I want to learn and grow. I want to be the type of leader who<\/span>\u00a0can foster that in others around me.<\/p>\n

I think I am in a state of liminality, where I am learning how easily I can be wrong. Duffy is one author in a line of them who has awakened me to how wrong people can be. He stands with Kahneman and Friedman from this semester, who have taught me to look out for fast thinking and the need for differentiation. In light of this learning, here is how I am approaching my propensity to be wrong.<\/p>\n

Confessing when I’m wrong is the plow that clears the brambles and thorns and gives life to my studies. I’m looking forward to seeing how wrong I can be.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Bobby Duffy, Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/em> (New York: Basics Books, 2018), 7.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Duffy, 16.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Duffy, 224.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Duffy, 229.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Duffy, 230\u201340.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> St. Augustine, “City of God, Book 11, Chapter 26,” accessed March 18, 2025, https:\/\/www.newadvent.org\/fathers\/120111.htm.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/sup><\/a> Thomas O’Loughlin, The Didache: A Window on the Earliest Christians<\/em><\/a> (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 170.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/sup><\/a> Elliot Ritzema, 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Early Church<\/em><\/a>, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Duffy, Why We’re Won’t About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding<\/em>, 99.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, I read Bobby Duffy’s book, Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding. By doing surveys of public perception compared to statistics on issues, Duffy showed the human propensity to be wrong. Through a vast amount of research, he showed without “massive misinformation campaigns by automated bots\u2026 we’re still very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[2640,3397],"class_list":["post-41275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-duffy","tag-dlgp04","cohort-dlgp04"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41275","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\/220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41275"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41277,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41275\/revisions\/41277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}