Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Cognitive Dissonance Re-Examined by Laura Anaya



[NOTE: This guest blog post is a response to my podcast “Cognitive Dissonance”]

A thought on cognitive dissonance,  and the anger people have at being confronted with truth  - even truth you agree with. 

One of the key teachings of the church I grew up in was that the sin of Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of good and evil was disobedience. Very little attention, if any, is placed on the effect of the fruit itself, or the doubt in Eve's mind about God being on her side leading up to taking the fruit. 

However in my walk back to understanding God's love I found that there is a profound effect of fear that the fruit of needing certitude of good vs evil has on one’s  life.  It is a shame-based fear that envelopes us when we see ourselves in the wrong.  And we instinctively take measures to protect. 

Adam and Eve covered themselves and hid.  We continue to cover ourselves and hide from each other even when we know our errors.  Often we embrace the certitude of claiming Christ’s name and believing He is God to ensure we are in the “Good” camp, but we do not give up the false security of the fruit of the Tree of Death. We remain self-protective rather than embracing Christ's way of vulnerable self-sacrificing service, and placing our certitude in Him rather than ourselves getting the right understanding and right doing and right saying that will earn the favor of God. 

When this happens we often look good on the outside but continue to rot on the inside.  And any truth that confronts our beliefs will be met with anger or defense, not because it is wrong but because if we realize we can be wrong in one area of our life it shakes the foundation of our salvation, which is a right understanding, and doing Christianity rather than Christ Himself.

I truly appreciate your love and the messages you speak.  Many must die to self-protection and embrace Christ-protection to hear the truth.  It is a painful process to die to self-protection and self-certainty; the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good vs Evil. 

When we claim this as Adam and Eve's sin and don't recognize it as fruit we continue to eat of it ourselves we deny it's deadly effects in our lives today. 

It is difficult, if not impossible, to eat of it and embrace the self-sacrificing service of love Christ made us for and died to regain for us.

-Laura Anaya

 

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