The document discusses various cognitive biases that influence human perception and decision-making. It explores biases like comfort/complacency bias, which causes people to reject information that challenges their worldviews or requires effort. It also examines consciousness bias and how one's view of complexity evolves over time. Throughout, it poses questions to help reflect on how these biases might influence one's own perspectives and values.

1. The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name
May your kingdom come, may your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory
Forever and ever.
Amen.

3. How can you see the speck of
wood
in the eye of another when you
cannot see the log in your own
eye?
MATTHEW 7:3 (FNV)
For now, my knowledge
is full of holes...
1 CORINTHIANS 13:12(FNV)

4. ADAM GRANT
The joy
of being wrong

6. Our brains welcome data that
allows us to relax and be happy
and reject data that require
us to adjust, work, or
inconvenience ourselves;
we don’t want our sense
of comfort disturbed
COMFORT/COMPLACENCYBIAS

7. if you bring me info that
emotionally disturbs me,
arguments that demand
action from me, or ...
challenge me to do
something difficult,
strenuous/upsetting/risky,
my brain would rather
ignore, reject, or resist
you...
BRIAN MCLAREN

8. This is about not wanting
to deal with more than
we’re CURRENTLY
handling than it is about
not wanting to deal with
more than we’re CAPABLE
of handling...
BRIAN MCLAREN

9. Do you ever read/watch/
listen to anything that
challenges your sense
of comfort? Care to share?!
Aside from family members,
do you have anyone in
your life who challenges
your comfort/complacency
in a healthy way?
~ QUESTIONS ~

10. Spirit of truth who sets us free by
the truth, please strengthen my desire
for truth so that I will face rather than
reject truths that will inconvenience me.
Grant me resolve to welcome the pain
that often comes with wisdom. Help me
choose empathy over apathy. Help me
choose courage over complacency.
And help me to abhor the bliss
that accompanies ignorance.
COMPLACENCY BIASPRAYER

11. Conservatives and Liberals see the
world differently. Liberals see through
a “nurturing parent” window,
conservatives see through a “strict
father” window. Liberals value moral
arguments
based on justice and compassion;
conservatives also place a high value
on arguments based on purity, loyalty,
authority, and tradition. Our brains
CONSERVATIVE/LIBERAL BIAS

13. Fairness
Kindness
Progressiv
e
Purity
Loyalty
Liberty
Authority
MORAL FOUNDATIONS
Unfairness
Cruelty
Conservativ
e
Degradatio
n
Betrayal
Oppression
v.
v.
v.
v.
v.
v.

14. Which of the six
“moral foundations”
do you identify with?
If you’re progressive,
how can you effectively
and appropriately leverage
all six categories to support
your perspective and appeal
to those you disagree with?
~ QUESTIONS ~

15. Holy Source of both surprise and
consistency,
help me never to be held captive by
rigid ideology on the one had or
addiction
to novelty on the other. Do not let me
be blinded by conformity or loyalty to
any political party or economic theory.
Help me always to do justice persistently,
love kindness cheerfully, and with
CONS./LIB. BIAS PRAYER

16. Some things simply can’t be seen
from where I am right now.
But if I keep growing, maturing,
and developing, someday I will
be able to see what is now
inaccessible to me
CONSCIOUSNESS BIAS

17. Simplicity (dualistic
thinking)
Complexity (pragmatic “
”)
Perplexity (realistic “ ”)
Harmony (gracious “ ”)
Each new stage builds on
and grows beyond the
previous one, like the
BRIAN MCLAREN

18. When I was a child I spoke like a
child, thought like a child, and
reasoned like
a child. When I became a mature
adult,
I put childish ways behind
1 CORINTHIANS 13:11

19. Which stage do you think
you’re most likely in?
How did your experience
of religion make grasping
this bias easier or more
difficult?
What do you accept or
believe now, as a result of
~ QUESTIONS ~

20. Formerly:
Brett Trapp

21. Voice who beckons me toward growth,
help me see what I am mature
enough
to see right now, and not only that:
help me to know now how little
I can know until I grow more mature.
Grant me curiosity and awe so that
I may honor the bottomless, limitless
wonder, and the beauty, glory, and
mystery that permeate this world.
CONSCIOUSNESS BIAS PRAYER

22. Catastrophe Bias
read/listen accordingly 
Cash Bias
read/listen accordingly 
FORNEXT WEEK

23. Our Closing Prayer
Source of wonder, help us see with wonder.
Depth of mystery, help us find delight and truth
so profound that they surpass all knowing.
Fountain of compassion, help us see with compassion.
Bringer of justice, help us see with justice;
Revealer of truth, help us see what is real.
Holy wisdom, whose presence fills our ever-expanding
universe, help horizons ever to expand.
Light of glory, help us to see with humility and awe.
Amen.