I use tarot and oracle cards as tools for reflection and contemplation. Rather than divining the future, they are a way for me to look more deeply at the "now."
"The goal isn't to arrive, but to meander, to saunter, to make your life a holy wandering." ~ Rami Shapiro

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Convictions and Biases

From the Swietlistej Drogi Tarot, the Emperor; from Mirrors of the Heart, 'Night:'
          Looking at this Emperor's soldiers, I question whether he's more interested in protecting his people or in being 'Number One' among nations. While 75% of Americans consider themselves to be Christian, I wonder how many of them know the historical early stance on war taken by this faith?
St. Augustine (354–430), the most important theologian in the first thousand years of Christianity, developed “just war” theology—the conditions under which Christians may support war. The criteria fell into two categories: the justification for going to war and just conduct in war. For the former, the war had to be one of self-defense and last resort. Starting a war was prohibited. Just conduct in war meant acting as humanely as possible, including not deliberately harming noncombatants. (Convictions, Marcus Borg)
The Night card made me think of the wisdom often given to people struggling to make a decision: 'sleep on it.' Researchers are beginning to find that there is actual science behind this suggestion. As John M. Grohol explains, "The primary difference is that in unconscious thought, the usual biases that are a part of our conscious thinking are absent. In unconscious thought, we weigh the importance of the components that make up our decision more equally, leaving our preconceptions at the door of consciousness." Leaving out those biases is something that Emperor might want to work on.



4 comments:

  1. Poor St. Augustine. There has never been a just and clean war, it is all about rape pillage kill for the lowlys and make honeey for the highies. You can't take that out of humans regardless the religion. I think it is what they count on...reduce to the base

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    1. In the first 3 centuries of Christianity, Christians refused to go to war. They took that 'love your enemies' idea seriously.

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  2. When you have to 'sleep on it' you don't get any sleep.

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    1. I think it would entail sitting it down and leaving it be before crawling into bed. :)

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