Rediscovering Our Intellectual Curiosity and Critical Thinking Skills

This post appeared on the Banned by HWA blog, but I feel like the topic was hijacked by a commentator there who has a personal animus against me and is reliably hostile to anything I post there. Nevertheless, I feel so strongly about the potential for this post to help others in coming to terms with their experiences within Armstrongism that I felt it deserved another run:

One of the great ironies of having once been a part of Armstrongism is the loss and/or distortion of two of the things that allowed us to entertain Herbert Armstrong’s teachings in the first place. I am, of course, speaking of our intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills.

In an article for Psychology Today, Dr Michael Austin defined intellectual curiosity as “a deep and persistent desire to know.” He went on to say that an intellectually curious person pursues the “why” questions. Remember how those old Worldwide Church of God booklets with questions as titles first grabbed your attention and instilled a desire to want to know the answers to the questions they posed?

Likewise, it was the employment of some of our critical thinking skills which first allowed us to entertain the answers that Mr. Armstrong was selling. In Coursera’s article What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?, C.T. is defined as “the ability to interpret, evaluate, and analyze facts and information that are available, to form a judgment or decide if something is right or wrong.” In his writings, Herbert Armstrong invited us to employ some of our critical thinking skills. He asked us to identify the biases and prejudices of traditional Christianity. He invited us to research the topic from the pages of our own Bibles. He encouraged us to be open to God’s “truth.” Mr. Armstrong also encouraged us to meditate on what he (or the Bible) was teaching us about some subject (analysis and problem-solving).

The problem was that Mr. Armstrong offered us a destination – a place to park our intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills. After all, once we had discovered “THE TRUTH,” there was no longer any reason to be curious or use those critical thinking skills! Indeed, according to Herbert Armstrong, if we continued to explore and employ those skills, we might lose the truth which we had discovered. In fact, after we were hooked, Mr. Armstrong encouraged us to become binary thinkers!

According to LifeHack’s Clay Drinko, binary thinking “is thinking there are two sides, and you can only pick one. Also known as dichotomous thinking, this way of thinking becomes simple for us to process complex ideas and situations. The gray area in the middle of these complex issues is often ignored or goes unnoticed.” This is also sometimes referred to as black and white thinking. With Mr. Armstrong, everything was either or. He was the master of the false dilemma. Things were either Holy or Pagan, clean or unclean, good or evil, true or false! When we think about it, the problems inherent with this kind of thinking become readily apparent. Once again, Drinko informs us that “The problem with binary thinking is its inaccuracy. Gray areas do exist and are prominent in every issue. It may make us feel better to think about this or that, them or us, him or her, but it’s not how the world works.”

So, how do we recover what was lost? How do we recover our intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills? My guess is that, like most of us who contribute to this blog, Mr. Armstrong never completely succeeded in suppressing your curiosity or eradicating your critical thinking skills. In other words, they’re probably still there – bruised and buried in your subconscious. Hence, you only need to reawaken them – start exercising those dormant muscles – and allow yourself to begin once again exploring Scripture and the world around you! You have to give yourself permission to listen to other people and their ideas. You have to allow yourself to explore writings outside of the books and booklets promulgated by Armstrong and his disciples.

Also, you have to work on the biases/prejudices which Herbert Armstrong instilled within you concerning science, history, and education. In other words, it’s not just about beginning to research topics again – you must also learn that some sources of information are superior to others. In short, you must learn again to recognize that other folks also have their biases and prejudices which they bring to the table for discussion. And, most importantly of all, you need to acknowledge that you may be wrong about some things – that you may not have all of the answers to all of the questions!

Likewise, on the spiritual side of your journey, you will need to acknowledge that we currently see through a glass darkly – that God’s Holy Spirit doesn’t make you (or anyone else) infallible in matters of faith. Allow yourself to entertain the ideas of the folks who have devoted their lives to the study of Scripture. Biblical criticism is NOT a bad thing! It can be an extremely helpful tool in better understanding the Bible. Allow yourself to explore the textual, philological, and literary criticisms of the scholars. You don’t have to swallow everything they write hook, line, and sinker (indeed, you shouldn’t), but you should recognize that it is possible that they have something to contribute to your understanding of Scripture. And, finally, we must all remember that we should continue to grow in grace and knowledge for as long as we are breathing and cognitively able to do so! Best wishes and blessings on your journey!