This is our recurring temptation—to live within our camp’s caves, taking turns both as the shadow-puppeteers and the audience. We chant our camp’s mantras repeatedly so they continue reverberating in our skulls. When we stay entrenched within our belief-camps, we create the illusion of secure reality by reinforcing each other’s presuppositions and paradigms. We choose specific watering holes of information and evidence, and we influence each other in interpreting that data in accordance with the conclusions we desire. Our camps reinforce our existing cognitive biases, making cheating all the more common and easy.

Getting closer to the truth is the result of hard work. Truth-seeking means analyzing presuppositions and propositions. It means criticizing evidence as harshly as possible, scouring it from all angles to see how it stands up. We must scrutinize each claim on the table, using each tool available to determine if our acceptance of these claims is justified or not, then forcing ourselves to truly follow the responsible conclusions. If this kind of commitment to truth-seeking is sincere, and if the rules of reasonableness are adhered to, there is hope of productive dialogue between Christians and their opponents.

Challenging our sacred beliefs is both frightening and difficult, but we must do it. It is wrong to live in a laissez faire, relativistic or “pan-agnostic” bubble, where we refuse to face these paramount issues. The truth matters, and the consequences of not possessing it are unstoppable, and often destructive (whether we can see the harm or not). It is even a greater moral imperative to sort through the issues that have a serious impact on us, either individually or socially.