Fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real, meaning the key to overcoming fear is through knowledge acquisition. The Bible in Hosea 4:6, Basic English translation, states “Destruction has overtaken my people because they have no knowledge.” Ignorance (Nevid and Rathus, 2005) is where many fears come from. Many fears are irrational because they only take into account a small portion of the reality of the situation. Many fears can be dispelled by further investigation and intent on understanding the whole picture. Fears, ignorance, or irrational behaviors can also stem from one’s beliefs and expectations that may not be in line with his or her true potential (Nevid & Rathus, 2005). To eliminate fear, one must take cognizance of their thought process and learn to eliminate illogical thought by becoming a critical thinker.
Our behaviors, thoughts, and actions are not isolated to one corner of life; rather they spill into other areas, defining the person. On that note, illogical thinking affects all areas of life. There is a saying “how you do anything is how you do everything” that accurately describes this phenomenon. It is the same for me, and I have carried this wisdom with me and applied it to all my personal growth. I realized that bigotry is not isolated to mere semantics of race; rather, it is a lens through which we do everything in our life. Recently, I realized I possessed a source of bigotry that radiated sickly tendrils into other areas of my life. I realized that tendrils of bias existed in places I did not expect, including some I would have never thought were related to racism or bigotry. In other words, this bigotry, once identified, helped me to unlock other sources of hidden bigotry and false ideologies. I use it to flush out ill conceived notions or phobias based on little or no concrete evidence. This can only be done through thorough self-examination and no-mercy self-questioning.
The realization was simple enough; I am a spider bigot. I don’t care what the spider is doing or what type it is, as far as I am concerned, all are guilty by association and deserve to die. I have realized that this bigotry, or arachnophobia as the fear of spiders is called, is unfounded and based on fear. Fears and illogical patterns of thinking are usually passed along from parents to children. When children naturally play, there is no distinction between race, color, height, weight, or any other defining characteristics. It is the prejudices we instill in our children that give them cognizance of these differences. We pass along our beliefs, actions, and fears and our children adopt these as normal patterns of behavior; they do not question it because the adult does it therefore it must be normal (Nevid & Rathus, 2005). I realized that my phobia was unnatural: something I observed in and copied from my mom. Through critical thinking I also realized that my fear would actually cause me more harm than good.
With this bigoted attitude toward spiders I had no knowledge of which ones were harmful or not. I had no knowledge of their benefits or indirect harms which could be incurred as a result of killing them. Basically my fear was keeping me from entering into a relationship with spiders that might be mutually beneficial. Or, at the very least, this relationship could provide a position where I could tolerate their inevitable presence. Through this fear I was closing myself off to untold life experiences, experience that may enrich my life or impart important knowledge upon me. I also became aware of what ramification my actions had when my daughter began displaying the same tendencies. Thus, I was not only hurting myself, but her as well. When she copied my unnatural fear, she lost the opportunity to become an explorer of the world; a legacy every child deserves.
The Society for Critical Thinking, a group dedicated to eradicating illogical thought, discusses that all problems in our society stem from fractures in our thinking. They say, “Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life.” The key, they say, to solving the world’s problems requires filling in the gaps, or fixing these fractures, but “excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated.” (2010, Critical Thinking: Where to Begin: Why Critical Thinking?)
The Bible speaks of this path from destruction to rebuilding. Racial/bigoted/illogical division is described in Matthew 10:35-36, "a man [will be turned] against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.” Hosea 4:6 discusses that people die from a lack of knowledge. Statements of hope, change, and healing occur throughout the Bible including Leviticus 26:6 “I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.” I learned long ago, however, that it is not realistic to sit around and wait for something to happen. God will not just do the work, it requires people to make a commitment to change.
God placed in my possession a very special girl who, like any child, has the chance to change the world. She cannot change the world, however, if she is encumbered by faulty thinking. That said, she will be thus encumbered if I do not change my ways. I believe it is my duty to eradicate from my being all remnants of bias, bigotry, racism and other forms of illogical thought. It is the job of the parent to prepare their child for the future. I believe this does not refer to making my children robots that just follows society’s mandates. Rather I see a suggestion to allow my children to create minds of their own; to make the changes in the prescribed forms of thinking that will affect changes on a broader scale of human ignorance.
References
Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2009). Retrieved from
http://www.criticalthinking.org/starting/index.cfm.
Nevid, J. S. & Rathus, S. A. (2005). Psychology and the challenges of life: Adjustment in the new millennium (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
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