Cognitive Biases in the Bible (with Dr. Bart Ehrman)

The authors of the New Testament experienced cognitive bias like anyone else, and sometimes that shows in the text. Dr. Bart Ehrman joins me to discuss how attribution bias, fundamental attribution error, and confirmation bias influenced the writings of the apostle Paul, the Pastoral epistles, the New Testament canon, and biblical interpretation.

My videos mentioned:

“Do atheists exist?” This Christian’s insulting answer

The Female Apostle that Christianity (Purposely) Forgot | Acts of Paul and Thecla

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Non-sectarian Biblical Studies Courses by Dr. Bart Ehrman (affiliate link):

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Chapters:
Intro 00:00
Attribution bias in Romans 01:25
Outgroup bias in the Gospel of John 05:12
How scribes corrupted scripture 08:48
Confirmation bias in determining which books are real scripture 12:36
Confirmation bias in interpretation 18:12
A verse AGAINST bias in the Bible 21:58

This video contains 100% therapeutic grade skepticism.*

*This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA

[roc]

My favorite form this takes is when you ask a Christian what mechanism they used to call upon to KNOW that their Bible is true. And they say something along the lines of: “You just need to read the scriptures, accept Jesus into your heart and you will KNOW it’s true”. Then someone does all of that and has ZERO change happen and the Christian retorts that, the reason it didn’t happen is because that person did something wrong. They didn’t read the scriptures thoroughly enough. They didn’t pray hard enough. They didn’t REALLY accept Jesus into their heart. Because they have started with the answer being unequivocally, correct, from the start. So, there is no possible way whatsoever that the premise ITSELF can be wrong. It’s YOU who did something wrong because I did all of that and got the answer I was told I was going to find. Cognitive dissonance in a nutshell.

[SAK]

This is (partly) why I’m a progressive Christian who sees Scripture as a library of different perspectives. I don’t need to defend it on the grounds that it is consistent and perfect. It’s not, and that doesn’t undermine my faith.

[vanadyan]

"They felt ganged up on"

The persecution complex does seem like the most consistent Christian core tenet.

[poisontango]

I love how excited Dr. Ehrman looks at 11:40. You can tell he really loves his job and is excited to share his research with people! As a teacher, I've totally felt that before, and it's wonderful to see that in someone else.

[livliveart]

Ex-fundie here, trying to get through to my parents about me being a trans girl. Your videos have been crucial, and I thank you so much ❤

[Excultbaby]

I remember struggling with the cognitive dissonance between the fact that the truth about the bible is so clear and obvious, and that most of the people I preached "the truth" to didn't agree with me and yet they seemed to be perfectly nice and reasonable. Even as a devout Christian, it was hard for me to reconcile that one.

[nondescriptcat]

there's a koan that's similar to the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but about dogmatism: two monks were traveling together. they came to a river flooding its banks that they needed to ford. a woman was there, and asked for their help. without question, one monk lifted her and carried her across the river, then put her down on the other side, and the two monks continued on. some miles later, the other monk turned to him, "you know it's against the rules to touch a woman, what were you doing?"
the monk shrugged, "I put her down back by the river, but you've been carrying her this entire time."

[benjif]

Bias is like optical illusions. It shows how many short cuts our brain takes in order to process effiently in real time. Seeing and understanding biases makes you way smarter, not a snowflake. But also, being biased is absolutely normal, and to some degree quite useful.

[theholyshiftshow]

I'm a progressive minister in the U.S. (and progressive bible reader, with some videos of examples of what that can look like), and I really appreciate your capacity to speak honestly about the bible, in a nuanced way, recognizing the bible's own diversity and complexity, without denigrating it or denigrating those who seek social and spiritual guidance from it. While it definitely is filled with bias and all kinds of darker aspects of humanity, there are ways to receive it holistically (especially with focusing on Jesus' teaching) that promote progressive values and vision for human and ecological healing and wholeness. Even Paul's theology leads him to make incredibly progressive claims for 1st century Rome. Like Galatians 3:28 where he levels hierarchy based on the absolute universality of God's love. Anyway, great video. Thanks again for the respectful delivery! Peace

[LinguarumFautor]

As a Classicist, I learned early about manuscript transmission and scribal errors. My argument was: even if God inspired the first scribe, this isn’t the original manuscript ; there’s no guarantee that the intermediate scribes were inspired.

[michaelwh]

I'm a 41 year old who was raised/forced into Evangelical Christianity. As I grew older I was a Christian by my own choice and my studies of the Bible convinced me that it was not true. I still find value in the Bible but only as suggestions (like stop signs in parking lots). I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your videos and hope to see many more.

[Lambda_Ovine]

the thing that is very difficult about cognitive biases is how invisible it is when we experience it. It functions by make you feel that you're right, so catching yourself making mistakes is very cognitively difficult

[elainejohnson]

Paul saying everyone who says they don't believe in God is in denial is weird since he supposedly didn't believe until Jesus showed up to him on the Road to Damascus.

[katietoole]

“I think what happened
with Christianity to put it in its
very simple terms is that Jesus was
not interested in Doctrine and for
some reason Christianity became obsessed
with Doctrine with what you believe
Jesus was really interested in how you
behave and how you live.”
This made me tear up. My quarrel has never been with Jesus.

[benjaminh.morgan]

I love your videos. Unlike some other prominent atheist YouTubers, I feel like you present things in a way that challenges what I believe as a Christian, without treating me as stupid for being a Christian.

[ATTACKoftheSTRINGS]

My love of this channel grows with every video I watch. I love the unwavering compassion and nuance in your tone, and your willingness to discuss difficult and/or complex relational/religious issues in a frank and honest way.

[vanadyan]

Hi! I am an autistic recovering Roman Catholic with a neuro-diverse trans son, and am doing my best to navigate the situation without completely alienating my very religious extended family, and this channel has been a massive help for me. Thanks so much for approaching this subject in such a non-judgemental way and always (usually) leading with kindness and empathy.

[TheIronDonkey]

Hi Drew!

Wanted to thank your constant approaching each engagement with positive intent, and compassion.

As someone deconstructing, I find it easy to turn into someone fueled by anger at who I was and what I've done: you always help me reframe this idea.

[LittleMissLion]

He mentioned the Book of Mormon ...now that I am out of the church I am convinced I could read it and find many errors (I don't think I can just yet -- to traumatic.)

Brainwashing plays such an interesting role here. There's a few factors I think that stopped me from seeing errors. First, we were encouraged to read it yearly (before I left, twice a year!!) It is long and it is also really boring in parts, so at times you really had to rush through. You didn't want to be "that person" who wasn't up to the challenge. You were also promised that reading it would be special and make you more spiritual. You were promised amazing blessings from God. For me, I would keep this an mind and approach the read from a very emotional standpoint. It was an honour to read it at the time, and my belief in blessings meant that I would sometimes experience euphoria.

Then...there's the classic Mormon adage of "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" ...and of being wary of anti Mormon literature and negative thinking toward to church, because God is listening to your thoughts.

Its times that I delve into it like this that I just want to scream "yes, it is a fucking cult!!"

Much love to you and Taylor at this time xx

[TheIronDonkey]

Always a great day when GMSkeptic uploads.