Changing your mind is painful

Pre-script: It appears Mike Bird has added my humble newsletter as a recommendation on his newsletter. Since I’ve gained a significant number of new subscribers who I doubt know me, I thought I’d share a brief intro.

I’m Chris Wilson. I work in marketing and serve in a non-denominational Church in Krakow, Poland although I’m originally from the UK and have an… interesting church background. I share articles on using digital and analog tools for Bible study and note taking as I continue in my part time MDiv studies.

Okay, on with the show.

Just before the first lockdown I signed up to audit a class on "intro to the New Testament" as I was considering doing some further studies.

It was a great course and after a few setbacks, I enrolled last autumn for part-time studies while I continued to work. I was aware of the phenomenon of people losing their faith during studies but I thought I had rung my theology and thoughts through university debates with atheists as well as progressive and fundamentalist theology so it would be strong.

While I still believe my faith to be true and strong, my last course really challenge me and left me uncomfortable. Most shocking of all, it was a course on the Theology and Practice of Worship.

As I went through the course, I realised just how historically situated my corporate worship has been. It also shone a light on how self-centered my views on corporate worship have been although unintentional.

Studies into cognitive dissonance (the feeling when you realise you may be wrong) show that it is literally painful. I certainly have squirmed as I’ve questioned long held beliefs. To resolve that pain we may ignore the issue or dig in deeper to our existing beliefs, but we can also change our minds or see a way that they do not conflict.

Therefore to avoid the pain of evidence that conflicts with our beliefs, we may choose a lie over the truth to get relief.

I’m still processing my conclusions from this course and I’m sure there will be more discomfort to come but that is part of the course of growing.

In a future edition I’m planning to share how I took notes during this course, using obsidian to keep track of my reading and assignments, but in the meantime I’d love to know your thoughts on this style of post.

I think it could be a great compliment to the technical aspects of further studies but I want to know what you think.

Thanks for your time.