Experience, Dogma, and Data

Hey Everyone:

Good morning, and welcome to another issue of The Lorem Ipsum, where we cover the news if we feel like it, or something else if we prefer.

This was a slow news week, and most stories are recycled versions of previous stories. You can tell by how the media has resorted to covering the war in Ukraine, despite little changing since 2022. Americans would generally rather talk about Susan Dell's Oval Office-announced Trump Accounts, where she appeared, looking like someone gave Martin Short a wig and a Sephora gift card and propped him up on a kickstand.

Of course, even in a slow news week, some noteworthy occurrences still take place, including that 30-year mortgage rates are higher than they've been in three years. This means that if you are buying a home this year, you would have been better off doing it 3 years ago, but not four years ago, but still better than buying anytime between 1972 and 2000, unless you consider home values. So my advice is, if you plan on buying a home but can stand to wait 30 years, you might as well wait and pay cash; however, the price of a home will be 30 years higher, leaving you with a net loss of $12,480,966.00, but with super low interest rates, that's basically free money.

Some stories are like Christa Pike; they refuse to die. It remains to be seen whether the story about death row inmate Christa Pike is one of them, but she's doing her part. This week, Christa regained consciousness days after the Tennessee executioner was reminded that he had one job. Seven needles and two doses of phenobarbitol put Christa in the same category as Donald Trump: still here, but we'll see what we can do about that after November. She woke this week with loss of mobility in her arms, to say, "Where am I and who are you?" For what it's worth to her victim's family, she may not have died, but she's definitely in hell.

When no major news events occur, that makes French art more newsworthy, and who wouldn't want to read more, especially if it involved a naked statue of Donald Trump, titled The Orange Plaque, depicting a tubby president squashed on the shoulders of a commoner. Danish artist Jens Galschiøt said it was inspired by the story of The Emperor's New Clothes, where everyone believes a lie because it's easier than being excluded from society.

Three Believers

And that brings me to why I write this article to begin with. There are three ways that we end up believing something. Either based on our experience, based on dogma, or based on data. All three of these factors are part of all of our believing life, but often, people land in one of these worlds more than another. I'll break down each of these Believers and illustrate their circumstances with the same subject.

Experience. The simplest way to believe something is to interact with it directly, which is basically why J.D. Vance believes that true love is when you have sex with an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions. The Experience Believer is someone who says, "I always feel better when I eat organic food, so organic food is better." Experience can be convincing, but sometimes a conclusion can match the experience without being conclusive. One could fail to notice they are mindful about food when they choose organic, but less so when they don't, resulting in more low-quality junk foods, which could be a bigger factor in the result.

Dogma. Depending on the context, this could be referring to a human female who mothers several four-legged pets and proudly wears a T-shirt to let everyone know. But in most cases, dogma refers to a belief that is taken as fact. The dogma believer says, "Organic food is better for you." Someone who holds such a dogma will look for evidence to support their belief. They will tend to favor the evidence that supports their belief and discredit sources outside of that dogma. If someone works for an agricultural science firm and conducts large-scale research, the person with the dogma will often dismiss the findings out of hand.

Data. The approach to belief is to let the evidence direct you to your beliefs. This would work perfectly in policymaking if you replaced all the people in Congress with Ben Stein and Bill Nye, with Claire Huxtable as Speaker of the House. The Evidence Believer says, "I want to know why I feel better when I eat organic foods," or better yet, "I want to know which foods are best." The Data Believer constantly revises his beliefs because new evidence matters more than an old conclusion. For him, the truth is the goal, and picking a conclusion that fits is not enough when other conclusions fit just as well.

Could it be mindful eating, the benefits of organic, or that I am simply only evaluating the evidence that reinforces what I already believe?

The Complication.

We are all subject to the first two factors. The third is a practice. Our survival instinct depends on two things. Making sense of the world around us, so we can keep our balance, and maintaining our place in a community so that we can have stability. These needs mean that we see the world through a lens of survival. When we interpret our experience, we are not interpreting objectively, but we're explaining things to ourselves to make sense of them. When we commit to a dogma, we are not committing to a truth; we are committing to a tribe, where we can find safety in numbers.

Believing based on data requires practice. It requires loving permanent truth more than temporary comfort, and it requires a willingness to change and learn. It also means you can't be fooled by the other two believers.

That's it for this week.

Remember: All the evidence points to you sharing this article with your friends. The Lorem Ipsum believes in you, but it might be wrong!

Have a great weekend!