Bias, Belief, and Morality.

I'm just going to start this by saying I am out of my depth here.

One might ask why we have biases, beliefs, and morality. I think these are all linked in some manner. They all have to do with a personal entity and what they purport to be true. I think one of the most common mistakes I have seen people make in dialog is when someone says I am being biased and therefore, my point of view is invalid without they themselves seeing they are also biased. We are all biased. We are hardwired to be biased. But bias is not necessarily a bad thing.

In my opinion, our biases represent a core part of being human. I have never met another human being who is not biased in some way. Why are people biased? People are biased because humans are better off being biased than unbiased.

Now, I will say the same thing about belief. We are all hardwired to believe certain things. Beliefs can be true or false, just like biases can be true or false. The difference, in my opinion, between a bias and a belief is that a bias is an orientation toward a belief. One might say our personality is just a form of bias in this way. We are more or less likely to vote for conservative or liberal politicians based on our biases.

Beliefs are more based on subjective opinions much of the time. We often cannot "prove" why we believe something. This does not mean that there are not true or false beliefs whereas, with biases, these are things that are based on psychology, our orientations, and how we weigh certain interpretations. So people who are high in Openness in Big 5 will be more likely to vote for Liberal candidates whereas people who are high in Conscientiousness are more likely to vote for Conservative candidates. But our beliefs are what make up our worldview. Our worldview does not necessarily depend on our biases in this way.

Now, both our biases and beliefs form how we see morality. Of course, this opens a whole can of worms on if morality is objective or not and I think it is. Does that mean I think certain biases and beliefs are more true than others? Yes, I think so and I will tell you why: people who are loose with their interpretations pertaining to biases and beliefs often are loose with their morality as well. The spectrum I see with morality is based on how objective or subjective you see certain behaviors as being good or bad. Some people think that morality is subjective and I would assume their beliefs and biases are more secular rather than religious. I also have noticed a pattern in my engagements with more secular people that they often act in a way I think is immoral from my point of view. They are often much more rude and condescending to me than I am to them (I am thinking of atheists here). While you could argue that this is just because I am polite, which makes me more conservative, I still think my sense of morality is more true than theirs. I say this because I try and be kind, which I think is virtuous. Now, one could say being kind is not virtuous, but then if no one is kind then this is going to cause a lot of problems for humanity. I will not go into this at this time, but to me, it seems to make intuitive sense to say to treat everyone with kindness. And in my humble opinion, when people are loose with their morality with small things, then it is much more likely they will be loose with their morality with big things as well.

Given all I have said, that leads me to this: All three of these intermingling dynamics of personhood as having to do with biases, beliefs, and morality have something to do with trust. The question is "Who do you trust?" We all trust someone about something or else we would be living as solipsists, which I think is an absurd idea. Our biases are about who or what we are trusting. Our beliefs are about who or what we are trusting. And our morality is about who or what we are trusting. True enough, most people would probably say they are biased towards and hold their beliefs and morality about themselves as of first and foremost importance if they were honest with themselves. But sometimes people put other ideas as being more credible than their own. This is the way I feel about the Bible. My biases are more middle-leaning naturally. For example, I didn't like either major political candidate for the 2020 election so I voted third party. In 2020 third-party voters were less common than in other years. This demonstrates I am more in the middle on my biases and political leanings and not liberal or conservative in my leaning. My beliefs pertain almost entirely to Christianity. I trust that the Bible is more reliable than I am. My morality as a Christian means I view morality as more objective than subjective. I trust the Bible over my experiences, so I hold the Bible in higher regard than my own mortality. The reason for this is that the Bible tells me I fail the test of morality and when I reflect on myself I see that I cannot even keep the standards I set for myself. So I conclude that the Bible is correct in its assessment that I fail the test of morality. Therefore, since the Bible tells me my morality is worse than the Bible's that I must trust the morality of the Bible above my own.

So the question is "Who do you trust?" I trust Jesus. He has given us the proper orientations to be biased toward, the proper ideals to believe in, and the proper morality to have. I say Jesus' biases are above my own because he did not take sides in political matters in regards to liberal vs conservative leanings and never doubted himself for a second whereas I frequently second guess myself as to if I voted for the right person in the 2020 election. And Jesus' beliefs are above my own because He believed He was God. He believed He was the most important person to believe in. And this is backed up by three things: 1) He claimed to be God. He truly did and anyone telling you otherwise does not know the scholarship on this issue. 2) God raised Him from the dead. We know this for several reasons which I will not go into here. If God raised Jesus from the dead, then it justifies the morality he purported because God would not resurrect someone who had a poor understanding of morality. 3) Jesus' ethics are far beyond anything anyone has said or done. As an example of this, He died willingly for His friends so they would not die and He preached things like repaying evil with kindness.

So my biases, beliefs, and morality are based on a trust in the Bible, and by extension, Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, Holy One of God, and Savior of the world!

God bless you! Until next time!