Tag Archives: Mythbusters

I’ve got a brain, and I’m not afraid to use it!

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I’ve got a brain, and I’m not afraid to use it! – The issue of critical thinking in the Christian church.

Mythbusters … I have watched a lot of Mythbusters.

For the last decade and a half, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman have been exposing various memes and myths to some TV-science scrutiny, to see if whether these culturally ingrained factoids have any element of truth. My sons love it, possibly because of their innate curiosity, though I’m sure the shows gratuitous use of guns and explosives helps.

Most of the time, the Mythbusters prove that the myths they test really are just myths like we expected.  Though occasionally, they come up with some really counter-intuitive results, like elephants really are afraid of mice, that bullets can’t penetrate water, and that a bull in a china shop doesn’t necessarily lead to lots of broken china.

What’s consistently good about Mythbusters is that it shows you can learn a lot by being open minded, and that failure is just as much of an opportunity to learn as success is (sometimes more so). It also demonstrates the value of critical thinking.

There are so many things in our lives that we accept just because other people accept them too. That’s partly because of the way we’re biologically wired, and then socially adapted. While this has its advantages, it’s also deleterious too. Sometimes we do things in ways that are actually wasteful, or accept second best because “that’s the way its always been”.

Because it consists of fallible humans, the church is not immune. If anything, the church is more prone to simply accept what we’re told rather than taking a different point of view and considering issues from alternative perspectives. For example, the push for same-sex marriage caught many conservatives and the church by surprise, partly because the church has been unwilling or unable to engage in public discussion on same-sex marriage without it degenerating into disgust and derision. This has left the arguments against same-sex marriage with holes big enough for spelunking, and has made opponents of same-sex marriage look like a laughing stock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-0u9Ad886M).

What follows is a discussion on critical thinking within the Christian church. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. Actually, I hope that someone will be able to definitively disprove some of my later observations. Right or wrong, I hope to start an open dialogue on the way the church engages with critical thinking, because it’s a discussion that’s long overdue.

So first, just what is critical thinking? “Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.” (http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php)

Is critical thinking Biblical? I propose it is. There’s no verse in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt be critical thinkers.” However, Acts 17:11 talked about those in Berea who searched the Scriptures daily, to see if what they were hearing was true to God’s Word. John and Peter both warned of false teachers, and Jesus said they may come to us in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15; 1 John 4:1; 2 Peter 2:1). John said our duty is to “test the spirits.” Paul said: “Test everything. Hold on to the good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Is critical thinking being too self-reliant or denying the role of faith? I don’t think so. We don’t expect God to miraculously make us float around from place to place … we walk. God gave us legs, and using them does not deny our faith or God’s sovereignty. In fact, we’d look pretty silly if we sat still and prayed for God to move us around. It’s no different with our brain. God gave us a brain with the capacity for high-level thinking. Using our brain for high-level thinking doesn’t deny either faith or God their rightful place. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth (John 16:13) and he will guide our thinking if we have the faith to believe.

Is critical thinking necessarily critical? “Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks.” (http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php)

So why don’t we engage in more critical thinking within the church? This is a simple question that requires a complex answer. I’m going to venture a few suggestions, but this list is far from comprehensive, and is more opinion than solid fact. If you disagree, or want to fill in some gaps, please leave a comment to add to the discussion.

1. People in general don’t have critical thinking skills

Critical thinking skills are sadly lacking, not just in the church, but across our society as a whole. Look no further than at the sheer volume of factoids and memes that go viral on social media. The average person accepts large numbers of baseless statements and passes them on to their friends in the mistaken belief that they hold some basis in truth.

There are probably lots of reasons for this, but I’d suggest that the main reason is that critical thinking is not taught in most schools, vocational training, or even at a lot of universities. Teaching critical thinking skills takes time away from teaching exam strategy, which is counter-productive for schools NAPLAN ranking. Since the world cares more about comparing themselves with others rather than actual intelligence, NAPLAN coaching is much more important than letting a child think for themselves.

Most work places actively discourage individual thinking too. Subservience to the system or to organizational rules makes for a much better workplace even if that means it’s full of mindless drones.

2. Christians don’t use critical thinking

The typical Sunday sermon, if it contains any scripture at all, is spoon-fed to the congregation without additional thinking required. It’s obviously difficult to have time for Q+A after a Sunday service, and for the vast majority of Christians, this is where their teaching for the week finishes.

There’s a small percentage of Christians that will go to small groups, but depending on the leadership of the small group, there may not be much opportunity to delve deeply into the text or subtext of the previous weeks sermon.

Then there’s a smaller number of Christians who have a habit of a daily devotional, though many of those will choose to be spoon-fed with a devotional text of some form.

Those who simply read the Bible think critically about the text and what it means will be a very small percentage of the Christian church.

3. Pastors don’t encourage critical thinking

When was the last time a you were at a church and the topic of the sermon was how to delve deeper into the Bible – how to understand the original Hebrew or Greek to enrich the meaning of the Biblical text? I’ve been in churches for more than 30 years, and I don’t recall a single sermon like that.

Perhaps it’s because pastors don’t think people would be able to understand. Or, perhaps it’s because they feel it would erode their position as experts? Perhaps they don’t understand themselves?

4. The church values the appearance of unity over critical thinking

In church-life, a high value is given to the concept of ‘unity’.   Discouraging critical thinking helps to maintain the appearance of ‘unity’. If someone did happen to have a thought of their own, they would tend to keep it to themselves since everyone seems happy when everyone’s in agreement.

When someone does speak out, it’s seen as ‘disunity’, even if their concern is legitimate. Continued non-conformity is treated as dissension. Sure, it’s couched in a thick layer of Christianese – that person’s taken offense / isolating themselves / is a troublemaker / out of God’s will / unteachable / unfaithful / has a critical spirit, etc

While that might very well be true, sadly, any non-conformity is treated the same, warranted or not. Either way, legitimate discussion is shut down, and homeostasis returns.

The solution is to use our brains. The church needs to openly accept and engage critical thinking rather than encourage diminutive homogeny and pretend they have unity.

Just because Jesus is our shepherd doesn’t mean that we should always behave like sheep, just mindlessly following the rest of the flock. God gave us a brain, we should not be afraid to use it.

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Post-script = In an upcoming blog, I’ll do an idiots guide to critical thinking. It’s all very well and good to say we should think critically, but that won’t happen if we don’t have the skills.

Don’t stress about stress – Part 1

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Stress gets a bad rap. Everywhere you look, stress seems to be getting the blame. Though as Richard Shweder wrote in the New York Times, “Imprecise and evasive language may be a disaster for science but it is a boon in everyday life. ‘I am stressed out’ is non-accusatory, apolitical and detached. It is a good way to keep the peace and, at the same time, a low-cost way to complain.” [1]

Selye said that, “Everybody knows what stress is, but no one really knows.” [2] Hans Selye is considered the father of modern stress research. He was one of the first scientists to conceptualise and measure this ethereal force.

As with some of the most important discoveries in the history of science, Selye came upon the discovery of what he termed the “alarm reaction” incidentally when he was injecting rats with impure ovarian extract, and noted that they became sick. He looked further at the physical changes in the rats and noted an unusual cluster of changes to their adrenal glands, thymus, spleen and gut [3]. He was able to reproduce the same responses by exposing the rats to cold temperatures, surgical injury, spinal shock, excessive muscular exercise, or intoxications with sublethal doses of drugs such as adrenaline, morphine or formaldehyde [4]. After years of research, he confirmed that ongoing exposure to the same physical conditions or drugs would follow the same three-stage process of initial physical changes, recovery and adaptation, then eventually exhaustion (and death). He called this model the “General Adaptation Syndrome.” [4]

The General Adaptation model was groundbreaking, and the sheer volume of work done by Selye brought his theories to the forefront of the scientific community. With time, the theory slowly descended from its place of adulation as other evidence came to light [5], but it has remained foundational, and Selye is still revered as the father of modern stress research.

The term stress “generally refers to experiences that cause feelings of anxiety and frustration because they push us beyond our ability to successfully cope.” [6] Scientifically, stress has been difficult to define. Different researchers often use different definitions of stress depending on what they’re studying or what field of psychology or science they belong to [7].

I wanted to look at stress from a different perspective. In the next series of posts, I want to look at the basic concepts of stress and its functions in nature. I will spend some time looking at different ways of conceptualising stress, and look at how they offer is life lessons on how to approach our stress. I’ll then have a look at what it is that helps us cope with stress.

A broad concept of stress

To gain a better understanding of stress, it’s useful to step away from the medical concept of stress, and think about what the term means in other fields.

When an engineer thinks about stress, it’s usually in relation to a physical force on a material object. My son is a huge Mythbusters fan. He was watching an episode the other day where the Mythbusters were testing the myth of Pykrete, a material that was nothing but wood shavings and ice. They were testing to see whether it was more durable than ice alone, whether it was bulletproof, and whether it could be used to build a boat! [8] In order to test out these crazy claims, they made some in their workshop and compared it with normal ice. How did they test it? By stressing it – placing weights on the end of the block of the ice/pykrete until it broke. (In the end, pykrete was ten times stronger than ice, was bulletproof, and they made a fully operational motor-boat from it!)

So the mechanical definition of stress is, “pressure or tension exerted on a material object.” [9] There are a few illustrations of mechanical stress, in our bodies and in everyday life, that are good metaphors for stress in our lives.

The Classical Stress/Productivity Curve

I confess I am NOT a musician. I’ve never learnt to read music or play an instrument. But I do know that when you first put a new string on the guitar, it’s unstretched – there is literally no force on it at all. If all you did was tied the two ends of the string to the tone peg and the tuning peg, the string would remain limp and lifeless. It wouldn’t be able to do anything useful. It certainly wouldn’t play a note.

When the tuning peg is twisted a few times, there is some tightness in the wire. The string is now under tension (i.e. stress). It is now able to play a note of some form, so it can do some work and fulfill some of the function of a guitar string. But the pitch isn’t good enough – the note is out of tune.

With a small adjustment, the string reaches its optimal tension and can play the correct note! This is the point where the string is fulfilling its designed purpose. Optimal stress equals optimal function.

With further tightening of the string, the perfect pitch is lost, but the string can still produce a sound of some form. With more tension, the string can still make a noise, but it sounds awful, and the fibres inside the cord are starting to tear. If the string were wound further and further, it would eventually break.

If this ratio of the tension of the string versus the usefulness of the string were to be plotted as a graph, it would look like an upside down “U”. This is the classic stress/productivity curve.

StressProductivityCurve_Final

The Exponential Stress/Productivity Curve

The second metaphor that I think illustrates a different concept of the stress/productivity relationship is a car.

As well not being a musician, I am also NOT a mechanic! I know the important things like where the petrol goes, and how to drive them, but otherwise cars are very mysterious and powerful devices, their mystery is only exceeded by their power.

What I do know is that the engine is very much like the guitar string. As more petrol is fed into the engine, the engine gets more powerful. Soon, the engine finds its “power band”, a zone of maximum torque that can be achieved at moderate revolutions. As the engine is given more gas, the power output declines from the middle of the power band. If the engine was maxed out then the amount of functional power coming out is reduced.

This would plot as a similar graph to the U-curve of the stress/productivity curve. But cars not only have engines, but also a gearbox. The gears allow for multiplication of the work done (the productivity) for the same stress on the engine.

G-Force!

As a child, I didn’t dream of becoming an astronaut, but I was interested in space. The beauty of our night sky is as stunning as any forest, river or mountain. I would read of the astronauts in rockets and in space stations, floating around in zero gravity, swimming through the “air”. That sounded like a lot of fun.

But zero gravity isn’t particularly good for you. Some early astronauts had to be carried off their landing craft on stretchers because the effect of zero gravity would render these men weak and atrophied. They boarded the spacecraft at the peak of their physical strength and fitness, but after only a few weeks without gravity, their bodies resembled that of the elderly (although without the wrinkles) [10].

It’s a general principle of the human body that any tissue that isn’t needed shrinks in size – a process called atrophy. In zero gravity, the body doesn’t need as much muscle, so the muscles shrink. The body doesn’t need as much bone strength, so the bones weaken. There is no gravity to pull their blood away from their head, so the blood volume decreases. Because there is less muscle to pump blood to, and less blood to pump, the heart doesn’t work as hard, so the heart muscle atrophies. The net effect of zero gravity is to make you physically weak [10].

On the other hand, too much gravity is not great either. Animals can adapt to small amounts of hypergravity [11]. But large amounts aren’t so good. During astronaut training, NASA subjects the rookie spacemen to rigorous tests including placing them in a large centrifuge and spinning it very fast. The result is an increase in the gravitational forces applied to their bodies. The increased gravity makes everything in the body heavier and their blood is pulled towards the legs and away from the brain, which leads to what is known as G-LOC (Gravity-induced Loss Of Consciousness). In other words, the heart can’t fight the increased force of gravity and the brain loses its blood supply, which makes you pass out. Josh McHugh did an entertaining piece on his experience with G-LOC and the centrifuge in Wired (2003) [12].

In this sense, gravity is to us physically like stress is to us mentally. Without gravity, our physical bodies turn to mush as we slowly weaken from the inside. Too much gravity, and our physical bodies are slowly squashed by the invisible weight of the extra G’s. Our bodies work best at 1G.

In the next post in this series, I’ll look at how these different models of stress apply to our everyday.

References

  1. Shweder, R.A., America’s Latest Export: A Stressed-Out World. The New York Times, New York, 26 January 1997 http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/26/weekinreview/america-s-latest-export-a-stressed-out-world.html
  2. What Is Stress. [cited 2013, July]; Available from: http://www.stress.org/what-is-stress/.
  3. Half a century of stress research: a tribute to Hans Selye by his students and associates. Experientia, 1985. 41(5): 559-78 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3888652
  4. Selye, H., A syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents. 1936. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci, 1998. 10(2): 230-1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9722327
  5. Fink, G., Encyclopedia of stress. 1st ed. 2000, Academic Press, San Diego:
  6. McEwen, B.S., Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: central role of the brain. Dialogues Clin Neurosci, 2006. 8(4): 367-81 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17290796
  7. Hackney, A.C., Stress and the neuroendocrine system: the role of exercise as a stressor and modifier of stress. Expert Rev Endocrinol Metab, 2006. 1(6): 783-92 doi: 10.1586/17446651.1.6.783
  8. Beyond Entertainment / Discovery Channel, The Alaska Special 2 (Season 7, Episode 2), Mythbusters: 2009 Discovery Channel, 44min. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1427433/
  9. Oxford Dictionary of English – 3rd Edition, 2010, Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.
  10. Gravity Hurts (So Good). NASA Science | Science News 2001 [cited July 2013]; Available from: http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast02aug_1/.
  11. van Loon, J.J., Hypergravity studies in the Netherlands. J Gravit Physiol, 2001. 8(1): P139-42 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12650205
  12. McHugh, J., Surviving 7G. Wired, 2003. November(11),