We continue looking at reasoning and testing as they relate to our study method. Today, we are considering the fallacy of cherry picking. This is possibly the biggest and most frequently occurring fallacy in the church.
It’s important to understand what cherry picking is, how it works, and how to recognize it in ourselves and others. If we recognize cherry picking in others, we can effectively refute their position and defend ours. If we recognize cherry picking in ourselves, we can eliminate it from our study and improve our understanding of scripture.
What is Cherry Picking?
Cherry Picking, also known as Suppressing Evidence, is a logical fallacy where one selectively chooses to focus on information or evidence that supports his or her position while disregarding evidence to the contrary. The fallacy’s name is a metaphor for picking fruit, where one would selectively choose the most appealing fruit while leaving behind any fruit that seems undesirable.
The degree of fallacy is determined by the strength of the opposing evidence. The stronger (or, more damaging to one’s position) the omitted evidence is, the more fallacious the act of suppressing that evidence is.
Intentional Cherry Picking
Cherry Picking can be done knowingly if one intentionally controls information to convince others of his or her position. This can be accomplished by several means:
1. Intentionally presenting one-sided information or evidence to support one’s position
2. Intentionally concealing relevant information or evidence that is contrary to one’s position
3. Controlling data pools or samples
a) Insisting all information or evidence be mined from specific sources. Information from other sources is deemed inadmissible without a rational explanation why.
b) Selecting data ranges that will produce favorable statistics. For example, one could “prove” stock growth over time by choosing a starting date when prices were low and an ending date when prices were high. Obviously, this would generate a report that demonstrates growth; but it would omit market conditions before and after the selected range. In the stock growth scenario, the shorter the chosen date range, the easier it would be to suppress evidence of market risk.
When done intentionally, cherry picking is deceptive and manipulative.
Dishonest Bible Teaching
I have witnessed dishonest pastors, preachers, and teachers who knowingly cherry-pick Bible verses to support their doctrine while knowingly suppressing Biblical texts to the contrary. Some common ways this happens include:
1. Targeted sermons and lessons. The preacher or teacher composes a message that, by design, is intended to convince listeners to accept a particular doctrine or belief. To do so, specific Bible passages are chosen because they seem to support the intended conclusion. Bible passages to the contrary are, of course, omitted. Audiences are only given portions of scripture that might lead them to accept the speaker’s conclusion.
2. Topical preaching. In my observation, topical preaching is very ripe for cherry-picking. The preacher chooses several verses or passages from the Bible based on their seeming support of his intended conclusion. In between Bible passages, the preacher engages the audience with jokes, anecdotes, and commentary to convince the audience of his position.
Done maliciously by an accomplished public-speaker, topical preaching is a very effective tool of manipulation. This is the most popular form of preaching due to its minimal reliance on scripture and its strong emphasis on the orator’s ability to engage and entertain the audience. And, therein lies the counter: If we are well-versed in scripture then we are less susceptible to being convinced by contextual errors and rhetorical speeches.
3. Controlled sampling. A church leader can insist that doctrine be derived from select portions of the Bible. Any reasoning or argument from other portions of the Bible are summarily dismissed without valid reason.
4. Overt proof-texting. A teacher or pastor can refute opposing positions by knowingly selecting verses, out of context, to “win” an argument. Of course, this is done by ignoring Biblical passages to the contrary.
An Example of Malicious Bible-Picking
We are “New Testament Believers”
I’ve been to a congregation where the elders and preacher maintained a “New Testament only” policy. Their premise was that they are “under the New Testament” and not “under the Old Testament”. Any attempt to cite “Old Testament” texts was immediately shut down. Literally…they would cut you off while you’re speaking and retort, “That’s ‘Old Testament’. We’re not ‘under the Old Testament’…”
Excluding the entire “Old Testament” as inadmissible is an example of controlling the data pool. Ironically, the people of that congregation did cite portions of the “Old Testament” when it supported their position. When the “Old Testament” supported their position they claimed “all scripture is God-breathed”; but, when the “Old Testament” refuted their position they claimed to not be under it. That is known as the fallacy of Special Pleading.
Unintentional Cherry Picking
Cherry Picking can be done unconsciously as a matter of ignorance or bias. People can unknowingly highlight or ignore information simply by focusing on the familiar, gravitating towards what feels right, or not making it a point to understand both sides of an issue.
In Bible study, it’s common for people to experience doctrinal bias. Doctrinal bias is where one believes Doctrine X is true, so he or she reads scripture with the expectation it will affirm Doctrine X. Doctrinal bias can occur in several forms:
1. A person comes across language in the Bible that sounds like it supports Doctrine X. The reader then concludes this is supporting evidence of Doctrine X without considering the context of the passage. In context, the passage might not intend to address Doctrine X at all, but the language sounds similar to the reader’s expectation of Doctrine X so he or she assumes that’s what the passage is saying.
A classic example of reading the Bible with Doctrinal Bias is often seen in Acts 20:7. People who believe the seventh-day Sabbath was done away with and Sunday is now The Lord’s Day will read Acts 20:7 and conclude: This one verse says the church met on the first day of the week; therefore, it proves they always kept Sunday as The Lord’s Day, every week, and they never kept the seventh-day Sabbath.
Such a conclusion is reached by doctrinal bias, circular reasoning, and cherry picking. The reader already concluded Sunday is The Lord’s Day before reading the verse; then, the reader applied his or her belief to the verse as follows:
P1 The Sabbath was done away with, and Sunday is now The Lord’s Day
P2 Acts 20:7 says the first-century believers met on the first day of the week
C1 Therefore, the Sabbath was done away with, and Sunday is now The Lord’s Day
This conclusion highlights what the reader wants to believe and ignores the immediate context around verse 7. In Acts 20:6 (just one sentence prior), we see the same first-century believers observed Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits (All three holy days occur together in the same week. See Leviticus 23). For the sake of confirming doctrinal bias, the reader cherry-picks verse 7, ignores verse 6, jumps to a conclusion that affirms his existing belief, and looks no further.
2. People engage doctrinal bias by intentionally looking for verses to affirm their existing beliefs. This can be done when one wants to believe Doctrine X and needs Biblical proof to support it; so, he or she looks for verses that sound like they prove Doctrine X. Or, people might engage in topical studies where they intentionally focus on passages that seem to teach and affirm Doctrine X.
An Example of Innocent Bible Picking
Please keep in mind that cherry picking can often be done unknowingly and without any malicious intent to manipulate others. For this reason, we shouldn’t immediately attack a cherry-picker as a heretic or agent of the devil.
With that being said, it can be difficult to determine if one is intentionally or unintentionally cherry-picking the Bible. Most people are cherry picking because that’s how they have been taught and indoctrinated to think. To teach them otherwise can be an uphill battle against decades of indoctrinated thought and belief.
One of the simplest examples of innocent cherry picking I see is the phenomenon of focusing on the positive and ignoring the negative. It’s very common for people to fixate on the positive promises of scripture (How will God save me, bless me, help me, protect me, and grant my prayer requests) while ignoring the negative statements of scripture (How am I obligated to obey God, how will God discipline me, and how will I suffer and die in service to God). This mindset occurs in part because preachers and evangelists sell people on all the rewards of believing Jesus. But, the mindset also plays to people’s natural gravitation towards receiving pleasure and avoiding pain.
Innocently cherry picking the positive promises of scripture causes people to overlook truths such as:
1. Discipline begins with us. God will strike us first, to make correction, before He punishes the wicked. And, discipline is actually a good thing that we should want and accept.
2. We are repeatedly told we will suffer and die in His service at the hands of the wicked. Following Messiah is not a cake-walk, and he didn’t promise a life of prosperity and ease.
3. We are still subject to the curse of sin and death. We will labor and toil all the days of our lives. We will face mortality. We are not exempt from the sufferings of the fallen world we live in.
4. God denies prayers that are selfish, self-serving, and contrary to His will. He is not our genie in a bottle; and, the purpose of prayer is not merely to ask God to give us stuff and do stuff for us.
See the Whole Orchard
To become mature believers with advanced understanding of God’s word, we must approach the Bible with a genuine intent to learn and understand its teachings. So long as we approach the Bible with an intent to affirm our existing beliefs and ignore or rationalize-away the parts we don’t want to believe and obey…we will continue to be the proverbial milk-fed infants who never grow up. If our goal is to be right and win, we are not sincerely seeking truth in service to God.
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