How to Overcome Confirmation Bias

The scourge of confirmation bias is taking hold of the church. Confirmation bias is the practice of continually looking for information that confirms already held beliefs. Information that contradicts what we believe is dismissed as untrue or propaganda or irrelevant. Consider this warning from scripture about this very thing:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

2 Timothy 4:3–4 (ESV)

Confirmation bias is a normal human reaction. However, when we are unaware of the effects it has on us, it can render us incapable of making necessary changes to our lives, and stunt our ability to grow and thrive spiritually, socially and intellectually.

I fight confirmation bias in my own life and I will share with you some things that have worked for me  over the years. But first, let’s look at the underlying problem of confirmation bias in a spiritual context. Confirmation Bias is built on our perspective of things.

Understanding Perspective

Your life experiences determine your perspective. Education, travel, profession, family, experiences, church background, friendships, what you read, social media, entertainment, where you live and everything that intersects with your life all play a part in forming your perspective. To be able to grow spiritually you must understand the impact your perspective has on your life and your understanding of God’s Word and his leadership in your life. There are several trends that I see happening among Christians that may be distorting our understanding of God’s Word and Truth.

Many see the world and their experience in the context of spiritual warfare. I will never deny spiritual warfare exists but it cannot explain everything and if we understand everything in this way there are some dangers. For example, we can fall into the “devil made me do it” trap. We must realize we have some responsibility for our own behavior. Sin in our lives is frequently the result of our own choices.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

James 1:14–15 (ESV)

Another danger of the spiritual warfare understanding of things is that we can easily see people as instruments of the devil. If they are not Christian, they are in the devil’s army. Therefore, we must fight against them with every weapon we have. When we do this, we forget that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the reality that it was Jesus who said: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ We must become conduits of love and that is difficult to reconcile with the view that the world is a battlefield!

Others see the world through the eyes of the real or imagined historical church. We think that if we could go back 50 years or 100 years somehow everything would be better. This leads us to the danger that we must somehow undo all the evils of our culture by whatever means necessary. Clearly, this is not the pattern that is taught us in scripture. No matter what we want, we can never return to the good old days. Instead, we must train ourselves to understand the work God is doing today all around us. God still works and we still participate in that work.

Going Back to Truth

This is the essential element of overcoming confirmation bias. God’s Word is truth. No follower of Jesus would argue that. When we bring our understanding of perspective to our reading and study of God’s Word, we can open up that truth more adequately and apply it more faithfully to our lives.

But in order to overcome all the voices that we are daily bombarded with, we must spend serious time in God’s Word. There is no reasonable substitute. Listening to Christian music is great. Hearing strong biblical sermons is wonderful. But neither of these things can replace your own time in God’s Word. Setting aside sacred time to feed on the Word is absolutely essential. We set aside time for work, sleep, eating and family, just to name a few things we make time for. Yet, none of these things, as important as they all are, have eternal implications. We need constant spiritual food. That food comes directly from the Word of God.

Allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us as we read and study will transform us into the people God wants us to be. Failure to take deliberate steps to be guided by God’s Truth will result in being guided by our confirmation bias instead.

I’m Not That Guy

I refuse to conform to the demands of people to hear only soothing and affirming words. I will continue to share the Word of God in the most faithful way I know. So as you continue to read my blog posts you will feel occasionally challenged with thought provoking and spirit awakening words. As I am being changed by God’s word, I want you to be changed by God’s Word.

I challenge you today to allow God’s Word and truth to change you. We all need to change because change is necessary for spiritual growth. We all need to grow, so we all need to change. That means we will necessarily need to let go of some dearly held beliefs.

Feel free to share your experiences with me. I love to hear from my readers!