The document discusses several topics including: - Jim Jones and the Jonestown mass suicide where over 900 people died. - Experiments on obedience to authority where test subjects continued administering electric shocks when ordered by an authority figure. - Groupthink and how groups can influence individuals to conform to an incorrect consensus. - The importance of critically examining religious teachings and scriptures as the Bereans did in the Bible. - How echo chambers and only listening to like-minded individuals can promote more extreme views.

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3. Jim Jones

4. Approx 80 dead including 22 children

5. MUSLIM CARTOON UPRISING

6. David Koresh Branch Davidians Jim Jones Jonestown Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban 1. Compliance with Authority

9. Accomplice of the Experimenter Experimental Subject Gives the electric shocks Orders Teacher to shock student for wrong Answers Accomplice of the Experimenter Orders Teacher to shock student for wrong Answers Experimental Subject gives the electric shocks “ Obedience to Authority”

10. 65% of Experimental Subjects (Teachers) obeyed Authority (Experimenter) and continued shocking “learner” to full capacity. Death Possible

11. On May 10, 1933 "unGerman“ books were burned by the Nazis. (Freud, Einstein, Thomas Mann, Jack London, H.G. Wells etc)

12. Madrasas Education: The youngest boys sit cross-legged 4 to 8 hours per day memorizing the Koran . Older boys learn the Hadith , Islamic history and jurisprudence. There are no world history, math, or science courses taught.

13. 75% of Subjects conformed at least once with the group and picked the wrong size line to stay in the good grace of the group .

14. Groupthink represents a form of social influence of the majority that results in a dangerous level of agreement by all members of the group, even if the decided action is obviously wrong A mode of thought whereby individuals intentionally conform to what they perceive to be the consensus of the group. Janis, I. (1972). Victims of groupthink. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Janis, I. (1982). Groupthink: Psychological studies of policy decisions and fiascoes.

18. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day NIV Acts 17:11

21. “ It is their duty to investigate as did the Bereans. The Lord says through the prophet Hosea: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee." {Sketches from the Life of Paul (1883) LP 87.2} Raphael, 1513-1514.

23. People become more extreme after they listen to and speak primarily with likeminded others Islamic fundamentalism is the purest example of the radicalizing echo chamber effect

24. Lake Region Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Lake Region Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Harris Pine Mills Shady Grove Adventist Hospital Boston Regional Medical Center Family Enrichment Resources, Inc., “ Blue Duck Co.” & Folkenberg & James E. Moore Elizaphan Ntakirutimana Fuller Memorial Hospital

25. Now the Bereans …received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true . NIV Acts 17:11 “ THE GREATEST NEED of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is for well-informed members to give liberally not only of their tithes and offerings but of their very best judgment —as church board members, as constituency meeting delegates, as local and union conference committee members and as institutional trustees.” A degree of diversity of thought is the one ingredient necessary for a healthy state, working democracy and just religion