Member Training – Critical Thinking Part 3

Member training from May 26th 2025.

This presentation, Critical Thinking Part 3, In this final session of our three-part training, I guided participants through a deep dive into the critical thinking roadblocks that hinder our ability to discern truth and act effectively for liberty. We began with a solemn prayer for guidance, followed by a reminder of our mission—not to be the most informed people in bondage, but to become a principled resistance to deception. I outlined six major obstacles to sound thinking: prejudices and passions, conformity, loyalty to individuals or groups, ideological or political allegiances, personal biases, and wishful thinking. Using vivid real-world examples—including congressional hearings, viral videos, and personal stories—I showed how these traps distort our reasoning and make us vulnerable to manipulation. Throughout, I emphasized the necessity of evaluating ideas on their merits, not their source, and of aligning logic with revealed truth. We concluded with a spiritual reminder that reason alone, apart from God’s word, can lead us astray, and that only by anchoring ourselves in eternal principles can we effectively counter the lies of our time and defend true liberty.

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TRANSCRIPT

Dear Heavenly Father, we thy sons and daughters, sons of the Republic and daughters
of the Republic, come before the Empire, thank you for the opportunity. We have
together on this Memorial Day and we thank you for the blessings that we have to
live in such an amazing and interesting country and such an incredible time in
history where all darkness is being revealed and it’s many elements and people that
are involved and what we can do about it and how we can help the kind of, not
only in our individual lives, but in our public lives as well. While the grasslet
bus is a protection and guidance and inspiration and his team, and if that will
help him to speak clearly the words that that would have him to share with us. We
pray for thy will to be done in all things and not our will be done. And we pray
for thy love, counsel, and protection, according to our faith, in the sacred and
holy name of Jesus Christ, amen.
After we’re done talking, but during the presentation,
during the training, if you have a question, feel free to go into the option to
raise your hand and we’ll call on you. But if you can’t just keep that to
questions only then we’ll do comments general comments again afterwards so let’s go
ahead and get going over here so
again I want just I don’t ever want it to be like vain repetition but I do want
us to remember what we’re thinking about while we’re going through training that we
are trying to build understanding of the principles that have built free nations that
we are working to expose the sitana conspiracy and that we are building this is we
are building an effective resistance to that conspiracy. We are not here to be the
most informed person in the concentration camp. We are not here in for a simple
exercise in debate. This is a about building this understanding so that we can
expose and build the effective opposition. So I pray that this purpose is understood
and remembered by all as we go through the training and so that we can make sure
and have that as our mindset as we do this. And that after this last class that
we’re finishing tonight, these three trainings, you will now have the basic
fundamental skills to evaluate claims and avoid the conspiracies efforts to distract
you into solutions and issues that are lies that are ineffective and that will lead
you off into paths that will help lead you to actually parroting or implementing the
conspiracies agenda. So, I would encourage you to go back and refer to these three
classes regularly. Do you want me to move over here, Mo?
Okay. Okay, now that we’ve done musical chairs We’re
gonna do in talk about critical thinking roadblocks This is something that I come
across all the time You know, we’re doing something that we know like a class that
we know on the principles of the Constitution principles natural law that we know
that Nobody’s gone through before nobody’s gone over before it’s just nine ninety
nine percent of people have not done the stuff that we’re covering, but people think
that they’ve watched a Glenn Beck video or they went through Hillsdale College course
on the Constitution. So they’ve, you know, that’s all, they don’t need anything more.
They’re done. They now they just need to go vote harder and everything’s good. And
so, you know, this is one of those critical thinking roadblocks that we have in
general is that we think we already know something when we don’t. So that’s just an
idea. That’s just something that I come across the often want to go over these,
these roadblocks in general, then go through each one. So the first one is
prejudices and passions, right? Hatred of something fear of something, envy, greed,
conformity. We just want to go with the flow to do the popular thing that’s being
done rather than thinking things through. We want, you a personal commitment to an
individual, we have an affinity or a loyalty to a particular individual or a
particular organization.
We have an allegiance to an ideology or to a political party.
Personal biases, where we are getting credit or discredit by appreciation or symbolic
connection rather than on merit. So we’re just like we already have a preconceived
notion on something and so we’re going to either dismiss it or accept it just based
on our previous interactions as opposed to addressing the specific issue being
addressed at that point
and then wishful thinking where we’re being guided by our own desires and
Conveniences rather than the by evidence and argument. Okay, so those are the the
sixth roadblocks that we’re going to be covering this evening and The first one
being prejudices and passions
Right, somebody’s screaming there. I’m not emotional and this this Congressional
hearing is just the epitome of this meme on the right. It’s, it’s something that we
see often, especially in discussions on religion or principles of liberty.
Do you, do you know what we’re here for? You know, we’re here, well,
you don’t want to talk about, I think your fake eyelashes are messing up.
Order, Mr. Chairman,
I do have a point of order and I would like to move to to take down Ms. Green’s
words That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you?
Are you moving her words down? Oh, oh girl, baby girl.
Oh, really so even play baby girl I don’t we are gonna move and we’re gonna take
your words down. I second that motion. So you agree to strike your words? Yeah.
Okay. Miss Green agrees to strike her words. I believe she’s apologizing. No, no,
no. Okay, hold on. Then after Mr. Perry’s going to be recognizing. I’m not
apologizing. Well, I am not apologizing. Come on guys.
Miss Crockett. I’m just curious just to better understand your ruling. if someone on
this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde, bad built, butch
body that would not be engaging in personalities, correct? – Uh -oh, what now?
– Chairman, I make a motion to strike those words. – I don’t think that’s a part of
it. – I’m trying to find clarification on what– – Chairman, motion to strike those
words. We’re not gonna do this, look, you guys earlier earlier. You just voted to
do it. You voted to do it. Order. Order. I’m trying to get clear of a case. Calm
down. Calm down. No, no, no, no, because this is what we all do. But I’m trying
to get clear of it.
This is in Congress. These are grown -ups, right? These are (laughing) These are
individuals over the age of 18. – The script they’re saying might chew. (laughing)
– That’s just like, it’s the epitome, like nobody, nowhere in that insanity was
anybody saying anything about principles, oh, you’re a tyrant. It was all about their
fake eyelashes, their butch hair build and just like Jerry springer from the 1990s.
Oh, no, you didn’t type language. I mean, it’s a this is the epitome of what most
online discussions break down to only these people are supposed to be the so -called
adults in the room. We just like clarity on how much you suck.
It’s just crazy.
Okay, so we need to be this is now here’s the scriptural type of,
you know, what we need to be like in a discussion. So we saw what Babylon engages
in discussion. This is what the scriptures say in how we engage in discussion.
Apostle Peter says, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks with
you a reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and fear. There was no
meekness nor fear of God in any of those statements in the previous video, but this
is the example that we need to to use for ourselves. James says, “Wherefore my
beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Can
you imagine how different that video would have been if they took this into
consideration all by itself.
Avoid foolish questions, contingent, and strivings about the law for they are
unprofitable and vain.
I’ve talked about this in trainings in the past where you have the example of the
individuals arguing about the color of grass and these two individuals go to somebody
else and you say, you know, this grass is in green, that’s purple,
right? And they’re like, yeah, it’s totally purple. And the guy that says it’s
purple, you know, left and the guy that was left and said it wasn’t purple, says,
Why did you say it was purple? You know, it’s not purple. And he’s like, because
you don’t argue with people that are going to argue moronic things, you just move
on, just don’t waste your time, don’t be stupid. And So you avoid arguments like we
just saw that were really, we want to spend time arguing about fake eyelashes and
looking butch and having bleach blonde hair. That’s what we want to argue about. No,
no, not at all. – Is that what they were arguing about? – Yeah, they were just
yelling at each other about their looks. – I couldn’t tell what they were saying.
(laughing) – In a congressional committee hearing, they were just screaming at each
other about their, about their looks. Oh, dear.
So now I get into the idea of sorry, go ahead.
Okay, so we’re going to get into conformity, the principle of conformity, the reason
why we thought we, we go along with something, whether we have thought about it or
Um, whether it makes sense logically or not, we’re not even thinking about it. It
makes sense. Logically, we’re just going along with the flow, right? You had
individuals that wore the mask because they wanted to conform. And now you, after
you wore the mask, everybody’s going to start yelling at you about making sure that
you wear the, uh, that you get the vaccine, right? You are, you don’t want to go
against, uh, the crowd because you don’t want to be a part of a controversy.
you. You don’t want everybody yelling at you anymore. So the desire for acceptance
and the pressure to conform override common sense and our ability to ask questions
that may result in us going against the norm. Conformity also shows up in our
commitment to ideas that are popularly accepted by our peers, right?
Are the people we don’t want to ruin so -called relationships and so we just say oh
yeah whatever you say I agree with that I don’t want to argue with you because you
know I’m we’re friends and you know I don’t want you to think less of me because
I think differently than you and so we just conform
Mark yes yes I have a question about all these roblox yeah we talked about roblox
can you find or clarify further, describe what the Roblox is to.
One thing that you’re mentioning is sound thinking, a lot of difficulty. But is
there more to the block? And we also mentioned principle. But there’s also– there’s
good principles, good ideology, and bad ideology. So can you define what their Roblox
to– Yeah, Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes. So, yeah, it’s so sure it’s a
roadblock to critical thinking, but what is critical thinking for it’s to coming to
the truth. It’s coming to correct ideas. And so these are roadblocks to coming to
the truth to coming to correct ideas. They because we are stuck in these these
things have blocked us from thinking and that stopping us from thinking stops us
from coming to correct conclusions. Well, can I follow up the question on that then?
Yeah, please. So the leftist status often embraces an ideology,
like altruism, and self -sacrifice, so forth. So is it solely to find the truth?
Or as we talked about, I think maybe last week, truth is a means to Is it,
is it not the means to something else that, that we, that we’re compromising with,
so there’s several different, I’m not sure which one you’re maybe thinking of right
now, but every, every idea, everything that we come to understand that we learn
about and that we come to the truth of that should be the next step is you take
that information to take correct action. You don’t want to support, say, the Patriot
Act because everybody else was doing it. And now you’ve supported something and
you’ve gotten behind, you know, the spying on American citizens because you didn’t
want to go against the flow. And so it’s to make sure that we take effective and
action that will lead to liberty as opposed to action that will lead to tyranny.
Well, that’s the word I was looking for. That’s a standard. That’s an ideology,
liberty. So truth that does not prevent us from compromising through these roadblocks
the ideology and the support of liberty. Absolutely.
Thank you.
So rather than take a position on an issue based on careful consideration of all
the relevant information, people often adopt the position of their peers. So we saw
that so much right of course in 2020 to 2022 where people were just going along
because they didn’t want to lose their job or they didn’t want to look weird to
other people or they just wanted to be able to go shopping. And so they just went
with the flow and adopted the position of everyone around them. And so this results
because we want to fit in, we don’t want to stand out. We don’t want to look
weird. We don’t want to be thought of as, you know, lesser than by our friends and
family and co -workers and whatnot. And so to fit in, we just go along with what
we think everybody else is doing. We kind of pause when something new is coming on.
We are coming up. We look around for a second and we think to ourselves, oh,
what’s everybody else doing? And then we just go along with what the majority is
doing. And so this, you know, when we do that, then we just like this,
this image right here will, we will inject ourselves with a poison. We will
dehumanize ourselves and others, and we will cause harm to the development of
children just because we are going along with the flow. And so it’s not just
because you’re wrong. It’s because by doing this, you actually harm yourself and
others. And so it’s essential that we avoid conformity and this is you know
sometimes like people talk about you know how peer pressure is bad and bullying is
bad and I think that there is a time where the so peer pressure by itself in and
of itself isn’t bad just like what Mark just said a minute ago about self -sacrifice
you have people that are evil that self -sacrifice Self -sacrifice isn’t a virtue in
and of itself. It’s only a virtue in the pursuit of righteousness and So when we
use our influence to encourage others to do the right thing Then we’re you know,
we’re helping to make popular that which is right But if we’re the on the other
end where we’re just looking around and we’re not trying to be an influence to
others for good We’re just looking to see what the flow is we’re just going to be
passengers on the boat of life and we’re just going to conform to everything,
then we are going to do harm to ourselves and we’re going to help in the harm of
others. And so just going along to get along is very dangerous to our our bodies
and our minds, but also to our souls.
Any questions on on conformity for me move on.
Okay. Feel free to just put stuff in the chat as well. Let’s go on to loyalty to
a person or a group. So this is a children’s song about loyalty to an individual
that is the head of an organization.
♪ A future administration ♪ ♪ Waste my God to Carolina’s nature ♪ ♪ Let’s obey and
follow ♪ ♪ With no recitation ♪ ♪ No future administration ♪
There’s a church administration
Place my God to care and lead his nation Let’s obey and follow With no hesitation
The church administration
So in that in that song there was no
Carmen real quick. Did you because you didn’t hear the last video were you able to
hear that? Yes. Okay. Good. I just want to make sure there wasn’t Didn’t understand
what they were saying. Okay, got you So in that video, there was no loyalty to
principle. There was no loyalty to it wasn’t about
It was about personalities over principles, right? And so you Right
Yeah, there was no involved and you know, was he actually a leader of God’s people
That’s totally a leader Was he placed there by God? That’s that’s the question.
I don’t matter mouse. I do whatever mouse says So it’s it’s important for us,
right? We we grow up maybe as this kind of group think where we are loyal to a
group or we’re loyal to the head of a group. And instead of actually, you know,
critical thinking going through and saying is what that individual said accurate? Is
it true? Is it something that God would have me do? Does it coincide with what the
scriptures say? It’s important for us to be able to see Like that,
you know, that’s, that is, I would say an extreme example of, of group think or
loyalty to an individual or the head of an organization.
But it, it is, it is, even though it’s an extreme example, it is very common
amongst your, the populace to treat, to treat an individual or the head of a group
in that way. And instead of thinking about what they are saying. You just
automatically go along with it because they’re that individual. Mark,
yes? – I just want to be sure everyone knows that what you’re saying is supported
by God Himself when it’s not a respecter or a person.
He’s a respecter of his law And that’s what we need to be respecting, not people.
And that example was, it was even more than personality, it was an actual person.
So I think we need to be emulating God in that respect, not to be respecters of a
person above God’s law and God himself. – Thank you, yep, I agree Mark.
So we see that in cases. so just kind of going over this principle is that many
people are unwilling to critically evaluate an idea or truth claim if it is
presented by a close friend, a parent, or someone whom we are emotionally bonded or
a religious or political leader. Behind this obstacle lies the desire to be loyal
and or supportive of those we are close to. Rejecting their ideas or truth claims,
it feels like a betrayal of the relationship. Thus it’s easier to simply accept a
claim without much consideration or the sake of the relationship. We’re not even
going to think about if the claim is accurate or not because to think about the
accuracy of the claim is going to jeopardize that relationship and so why think
about it because jeopardizing the relationship is off the table. So let’s not do
anything to jeopardize that relationship.
Yes, Pamela. Yes, that warning about putting our trust in the arm of flesh.
Absolutely.
So we must learn to evaluate claims based not on loyalty, but upon principles.
If I say something wrong, you should a) call me out on it and b) ignore it,
right? Just because said something, it’s that’s irrelevant. You need to look at the
merits of the thing that was said.
So now we go to political allegiances, such as being a good Republican,
a good conservative. That’s probably what would apply most to people here. Others
were going to be, you know, Democrats, liberals, whatever, means sticking to the
party of your favorite politician or radio talk show host or the party lines. I
apologize. So the party lines. So they’ll say, you know, I’ll hear, for example,
Sean Hannity, he’ll say, well, I’m not a Republican. I’m a member of the
conservative party in New York. As if, you know, I’m, I’m being principled. Well,
everything that he says and does is the party line of the Republicans or the
Republican president. And so it’s So it’s sticking to the party line.
So if that person, if a person affirms claim A, then I trust it implicitly and
we’ll defend it with zeal. If my favorite radio host says this, that means it’s
true and I’m gonna defend it no matter what. Because question is seen as being seen
as supporting the other team or the terrorists, right? I remember
vividly in
2002 to 2009 where if you oppose the Patriot Act you that meant you wanted to
You wanted the terrorists to win or you know if you don’t support Another program
that means you want the Lib Tards to win, you know that kind of stuff and so We
we turn off the thinking cap. And we say, if we don’t agree with this individual,
all the sudden, that means we support whatever bad guy you want to put in there.
Yes, Samantha, if we, she’s saying if we reject a person who represents an important
group or principle, then we wrongly feel that we’re betraying the principle or the
truth itself. So we need to separate individuals from principles, individuals from
truths.
Example A, this is a personal example. My grandparents, they are multi -generational
Democrats and when I joined the John Burt Society, they went to their stake
president and they asked if I should be excommunicated from the from the church,
from the LDS church, because going against socialism to them was seen as apostasy
from the religious institution because Because they had held those political beliefs
so strongly. They held to FDR and the socialist state to such an extent that it
became a religious dogma to them that if you went against socialism, it meant you
were going against God
as one example. So another example for me personally, I have a lot of family
members that are school and doctrinators for the government. And when I started
homeschooling as a family, it was seen as a betrayal to them personally. And so
they lashed out and accused me of abusing my wife for having her teach our children
at home. So you can, you know, it becomes, it goes back, you know, you can kind
of your political allegiance can often merge with the other roadblock of emotions
where you’re not, you’re not actually talking talking about the subject and logically
and with facts, you’re throwing in emotions in there to be able to shut down any
opposition to what you’re saying because if you do X, that means you hate God.
Well, and so you’re like, well, I don’t want to hate God. And so therefore I’ve
got to stop believing what I believe. Or of course I’m against abusing my wife. And
so I better stop homeschooling because if that’s spousal I better stop home story.
And so we throw emotions out because emotions, maybe we throw logical thought out
because of emotions. And the motions based on our allegiances to a political dogma.
So here’s an example of political allegiances put into a dogmatic form by both the
so -called left and the right. These are clips from two different videos.
Obama’s gonna change it, Obama’s gonna lead him,
we’re gonna change it,
and we’ll arrange it,
we’re gonna change the world.
Enemies of freedom, taste the music, come on!
So you have these anthems to these political leaders and you saw you had the
emotion and you had the group think in especially in the first one But you can see
a lot, you know, you have the crowd there as well, where you have allegiances to
individuals, political individuals, and, and then after they the kids sang the song,
so you indoctrinate them young again just like that other religious song. And so,
and then the, the, the parents embracing the children with,
with love and with you know just hugs and so it was you’re equating the love of
your parents with the support of a political candidate and so you’re just mixing all
of these different roadblocks together into one to make it very difficult for an
individual to be able to overcome that roadblock and actually engage in critical
thinking because they have all of these you know emotions tied into the support of
that individual you know these kids are right here of course being you know praised
right here for their you know on the stage as well so similar types of praise and
community for engaging in worship of an individual instead of principles or of course
God and
then we will also they put loyalty to two groups together loyalty to either a
religious leader or to a political leader and they’ll put them together into one
idea as we saw on this
what’s it called the town not town hall meeting but press conference with the
governor of utah back in 2021 is as i’ve said many times a pandemic of the
unvaccinated it’s it’s hard Someone wiser than me said that one of the problems with
people who believe conspiracy theories is it’s not just enough to stop believing the
conspiracy theory, but often it takes you away from your community, the people around
you that believe the same way that you do. We love you, we care about you. I
promise I’m not part of some grand conspiracy theory.
If you don’t believe me, if you’re a religious person,
if you’re a Catholic, listen to the Pope who said that this is a moral imperative
for everyone to get vaccinated. If you’re a Latter -day Saint, listen to the
President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints who said that this is
not just a God -Send, but a literal God -Send, literally sent from God to bless us.
If politics is your religion, then believe Donald Trump,
who was so instrumental in getting this vaccine to us, who got the vaccine himself
and who has encouraged others to get the vaccine.
So again, he even said to himself, if politics is your religion, then listen to
Donald Trump. And so they will use these loyalty to these groups to get you to
turn off your brain. Right? He didn’t say look at the studies to show look the
studies show that the vaccine is super safe And it does a fantastic job of killing
that pretend virus And so you know look at it just makes sense. Just take it
because it makes sense. No, he said Don’t listen to I’m not a part of some great
conspiracy theory. Whatever that means I’m not part of a conspiracy if you don’t
believe me, you know, listen to the Pope, listen to the president of the LDS
church, listen to your favorite president, don’t listen to the data, don’t listen to
the facts, listen to these individuals that you have an affinity to, that you have
a loyalty to, because I’m not going to present the data to you, because A, there
is no data, and any data that there would be, of course, would show that it was
dangerous. He is not part of the conspiracy theory. Yeah, as Moses says, he’s not
part of the conspiracy theory is part of a conspiracy fact. He’s part of a
conspiracy. You get closer if you’re going to say something. Don’t say it.
My favorite part is when he says I’m not part of some grand conspiracy theory
because like conspiracy theory is the buzzword that they have to use to like engage
that portion of the foolish mind. Right. And so he can’t just say I’m not part of
some conspiracy. Right. Because that’s not the but that won’t that won’t trigger the
moron to suddenly whoa whoa yeah I don’t want to be conspiracy theorist and so
because it’s like he like he literally can’t decide whether he’s part of conspiracy
theory or not. He can decide whether he’s not part of a conspiracy I mean he
definitely is part of a conspiracy but oh I could anybody can be part of the
theory. Yeah that’s what I’m saying. It’s somebody together a theory you’re up with
that theory yeah like just even just right there itself evidently factually untrue
that he is part of some conspiracy theory he is part of a conspiracy theory
somebody’s got a conspiracy theory about it i know i do mark you had your hand up
yeah meet yourself mark
i’ll keep me himself That’s analogous to saying there is no back information ever
garnered from science. Science is only theories. As you’re saying there,
it’s conspiracies that we’re pointing out, not theories. One last point on that
Most many crimes that you know on black and white they start with a theory and
they conclude with a conspiracy if the conspiracy Exists and the same thing in
science. They start with theories and then they prove Disproved the theory this is
just a Disinformation tactic to call it theories and one last one last point is
when they somebody calls you conspiracy theory. Okay, I think it’s important to say
you got the name out. Now, let’s get down to the facts about the issue we’re
talking about. And the reasoning concerned it. Just ignore it because it’s nothing
more than name calling for most able purposes. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you,
Mark. It is. So now the next one is our personal bias.
This is another one of those roadblocks that stops us from coming to the truth to
take effective action for liberty, you know, somebody’s asking you if you shared
something on social media before you posted it, and then your response was, “I don’t
need to.” It agrees with my preconceived views and biases, so it must be true. So,
and that’s definitely one of the easiest things to do because it’s really easy to
say, “Oh man, I knew it. I knew it was true.” And so I’m going to, it was on a
meme, so I’m going to share it because it proves what I’ve been thinking for a
long time and so yeah it’s very easy to do but it is it is wrong. It is
something that we can get ourselves into trouble for doing because it can end up
being you know false and so it’s important for us to of course look into the data
before we share it because if we share something that ends up not being true it
can get people to do the wrong thing. It can make us lose Credibility because it
comes out that we promoted something that was completely, you know proven false And
so now we become the boy that cried wolf and so we need to make sure that we we
don’t fall for that personal bias So a personal biases have a tendency to Adversely
affect objectivity right we’re not going to look at things Objectively because of our
bias. So We need to kind of it is it is virtually impossible to get rid of all
biases And so it’s important that we’re aware of our biases to hopefully overcome
them if need be While it is important to understand that nobody can escape their
own personal biases Completely being aware of them and their potential to override
objectivity helps their critical thinker minimize their effect It’s a sign of maturity
and thinking to be able to critically evaluate even those ideas we hold dear for at
least willing to say, okay, you know I haven’t heard this before but it challenges
my view. Let me find out if this new idea is is sure or not and evaluated based
on the facts and
Then when we fail to Think about these things we often find ourselves recycling
ignorance. It’s an important thing to recognize and And so I want to show a short
video that gives some descriptions and some examples of personal bias.
Information bias is the tendency of people’s minds to seek out information that
supports the views they already hold. It also leads people to interpret evidence in
ways that support their pre -existing beliefs, expectations, or hypotheses.
People easily accept new information that is consistent with their beliefs, but are
skeptical of information that contradicts their beliefs. In one study,
teachers were told that certain students were especially promising, even though the
students were really chosen at random. Based on this false belief, teachers gave more
praise and attention to the chosen students who improved more because of the
teacher’s expectations. In other words, the confirmation bias can create self
-fulfilling prophecies.
In fact, this bias often helps people prove themselves right. For example,
when physicians have an idea about a patient’s diagnosis, they may focus on evidence
that supports their theory, while they undervalue evidence that supports an equally
plausible alternative diagnosis.
As Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman warns, even scientists who commit to a theory
tend to disregard inconsistent facts, concluding that the facts are wrong,
not the theory.
So the confirmation bias can easily lead us to reach inaccurate and even unethical
conclusions. It’s essential to recognize our vulnerability to confirmation bias and
actively guard against it by being open to evidence that is not consistent with our
beliefs and theories.
– So I think personal bias might be the hardest one for the average person to, I
don’t know, they all have their difficulties. I guess maybe for me, I’m pointing out
my own personal bias on which one is the hardest one to overcome. But I guess you
look at, you observe other people and I would say that it’s harder for other people
to overcome maybe religious or political biases. So the group think, but that can be
a very difficult one. So let’s go to wishful thinking as one of those, right? we
have somebody that’s playing lottery tickets because they’ve got a feeling about this
is the one right i’ve just i’ve got a feeling about this and then but of course
uh the odds of winning the lottery are astronomical of course because lotteries are
not charities and we get in our mindset that uh vibes is uh vibes are more
important than than the actual facts the
All right, here’s another example. We have Trump here actual quote. I’ve seen the
video I like taking guns away early take the guns first go through due process
second and then you have somebody that Has that political affinity when he says he’s
not perfect, but at least he loves this country, right? I’d you have no idea how
many times I’ve heard somebody say that And so they ignore the facts because they’ve
got a good feeling about this guy about this guy. We just got to keep the vibes
positive, right? We don’t want to be negative all of the time. So wishful thinking
is the tendency to focus exclusively on the positive.
This can be very dangerous, of course, because we can find ourselves taking a
position or adopting an idea that is detrimental to us physically, emotionally, or
spiritually. Give you another example of wishful thinking. There’s a book that was
sold a few years ago. I don’t know if it’s still available called the odds are
you’re going to be exalted
Where we look at the scriptures say the gate is small narrow is the way That leads
to life and do you there be that find it? So the scriptures say that it’s you
know, the odds are you’re not
If we’re gonna make that a factual, you know, a biblically accurate title for a
book It’s gonna be the opposite of what that is. ideas, that wishful thinking that
leads us to incorrect thoughts or incorrect conclusions. So again,
prejudices and passions, conformity, just going with the flow, the personal commitment,
a loyalty to an individual or a group, ideological or political allegiances,
a personal bias, right, giving credit, but for symbolic connection rather than on
merit or wishful thinking being guided by our own desires and conveniences rather
than the evidence and the argument okay so these are some good tools that we’ve
gone over the last three weeks or last the three trainings that cover this topic
but I also want to give a warning, but so these are important principles to keep
in mind. But I also want to caution against logic alone.
Okay, I’m going to give some examples of what I mean by that. This is a letter
from Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, to Mary Smith Cranch in 1798. She says,
“I wish with you that I could see as great a change for the better in morals as
in politics. But it is a part of religion as well as morality to do justly and to
love mercy and a man cannot be an honest and zealous promoter of the principles of
a free government without possessing that goodwill towards man, which leads to the
love of God and respect for the deity so that a proper appreciation of our rights
and duties as citizens is a prelude to a respect for religion and its institutions.
To destroy an undermined religion has been the chief engine in the accomplishment of
this mighty revolution throughout Europe. So she’s referring to the French revolution
led by the Illuminati Jacobins. We have felt no small share of the baleful influence
of the Age of Reason, but to have a through idea of the deep laid system.
So the age of reason, right? The enlightenment. That was the religious philosophy
behind the Jacobin revolution in France. And so it was all about using reason and
we need to get rid of religion in the Bible for coming to the truth. We just need
to use, you know, our minds to be able to come to the truth.
And Abigail’s warning about the effects of this and that getting rid of God and
getting rid of religion and morality is what led to the bloody and satanic
revolution that happened in Europe and later on in Russia. Her husband John Adams
talked about the Enlightenment as well. He says that human passions unbridled by
morality and religion would break the strongest cords of our constitution.
So if we’re not going to bridle ourselves through firm,
steadfast, eternal principles of morality and religion, then all of the safeguards of
the Constitution are worthless. The idea of a government without the principle of
religion is idle to me the letter that he wrote to Benjamin Rush Okay so there are
immutable facts immutable truths that we must conform ourselves to and
Another principle another individual that lay this principle out Uh, Joseph Smith said
that how may it be asked was this known to be a bad angel by his contradicting a
former revelation? So things that we know that are immutable eternal truths can’t be
changed and if somebody wants to come along and try to convince you that this
eternal truth is a lie then we know that they have come from the evil one to
deceive us as we covered in the previous classes of the Savior calling the Pharisees
liars whose father was the devil.
And we look at the scriptures that lay out this this principle as well. It says,
“Thus say the Lord, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his own wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his
riches, but let him that glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I
am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth or
in these things I delight say at the Lord and then another scripture we read if
we’re thus our false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the
apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is Transformed into an angel of
light and so to me that we see this point especially right here in second
Corinthians Satan being the great deceiver if we are relying solely on our intellect
and our wit and our ability to be able to engage in logic Satan can come as an
angel of light meaning light the light bearer being full of knowledge and and truth.
And so he can, because he’s got a lot more practice at debate than each of us
have. And so if we are going to just stick to human logic and wisdom,
it can come to a point where Satan can try to outwit you if we are not solidly
planted in the foundation of the scriptures, of the relations of God’s Word. And it
is important, right? This is that wisdom that Solomon asked for wisdom,
and that was wisdom from God. And so, yes, we have to use our intellect and our
faculties, but to leave that alone in exclusivity outside of the revealed Word of
God, we are open to the logic logic, the evil one that comes as an angel of
light, that the Savior warned that the Pharisees were. And so to avoid deception,
we must test our so -called logic against the scriptures. And so that I hope that
doesn’t come across as negating everything that I said before, but I hope that it
shows you that it’s the two mixed together That will lead us to the most effective
outcome to being able to Defend and promote and implement godly government.
So
Let’s go ahead Stop the share So we just have a minute left So let’s go ahead and
just have a closing prayer and then we can go into the open forum and have any
questions comments Whatever you guys want to talk about either whether it’s commenting
more on discussing the training or getting into other topics. But let’s go ahead and
have, I’m going to invite,
Pamela Allen, would you be willing to give us the closing prayer tonight?
You can unmute yourself if you’re available. Sure. Thank you.
Our Father in Heaven,
We are grateful for the training to help us understand these difficult times that
we’re going through and to be able to know how to navigate the problems that we’re
faced with. It is such a challenging thing, so many of these views are so set in
minds of our friends and even ourselves and we pray that we might be able to have
the gift of discernment to be able to study these things out and to understand the
underlying principles and where the deceptions are. We’re so grateful for the time
that Ben has put into giving us his training to help us think about these things
and to be able to see where we may have problems ourselves and to be able to
learn how to deal with them, especially things that we have held dear for a very
long time. And it is difficult to change these things, but once we are aware of
them, it’s very important that we act upon them. We’re So thankful for this and
we’re thankful for our covenant land and we pray that we can do the things
necessary that we will not lease all of our liberties and if possible to return to
the liberties that were guaranteed in the Constitution at the beginning. Thankful for
this, for all the hard work that our founders put into it and today especially on
Memorial Day, we’re grateful for those who have stepped up, even though it was a
very challenging time, and
perhaps a very inappropriate thing to do, but it was what was happening,
and they put forth everything that they had in order to help our nation,
and we’re appreciative of this. Let me say these things in the name of thy Son,
Jesus Christ. Amen.