Author’s Note: I will be talking about things regarding racism, abuse of minority groups, antisemitic rhetoric, and so on.
What is a Scholar?
As I’ve done with my past post, let’s look at the base definition.
A scholar is defined as “a specialist in a particular branch of study, especially the humanities; a distinguished academic.”
This is a very straight forward definition, so there’s really no guessing to what a scholar is or what a scholar does. They are simply an expert in a more refined field and have proven such. With this knowledge, it’s very easy to understand why people may take the scholars word above the words of others, especially if the others don’t seemingly have that background.
However, someone who has simply studied something like, say Judaism-they will not know more about Judaism than someone who has grown up in the religion-living it day after day. In fact you could even argue someone in that position IS a scholar, though they have no formal schooling.
While you could say they lack a formal training needed to be a scholar, a Rabbi would be a scholar on Judaism. Same as the Pope, or really any religious leader. They may not always have a solid degree of religious studies behind them, but you wouldn’t look at the pope and tell him there’s someone else who knows more about Catholicism than him, simply because they went to school for religious studies.
Theres also importance in knowing who’s ACTUALLY a scholar and who is able to claim it. Most scholars are peer reviewed. While it’s very hard to become an occult scholar, simply because the nature of the occult, all scholars are peer reviewed. And on top of that they’re also human. When scholars conduct tests and experiments or hypothesizes (hypothesis? Hypotheses?) in general, there are always other regulatory groups. For example-the IRB, or Institutional Review Board.
Did you know most Social Psychology experiments can’t take place without full approval from the IRB? And not just a “sure go ahead” but imagine trying to talk your parents into letting you go somewhere alone after dark when you’re 10. Who, how, when, where, why, what-all of it. Especially because these generally hang on the edge of human experiments.
So, you already have a first step on where scholars are through the wringer of fact checking. Even Doctors in Psych have to talk through the IRB. So if you pull anything away from this section-let it be known that it’s not one person that makes themselves a scholar. It’s an entire regulatory board behind them that even ALLOWS their activities.
“But what does believing scholars and their field of study have to do with conformation bias?”
What is Confirmation Bias?
Once more, the dictionary!
Confirmation Bias is defined as “the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.”
So, for a real-life example we’ll look at something that’s relatively harmless. Someone is stealing candy at work. There’re rumors that Jake from Accounting is the one doing it. You see Jake open his desk drawer and see five (5) starbursts in there! You have now decided that Jake IS the one stealing. However, what you didn’t see is that on his way to work he bought a pack of starburst at the gas station and is completely unaware of the candy thief.
So, as you can see, confirmation bias requires jumping on new evidence as if it’s a solid form of proof. The evidence was the candy in Jakes desk. But you did not do any actual work to look into it. If you would’ve asked Jake, he could’ve shown you his receipts and explained he buys a pack every week because his blood sugar drops and he sometimes needs that quick pick up and he loves starburst!
Confirmation Bias comes in many different flavors, sometimes it maybe you finally found that one bad thing is it about someone you got bad vibes from and are suddenly validated in your dislike of them. Others it could be you learned something about a celebrity that made you feel validated in your hate of their music. Or something that made you feel smart because you were right. We all have it occasionally, it’s just important to keep it in check and recognize we’re capable of it.
But boy is it satisfying when that person we loathe seems to be showing their true colors.
The Connection
So, the connection between scholars, confirmation bias, and your personal path may not be clear just yet. What do starburst and candy thieves have to do with witchcraft? Why did I bring up the IRB?
Well, the sad truth of the matter is many people will listen to “scholars” who are not only NOT scholars, but sometimes very poorly educated on a subject because something as simple as it came from a website they really like, or a book that was “published.”
And with that, even some past scholars that we know and love were awful and cruel people. Racist and the like. Some scholars ARE scholars and are so horribly pulled out of context that even they want to know where you got that information from.
The truth of the matter is simple. When it comes to confirmation bias it’s best to manage by vetting, and cross checking. And there’s so many reasons to do this to begin with! But some are also as simple as the fact that technically anyone can publish a book.
With self-publishing on the rise, you don’t need a publisher to back you. Which means, a lot of people could publish whatever they want. Because the beauty of self-publishing is just that. You are the first, middle, and final look through of the content you’re publishing if you so choose. So yes, while it may be in a book, that doesn’t always mean it’s true or even good information. Same with websites, blogs, etc.
I will even go as far to say that my posts should always 100% be cross referenced despite the fact that I know I cross reference all my information to begin with. Because that’s the importance of getting good information. If someone tells you that you don’t need to look into what they tell you cause they’re telling you everything-double look into it. There should be no sway or discouragement from you getting information from multiple sources, unless you’re using bad-faith sources (whole different conversation to have there)
Examples of Misused Scholarly Information
Okay so this is going to be the hard part, where I ask that you understand the examples I pull are about actual experts of fields, events, etc. that have taken place and will not always reflect my personal views on a situation cause this is less related to witchcraft and more so the harm that has been, and continues, to be caused by scholars, “scholars,” and lack of vetting sources.
Scholars are special-they’re usually smart about one thing, but in that one thing they’re a master. I wouldn’t have a fish teach me to fly, and I wouldn’t have a bird teach me to swim.
Remember that bird from The Little Mermaid? Sure, he absolutely had the ability to know more about the humans and land than the mermaids did-he was still a great bit misinformed. But Ariel had no reason to disbelieve him or mistrust his information. She was enamored to learn!
Now getting into the real nitty gritty-sadly a lot of scholars who are scholars from the past have very very very outdated and sometimes harmful information. There are many words that we’d never DARE use today because we know how damaging they are-that were tossed about like confetti by scholars. Does this mean that what they taught us is worthless? Not at all. It just means we need to adjust it to current ideals and morals. The information is still valuable-it’s just what we take from the information.
A lot of scholars used slurs, hateful terminology, and sadly in the past a good few experiments to learn what we know today were done on minorities. There was once a held belief that certain groups couldn’t feel pain the same way others did. Obviously now we’d look at that and think of what a disgusting remark that is. But a scholar is the reason people had that idea to begin with. A scholar proclaimed this as fact and since it was a scholar, who would tell them they’re wrong? Especially when this was done, many POC already weren’t considered close to human. No one was advocating for their comfort or safety. Could you imagine the horrors they must have lived through?
Theres also a lot of harmful rhetoric that we’ve pulled from scholars. Things that need to stay well in the past. Many racially charged terms, ideas, and the like.
Theres also the erasure. Many scholars would completely ignore Islam, and before that they’d ignore Judaism too. So, while I’ll never say we should throw away the groundwork scholars have given us from the past-I will say you should absolutely be aware of the costs of that information, as well as the fact that even the wealthiest men can be outshone by the most common man. There are terms that are known to be offensive now that only the worst of the worst spout, that were once the bread and butter of a scholar’s vocabulary.
I would never tell someone to throw a full scholar away-but taking things they say with a grain of salt, and understanding the harm that can come if we don’t scrutinize them is absolutely the key. If you call yourself a friend or ally to minorities, you’ll understand this concept.
With all that being said, continue on and learn, while maybe leaving the more unsavory terms and ideologies in the past.
Share your thoughts!