July 3, 2023 • 28 mins
Have you ever try to change someone's mind and no matter what evidence you show them, they don't budge? We all have.
David Richardson studied this topic at Oxford and explains why this happens and how to change that person by first understanding their underlying assumptions.
David Richardson, Author, Oxford Scholar
Transparent: How to See Through the Powerful Assumptions That Control You
Assumptions are the most potent of ideas, but also the least understood. Transparent reveals what assumptions we make, how they control us, and how they are all inherently religious. Even atheists are religious at the level of their assumptions. Some assumptions are true and most are not. How can you tell without being an intellectual? Transparent introduces the Transparent App, an innovative and creative tool that helps people quickly see through the messages they encounter daily in the things they read, watch, and hear using the power of assumptions. The Transparent App is simple enough for a student to use, but powerful enough for adults to find God and engage with Him in their areas of interest, expertise, and leadership. How can someone bring God with them to work or school? How does God give us knowledge and guidance in the things that matter in real life? At the level of assumptions God is everywhere. Transparent is not just a theoretical theological exercise for intellectuals. It “translates” the complex ideologies of the intellectuals into everyday language for everyday people. Written more like an adventure than a textbook, Transparent is a refreshing departure from the usual books about apologetics, theology, and culture. Students, parents, pastors, and professionals will all love Transparent.
Dave Richardson is also the President of the Assumptions Institute, an educational organization that helps individuals and groups find God and engage with Him in their areas of interest, expertise, and leadership. We do that with resources and strategies that use the power of assumptions to discover what is true and align our public lives with that truth.
Contact Dave on his website www.daverichardson.org
Be sure to follow, like and subscribe to Ann Beal's social media pages.
https://www.facebook.com/annbealgettingbetter/
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https://twitter.com/ablivingwell
https://www.instagram.com/annbeal/
https://www.youtube.com/annbeal
Visit Ann Beal's websites at:
https://www.gettingbettershow.com/
https://www.lifesolutionscoachingandcounseling.com/
David Richardson studied this topic at Oxford and explains why this happens and how to change that person by first understanding their underlying assumptions.
David Richardson, Author, Oxford Scholar
Transparent: How to See Through the Powerful Assumptions That Control You
Assumptions are the most potent of ideas, but also the least understood. Transparent reveals what assumptions we make, how they control us, and how they are all inherently religious. Even atheists are religious at the level of their assumptions. Some assumptions are true and most are not. How can you tell without being an intellectual? Transparent introduces the Transparent App, an innovative and creative tool that helps people quickly see through the messages they encounter daily in the things they read, watch, and hear using the power of assumptions. The Transparent App is simple enough for a student to use, but powerful enough for adults to find God and engage with Him in their areas of interest, expertise, and leadership. How can someone bring God with them to work or school? How does God give us knowledge and guidance in the things that matter in real life? At the level of assumptions God is everywhere. Transparent is not just a theoretical theological exercise for intellectuals. It “translates” the complex ideologies of the intellectuals into everyday language for everyday people. Written more like an adventure than a textbook, Transparent is a refreshing departure from the usual books about apologetics, theology, and culture. Students, parents, pastors, and professionals will all love Transparent.
Dave Richardson is also the President of the Assumptions Institute, an educational organization that helps individuals and groups find God and engage with Him in their areas of interest, expertise, and leadership. We do that with resources and strategies that use the power of assumptions to discover what is true and align our public lives with that truth.
Contact Dave on his website www.daverichardson.org
Be sure to follow, like and subscribe to Ann Beal's social media pages.
https://www.facebook.com/annbealgettingbetter/
https://www.facebook.com/livingwellwithannbeal/
https://twitter.com/ablivingwell
https://www.instagram.com/annbeal/
https://www.youtube.com/annbeal
Visit Ann Beal's websites at:
https://www.gettingbettershow.com/
https://www.lifesolutionscoachingandcounseling.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Live Solutions, coaching, counseling,naturopathic medicine, insights for successful living and
getting better with Ann Beer. Ihave Dave Richardson here today and I'm so
excited because he has a book calledTransparent Now Transparent, It's interesting, why
did you choose that name? Well, critical thinking technique that I use is
(00:24):
designed to help people see through thearguments. Most of the time, somebody
who is taking a particular position onsomething has a set of false assumptions underneath
the surface. And if all I'mdoing is dealing with their argument and their
ideology, I'm not dealing with whatcreates it. Right, So sure I
(00:45):
might lop off with a silver bulletargument or something or other like that,
and yet they're not persuaded. Theydon't change. You can't talk people out
of their assumption, So how didyou come up with doing that? I
was on the staff of Campus Crusadefor Christ for a long time, and
my ministry, believing it or not, was not with college students. My
(01:08):
ministry was with college professors. Alongthe way. I did a Master of
Theology at Oxford University studying atheist andagnostic professors trying to figure out why they
like atheism, why they stiff armGod? And can they give me any
clue how to reach them for Christ? So they had that class at Oxford
or was it called something else?No, it was, well, it
was a degree and applied theology,practical theology, and all kinds of people
(01:32):
from various different ministry backgrounds, pastorsand things like that. We're taking it.
So is Oxford just your opinion?Sure? Is Oxford still a Christian
university? No? Not really.I didn't think so. They have a
theology department, but that's still notlike it varies. It varies college to
college within the university, and professorto professors. One of the interesting things
(01:55):
I discovered when I was doing myliterature review for Ministrtation is I came across
a book study where a guy wascomparing members of the American Philosophical Society,
you know, professional philosophers and membersof the American Academy of the Professional Society
for Religion and Theology professors wondering who'sthe conservative orthodox Christian kind of people and
(02:19):
who are the liberal, crazy atheists. And the thing that he discovered is
that most of the conservative Christians werein the American Philosophical association and most of
the atheists were in the theology departments. Okay, that's fascinating. So that
shows where our theology is gone asChristians, that it's gone so far off
(02:42):
the radar of orthodoxy. Because there'sthis subtle thing in the social sciences that
you shouldn't be a practitioner of thething that you're studying because you could be
accused of investigator bias. You're biasedbecause you do the thing that you're investigating.
That's a thing investigator bias. SoI'm majored in families, and I
(03:02):
did studies in family growth, andI did studies in family systems. So
I'm now biased. So I can'thelp people that's in you know, elite
academic circles. Yeah, they wouldconsider your research suspect. Okay, but
that kind of investigator bus produces thatodd situation where you've got a bunch of
(03:23):
atheists and the theology department. Thatis strange. You can't be a believer
in study beliefs. Okay, that'stwisted, it's twisted. Yeah, So
how did you maneuver that at Oxford? Well, I basically know how they're
assuming about what's real, and soI could see right through the arguments when
they say, well, truth issomething that is constructed by individuals and communities,
(03:49):
there's no global truth or whatever.But isn't that statement of global truth?
So you're teaching people to see theassumptions and then decide if the assumptions
are true. Yes, because alot of assumptions that are made, like
right now, just about well,men or women if they put on women's
clothes. Sure, that's that's afalse assumption. Sure it is. And
if you know that, then youcan work through that. Yeah, that
(04:13):
whole mindset is based off of iswhat I'm looking for, the core assumption
about reality, what's really real?And most people are operating from an assumption
that isn't real at all, butthey don't know it. And what produces
that kind of thinking is what Icall idealistic thinker from or type two thinking.
That is what I talk about inmy book. For that kind of
(04:35):
person. The only thing that's reallyreal is what's in my mind. The
physical either isn't important or it maynot be real at all. It's just
something generated by in my mind.Right. And so when you think of
gender, for instance, gender doesn'texist in humans. It exists in luistics
in words, yeah, in words, But when you look at humans,
(04:59):
if if we are physical and nonphysical creations made to reflect you God is
that's fundamentally who we are, thengenders should exist in the physical. But
it doesn't because when you look atpeople genetically, there's male and there's female.
There's sex, right, there's thousandsof biochemical and neurological differences between males
and females. But if there areeighty seven different genders, where are they
(05:25):
physically? They don't exist. Butthe only place it does exist is in
the mind. Well, then isit real. It's not a question of
doesn't exist, because there are thingsthat exist that aren't not real. Unicorns
exist, they's been stories. Yesthey exist in movies, but they're not
real. You can't go out inthe woods and catch one and go for
a ride. And if you can'ttell the difference between things that exist and
(05:46):
things that are real, you cannever tell the difference between what's true and
it's not because true things match realthings, and if it's not real,
it can't be true. So ifI said you're wearing a beautiful blue dress
today, and of course what Ijust said about your dress didn't match the
actual real dressing you're wearing. Thereforewhat I said is false. Right,
But if I said, isn't abeautiful black dress you're wearing, and then
(06:11):
you would know what I said matchthe actual real dress. That's why something
is true. The reason the Bibleis true is because it talks about real
things that happen to real people.These are not made up stories. These
aren't moral tales like like a Greekepic. They're not a fascinating novel like
a Harry Potter novel. They're actualstories about real people, real things that
happen, including the death and resurrectionof Jesus. If that didn't actually happen,
(06:34):
the whole things that shan't. Let'stalk about your app, sure mine.
So we were reading about the appand it helps you test assumptions or
to find the assumptions in a personor whatever their statement is or what you're
listening to. And then it tellsyou, well, because there's three possible
core assumptions that a person thinks isreal, but nobody knows what those are
(06:58):
used. Right If I were toask you what your core assumption, nobody
knows what that is. So,but they have a secondary set of assumptions
that are generated by that, andso I'm looking for those and when I
find him, that tells me whatthe core assumption is. So, for
instance, we were talking about gendera moment ago. That's really the fifth
question on my critical assumptions test.What is a human being? Well,
(07:19):
if a human being is nothing morethan an expression of a mental or spiritual
ideal, then gender follows. Ifa human being is nothing more than a
highly evolved animal, then materialism follows. But if we are a physical and
non physical creation made to reflect whoGod is, that's a fundamentally different way
(07:40):
of understanding what a human being is. And that one comes from a core
assumption that says there are two realities. There's a creator and a creation.
They're not the same thing. That'sthe very first truth taught in the Bible.
In Genesis one one in the beginning, God created. So there's a
creator and a creation and not thesame thing. God is not the universe,
(08:01):
and the universe is not God.And if you don't fully understand that
he's the source of everything, he'sthe one that's self existent. The creation
is not self existent, and itis not the source of anything. Yes,
But if there's only one reality,then it must be the source of
everything. Another one would be easy. That's what the That's what a lot
of people have tried to do fromthe beginning. They've tried to become a
(08:24):
creator, that we are the creators, and they've made their own idols in
their own world. Yeah, whichis crazy because if they're in control,
then why do you need an idolto worship? Right? Like it?
So when it comes to just creatingyour own world, or creating your own
religion, or creating your own gender, when you're in control. Basically,
(08:46):
if we don't have accountability, therego I sure on our own. Without
accountability and without truth, we destroyour lives. Sure. So with your
app do they? How does itwork? It's really simple. It's designed
to help you quickly and accurately getat the underlying assumptions in the things that
(09:07):
you read web posts, articles,books, No, As you're reading it,
you say, okay, am Ireading something? Yes? Okay,
So now is the subject of whatyou're reading? Does it have to do
with people? Yes? Or no? Oh? Okay? Yes? Okay?
So then which of these four questionsabout people is really the subject that
you're reading about it? And it'llbe, for instance, what is a
(09:28):
human being? How do we acquireknowledge? What is good? And what's
the basic problem with the one?What is the humanity's basic problem? It'll
be at least one of those questions, sometimes more than one. And then
how does the author answer the question? He answers it in one of three
ways. He answers it this way. That's what the core assumption is.
He's just not He's either not awareof it or he's not telling you.
(09:52):
And if that assumption is true,that core assumption, if it's true,
then probably what you're being told it'strue. It could be some faulty logic,
but it's a good initial truth tesk. But if the assumption is false,
that core assumption. Anything built ona false assumption has to be false,
even if it makes you feel good, even if it seems persuasive and
wonderful. Anything built on false assumptionshas to be false, even if you
don't understand the complex ideology or argument. Well, you know, we learned
(10:16):
the scientific method in school, sure, and it drives me crazy to see
people conducting an experiment with a falsehypothesis true and then even just following how
you're supposed to get to the endto decide if even your hypothesis was wrong,
right, because that can happen.Sure, they don't even do that,
right, They don't follow the scientificmethod to find out truth. And
(10:37):
so the whole thing just oh makeslike MythBusters. Even that TV show,
I was like, this is notscientific. They were trying to prove that
myth true or false. Oh mygosh. It was like, this is
so not even scientific, right,and the whole and that's what became our
whole world with COVID for sure.You know. Well there was even a
(10:58):
statement in the opening credits of thatshow where Adam Savage would say, I
reject your reality and substitute my own. He said that over and over again
and and and basically, what doyou say, I'm creating my own reality.
That's right, Well, you knowthat's what um the Roots author uh
in movie you know, director College, Yes, he said he was creating
(11:18):
his own reality. Yes, forthe for the black people, and it
was he made it clear that hewas creating reality, new reality. It
wasn't an actual history, but itwasn't at the beginning of the movie either.
They didn't have that in the opening, right, like we're creating a
new reality. They just altered andmade their own history. Sure, but
(11:39):
and then people believe that forever Howardchanged the world. Howard's ended the same
thing with a People's History of theUnited States, which is one of the
standard historical texts today and almost allof its manufactured myth and none of its
actual history. Yeah, but yoursis not. And its parent thing is
(12:00):
that it's a system. It's notjust a general philosophy. It's a system
that you can follows. It's easyenough for adults, of course, but
I can also teach it to middleschoolers and high schools. And so that's
what I was wondering about, becauseyou have curriculum as well. Yes,
and so if we were to takethis as a person and read it,
it would help us understand and helpus change our false assumptions, our assumptions
(12:22):
stuff false and change them, butalso do that with other people. Yes,
And then we have the app thatwe can use to help us.
Yes, the app is a companionto the book. It just automates the
critical assumptions tests. And then atour website learn to discern dot com,
we have training courses. We've gotsome video based ones for individuals and small
groups. But we also have semesterlong courses to teach critical thinking and discernment
(12:46):
to middle schoolers and high schoolers inChristian schools and in homeschools, so that
we can train the next generation tofigure things out for themselves. They don't
have to be told what's true.They'll know how to reliably figure it out
for themselves. Because one million youngChristians or more are walking away from the
faith or have already walked away fromevery year, Yes, every year.
(13:07):
Why do you think it's happening,Well, it's it's largely a crisis of
truth. Yeah, because the prevalentthing that we deal with today is is,
well, it's my truth, it'syour truth. It's true for you,
but not for me. And whenwe come to students with that way
of thinking and say that the Bibleis true, well for them, it's
only true if I accept it astrue. How do you get around that?
(13:28):
Well, they'll say, well,I take one part. I believe.
I believe in heaven, but Idon't believe in hell. I'll hear
people say that, And I'm ata guy the other day that he actually
said he was a Satanist, andI said, you just said that,
like you just said that because mostpeople most people don't just say that.
And he said, well, it'sa combination of Norse yes and Satanism,
(13:48):
because I don't really agree with everythingin Satanism, and I don't really agree
with everything in doors. But whenI put him together, I can live
with that true. And I thought, to create your own reality thing what
people do. But if you takeit, and I was a math major
sure, and an engineer, soif you take if like I can't.
When I hear that, I think, okay, that is why we have
what people call furries, which arepeople that believe they're animals. Like they
(14:11):
don't really believe it, but theywant to live that way, like I
am an animal. And so ifyou can say I am whatever, right,
that's not real. So they dothey they have heard that, They
buy, they do the nails,they get tattoos to look like an animal.
They acutely live that. Only thingthey don't do is crawl around and
live like a dog out there.And it's like, but if you say
(14:35):
that, you can't just it's eitherall or nothing. You can't just take
something that's false and make it aboutI'm going to live in this reality,
and I want everyone else to agreewith me, sure, and have it
not affect the whole world. Right. It's it's like the Emperor's new clothes,
yes, because nobody wants to saythe Emperor is not wearing anything,
because what's going to happen to youif you do. But we all admired
(14:58):
that one boy that actually told thetruth. No he's naked. Yeah,
I mean we always admired that.But what happened to that. We've got
a whole culture of it because nobodycan say anything is true. It's my
truth, that's your true. Canyou got to be willing to suffer?
Yeah? Yeah. And that's whatmy system does is it actually helps you
get to what is true, notjust true for you, but true for
(15:20):
everybody. It actually cuts right throughtrue for you but not for me,
to what is the truth. Whythe Bible is the word of God,
why the Gospel is true? Andwhy truth from God in the Bible doesn't
apply just to my personal life butevery part of our lives. And you
know, they's so important that we'reable to discern that. And I want
you guys to be able to dothat because with COVID and everything that went
(15:43):
along with COVID. It became reallyclear how dangerous it is and if you
don't stand up. I mean Ihad family that wouldn't even let me come
because I hadn't had a vaccine.I have very bad allergies and so it
could have killed me. And mydoctor was like that one that fellow the
first time someone going on TV theyfell over. He goes, remember the
girl that went like that? Imean, because that would be you.
And I'm like, okay, Iwon't get it. Well, I had
(16:06):
family that was saying, you justneed to get it, and I mean
they didn't even care about my health. I mean not really. It was
a mind that they were just somisled that that minute missed Thanksgiving, Christmas,
birthdays, and I was like,oh my gosh, this is crazy.
Well you know now they've all comearound. Sure they haven't apologized for
that, but it was like,how is it? And I've asked my
(16:27):
husband many times, how is itthat we were the I mean, there
were so few people that could reallysee clearly sure, that knew the truth
and actually lived it. I thinkmore people knew the truth than said it.
Sure, but they just went along. So they wouldn't be excluded.
I mean we had a friend thathe ostracized. Yes, you know,
his whole family wouldn't let him goon vacation or anything or see the grandchildren
(16:51):
if he didn't get the vaccine.So even just to see the truth,
know, like the Emperor's not wearingany clothes and be able to say it
and day in that reality. Becauseone of the things in the mental health
clinic that we know is if youpretend long enough, you believe it.
I mean your brain starts. It'snot like you could have known that you
would do that, but it's likethe longer you tell a lie, the
(17:12):
more it kind of becomes a partof your life. Yeah, and you
forget if you you know what partwas true, But you have to really
I've had people have to really separateit out and go back and okay,
I want you to write your truthonly and separate it out and put the
false exaggerations or whatever and put themover here and write it out. And
(17:36):
it's a hard assignment for them,and especially people who are over in like
forty and so. I think thatbeing transparent is being able to see through
that's what you mean, right,to be able to see through the false
screen yes that they're showing and beable to see these assumptions aren't true and
(17:56):
therefore this is not true. Yeah, that's why I have an iceberg on
to cover the book, because whenwe're talking about particular issues, policies,
events, things like that, I'mfor this, I'm against this, whatever,
and so we go back and fortharguing about particular subjects and we think,
oh, I've got the silver bulletargument for this one and blew them
away. But they weren't persuaded,and they didn't change what happened. It's
(18:19):
because you didn't deal with the deeperideas that made their position possible in the
first place. Why did they believethis in the first place. It's because
they bought some deeper ideas about thatparticular issue. And at the bottom of
it is there assumptions about reality thatare totally false and they don't even know
it. So can we do alittle practice thing, Do you have time?
Sure? Okay, because if youlook at people who like my family,
(18:45):
sure that you know I've never seenthem ever believe things so clearly we're
so clearly wrong. They were verysmart people, very loving, kind,
compassion in people, good people nomatter what I said, and I quit
doing that, trying to explain andeven like it could kill me, things
like that. What is amazing,I think what so many people in the
(19:07):
world were confused by is they wouldgive what they thought were really good arguments
for like natural immunity or whatever,and it didn't budge at all. So
my thought was this was my thought, and I guess that would have been
the assumption that I made, isthat they trust the media or they trust
their doctors. Um so that wouldhave been the assumption that these people are
(19:32):
trustworthy. They wouldn't lie to them, they wouldn't way that would be.
That would be a secondary assumption.Think happened, Well, there's there's a
number of things that happened without mosteverybody that was caught up in that or
starting from what I call it typeto assumption, they're they're thinking of an
ideal human, an ideal human societythat while there's flaws and faults and humans,
(19:55):
we can fix it because we seehow it can be done. And
so with our enlightened guidance and collectiveeffort, if we all work together,
we can build a better world.It's it's sort of a utopian thing,
because when you take God out ofthe picture, then some kind of human
utopia becomes the goal, and thatideal of the world that we can build
together becomes compelling. It's not justit can be achieved, but it must
(20:21):
be achieved. And if you canmake people perfect, then we got to
do it. And so what happenswith things like the vaccines and things like
that is that how many times didyou hear, just go get the blankety
blank vaccine so we can get backto normal, Right, that's the ideal,
get back to that better world.It'll be a better world if everybody
gets it. And what happens withthat kind of thinking is there can be
(20:48):
no outliers. It requires one hundredpercent participation, because the people that don't
go along with achieving the ideal areholding up everybody else. They're the bad
people, and so they have toeither be persuaded to conform to the ideal,
and if they can't be persuaded,they have to be made to conform.
And if they can't be made,then they have to be eliminated,
(21:08):
either virtually cancel culture or if youcan get away with it. Actually,
but if but these people, ifthey had been presented this ahead of time
as a you know, possibility,like this is what we would have to
do, and here would be thestrategy, and hear how we would do
it. People wouldn't have gone alongwith that, not nearly as maybe there
still would have been something. Ohyeah, but they would. They would
(21:30):
have been the more doctrinaire type.Right, But how do you move everybody
else along? It's what they callthem the military, the fog of war.
The fog of war. Well,I do think it's a fog.
That's an interesting term, right,because if everyone has to go along,
I mean, if you think aboutit like a mathematical person like me,
there's always those So if it hasto be everyone, it won't happen because
there's always those few people. Buteven seventy five percent, because you have
(21:53):
critical thinkers that will just go reallydeep, sure, and so they'll find
flaws. Yeah right. But thepeople who it's their like their plan,
they can get very frustrated by us. But I was amazed how so many
people, I mean a lot ofacademia, Yeah, seemingly irrational people.
Yeah, yeah, that's where Ithought. It is false assumptions that they
(22:14):
make. But I think there wasa time when our world and the people
in our world seemed I don't thinkyou see, my mom is very much
she believes people are good. That'sI was just about to say that that's
one of the surefire indicators of anidealistic thinker. Yeah, because if there's
a creator and a creation, thenGod alone is good. Humans are not
(22:37):
good. Humans aren't bad. We'rebasically reflectors and we're broken. Reflectors me
to reflect who God is, andwe're turned away from him. He's the
source of good. But when yousay that humans are basically good, that
means that you're a source of good. Well. And I think that they
just hadn't seen to be able tobelieve that people could be that evil,
(23:00):
even people who you know, Ithink we've seen a lot, but when
we started looking at what it appearedto look like was happening, it's hard
to believe that people would set outwith an agenda to depopulate or whatever.
And those are very hard things torealize about reality. But I do know
that the Holocaust, there was atime in our country when we felt like
(23:21):
we couldn't even believe that could havehappen somewhere. But this is the first
time in my lifetime when I beganto see that it could have happened here
and this is how it happens.But I didn't know that. I really
thought it was from the top down, you know, like Hitler, and
that they made people and made people, you know what I mean, do
all this. But what I sawwas with this with COVID, it was
(23:44):
actually your neighbors and your family membersand everybody, oh, your peers and
people around you. It wasn't theleaders. I mean, the leaders did
their thing, but it was actuallythat pressure. It was pushed by the
media, and if you'll remember,in Hitler's regime, Joseph Goebbels is propaganda
minister. They did the same thingthen to get people to push it on
(24:06):
their others. So I think thatyou could see it so clearly. I
felt that pressure from my family.I stood up to it in a very
nice way, but I think mostlyI was just shocked that they could do
something so harmful to someone they loved. I think that what we're finding now
is a lot of people have posttraumatic stress because they really believed they were
(24:26):
going to die sure, and thatif you came over, you would kill
me. And I don't think I'veever in my life time had things with
people that they actually believe they candie any day, right, and that
wasn't true at all. Now,that was a false assumption too, right,
And so that's why this quok,did you time this perfectly on purpose?
Thinking like the timing right, howto see through the powerful assumptions that
(24:48):
control you? And that word controlis true. It is because these people
it does. They did. Theydid take on a demeanor I had never
seen in them before, and theybecame not nice. And a lot of
the people that were pushing it theworst are people now in the media that
are saying, you know, eventhe you know, Dan Bongino, all
these kind of people that are saying, you know, this was wrong,
(25:10):
shouldn't have done that. You know, they've roven all these people. But
they were going on I don't knowabout Mongino, but they've they were all
going along with it, and alot of them, yes, and Russell
Brand, they were all going alongwith that. In fact, they were
talking about how they treated people.And now they're just so shocked and appalled
and angry. Right, they're angryabout it. And I thought, yeah,
you're so angry because you were fooledby it and you did harmful things
(25:33):
steering that time, and so they'rereally mad about it. I'm just shocked.
I'm just shocked about the whole thing. And so when I saw this
book, and that's what we weretalking about, is people to learn how
to understand false thinking sure and assumpsense, and to make it simple enough
that even a student can use itto discern what's true in the classroom,
(25:59):
what's true in the media, andwhat's true in the culture. So how
successful are you getting this into theclassrooms. Well, we are just getting
our courses finished. That's why we'reout promoting it right now. We just
finished. Yes, we have asemester long course for Christian schools and homeschools,
and then we've got some video basedcourses that are for individual study in
(26:21):
small groups, just to kind ofget your feet wet with this way of
thinking. And so how would theyget that. They would get that at
learn to Discern dot Com. Learnto Discern dot com, Learn to Discern
dot Com. That's really good AndI'm glad you majored in all this.
And the fact that you went toOxford is so cool because Oxford would would
be one of the best places tokind of be your lab Yes, of
(26:44):
the false assumptions and then pressuring andteaching from false assumptions. They were.
They were teaching me all of thethings that we're seeing in the culture now.
I was learning it from my professorsand I can see right through.
And so you're major it's interesting.Were they also teaching that may as well?
Yeah, they were teaching postmodernism.I was reading Paulo Frari. I
was reading The Social Construction of Truth, which is one of the top five
(27:08):
most influential books and social science thatgoverns everything we do today. So you
had to have a good base,Yes, before you went there. I
did a grounded worldview, a biblicalworldview maybe, so you were protected from
that was getting really confused about what'sreal. I already had some basic skills.
Yeah, right, ever, way, Wow, that's a gift for
us, but most people don't.And that's what I want to do is
(27:30):
make it simple so I can passit on to other people and it's it's
quick and it's reliable. And thefunny thing is, even though I've got
a post graduate degree from Oxford,I'm actually the son of a truck drauh.
I grew up in a single whitetrailer house, lived in a little
farmtown, and I'm just as comfortablewith farmers and loggers and truckers and mechanics
as i am with business leaders andpoliticians and professors. But don't you think
(27:53):
that protected you, because yes,absolutely, grounding in the real world bases.
Yes, yeah, that's amazing.We need this. So if you
guys would consider just going out andgetting the book Transparent, and then the
app is called what Transparent. Ifyou go to the Transparent book dot com,
which is the website for the book, there's links to download it either
(28:14):
for your iPhone or your Android,so it's a free download and it just
simply helps you to practice the skillthat is described in the book. All
Right, Dave, thank you somuch. David Richardson in his book Transparent,
thank you, thank you.
Live Solutions, coaching, counseling,naturopathic medicine, insights for successful living and
getting better with Ann Beer. Ihave Dave Richardson here today and I'm so
excited because he has a book calledTransparent Now Transparent, It's interesting, why
did you choose that name? Well, critical thinking technique that I use is
(00:24):
designed to help people see through thearguments. Most of the time, somebody
who is taking a particular position onsomething has a set of false assumptions underneath
the surface. And if all I'mdoing is dealing with their argument and their
ideology, I'm not dealing with whatcreates it. Right, So sure I
(00:45):
might lop off with a silver bulletargument or something or other like that,
and yet they're not persuaded. Theydon't change. You can't talk people out
of their assumption, So how didyou come up with doing that? I
was on the staff of Campus Crusadefor Christ for a long time, and
my ministry, believing it or not, was not with college students. My
(01:08):
ministry was with college professors. Alongthe way. I did a Master of
Theology at Oxford University studying atheist andagnostic professors trying to figure out why they
like atheism, why they stiff armGod? And can they give me any
clue how to reach them for Christ? So they had that class at Oxford
or was it called something else?No, it was, well, it
was a degree and applied theology,practical theology, and all kinds of people
(01:32):
from various different ministry backgrounds, pastorsand things like that. We're taking it.
So is Oxford just your opinion?Sure? Is Oxford still a Christian
university? No? Not really.I didn't think so. They have a
theology department, but that's still notlike it varies. It varies college to
college within the university, and professorto professors. One of the interesting things
(01:55):
I discovered when I was doing myliterature review for Ministrtation is I came across
a book study where a guy wascomparing members of the American Philosophical Society,
you know, professional philosophers and membersof the American Academy of the Professional Society
for Religion and Theology professors wondering who'sthe conservative orthodox Christian kind of people and
(02:19):
who are the liberal, crazy atheists. And the thing that he discovered is
that most of the conservative Christians werein the American Philosophical association and most of
the atheists were in the theology departments. Okay, that's fascinating. So that
shows where our theology is gone asChristians, that it's gone so far off
(02:42):
the radar of orthodoxy. Because there'sthis subtle thing in the social sciences that
you shouldn't be a practitioner of thething that you're studying because you could be
accused of investigator bias. You're biasedbecause you do the thing that you're investigating.
That's a thing investigator bias. SoI'm majored in families, and I
(03:02):
did studies in family growth, andI did studies in family systems. So
I'm now biased. So I can'thelp people that's in you know, elite
academic circles. Yeah, they wouldconsider your research suspect. Okay, but
that kind of investigator bus produces thatodd situation where you've got a bunch of
(03:23):
atheists and the theology department. Thatis strange. You can't be a believer
in study beliefs. Okay, that'stwisted, it's twisted. Yeah, So
how did you maneuver that at Oxford? Well, I basically know how they're
assuming about what's real, and soI could see right through the arguments when
they say, well, truth issomething that is constructed by individuals and communities,
(03:49):
there's no global truth or whatever.But isn't that statement of global truth?
So you're teaching people to see theassumptions and then decide if the assumptions
are true. Yes, because alot of assumptions that are made, like
right now, just about well,men or women if they put on women's
clothes. Sure, that's that's afalse assumption. Sure it is. And
if you know that, then youcan work through that. Yeah, that
(04:13):
whole mindset is based off of iswhat I'm looking for, the core assumption
about reality, what's really real?And most people are operating from an assumption
that isn't real at all, butthey don't know it. And what produces
that kind of thinking is what Icall idealistic thinker from or type two thinking.
That is what I talk about inmy book. For that kind of
(04:35):
person. The only thing that's reallyreal is what's in my mind. The
physical either isn't important or it maynot be real at all. It's just
something generated by in my mind.Right. And so when you think of
gender, for instance, gender doesn'texist in humans. It exists in luistics
in words, yeah, in words, But when you look at humans,
(04:59):
if if we are physical and nonphysical creations made to reflect you God is
that's fundamentally who we are, thengenders should exist in the physical. But
it doesn't because when you look atpeople genetically, there's male and there's female.
There's sex, right, there's thousandsof biochemical and neurological differences between males
and females. But if there areeighty seven different genders, where are they
(05:25):
physically? They don't exist. Butthe only place it does exist is in
the mind. Well, then isit real. It's not a question of
doesn't exist, because there are thingsthat exist that aren't not real. Unicorns
exist, they's been stories. Yesthey exist in movies, but they're not
real. You can't go out inthe woods and catch one and go for
a ride. And if you can'ttell the difference between things that exist and
(05:46):
things that are real, you cannever tell the difference between what's true and
it's not because true things match realthings, and if it's not real,
it can't be true. So ifI said you're wearing a beautiful blue dress
today, and of course what Ijust said about your dress didn't match the
actual real dressing you're wearing. Thereforewhat I said is false. Right,
But if I said, isn't abeautiful black dress you're wearing, and then
(06:11):
you would know what I said matchthe actual real dress. That's why something
is true. The reason the Bibleis true is because it talks about real
things that happen to real people.These are not made up stories. These
aren't moral tales like like a Greekepic. They're not a fascinating novel like
a Harry Potter novel. They're actualstories about real people, real things that
happen, including the death and resurrectionof Jesus. If that didn't actually happen,
(06:34):
the whole things that shan't. Let'stalk about your app, sure mine.
So we were reading about the appand it helps you test assumptions or
to find the assumptions in a personor whatever their statement is or what you're
listening to. And then it tellsyou, well, because there's three possible
core assumptions that a person thinks isreal, but nobody knows what those are
(06:58):
used. Right If I were toask you what your core assumption, nobody
knows what that is. So,but they have a secondary set of assumptions
that are generated by that, andso I'm looking for those and when I
find him, that tells me whatthe core assumption is. So, for
instance, we were talking about gendera moment ago. That's really the fifth
question on my critical assumptions test.What is a human being? Well,
(07:19):
if a human being is nothing morethan an expression of a mental or spiritual
ideal, then gender follows. Ifa human being is nothing more than a
highly evolved animal, then materialism follows. But if we are a physical and
non physical creation made to reflect whoGod is, that's a fundamentally different way
(07:40):
of understanding what a human being is. And that one comes from a core
assumption that says there are two realities. There's a creator and a creation.
They're not the same thing. That'sthe very first truth taught in the Bible.
In Genesis one one in the beginning, God created. So there's a
creator and a creation and not thesame thing. God is not the universe,
(08:01):
and the universe is not God.And if you don't fully understand that
he's the source of everything, he'sthe one that's self existent. The creation
is not self existent, and itis not the source of anything. Yes,
But if there's only one reality,then it must be the source of
everything. Another one would be easy. That's what the That's what a lot
of people have tried to do fromthe beginning. They've tried to become a
(08:24):
creator, that we are the creators, and they've made their own idols in
their own world. Yeah, whichis crazy because if they're in control,
then why do you need an idolto worship? Right? Like it?
So when it comes to just creatingyour own world, or creating your own
religion, or creating your own gender, when you're in control. Basically,
(08:46):
if we don't have accountability, therego I sure on our own. Without
accountability and without truth, we destroyour lives. Sure. So with your
app do they? How does itwork? It's really simple. It's designed
to help you quickly and accurately getat the underlying assumptions in the things that
(09:07):
you read web posts, articles,books, No, As you're reading it,
you say, okay, am Ireading something? Yes? Okay,
So now is the subject of whatyou're reading? Does it have to do
with people? Yes? Or no? Oh? Okay? Yes? Okay?
So then which of these four questionsabout people is really the subject that
you're reading about it? And it'llbe, for instance, what is a
(09:28):
human being? How do we acquireknowledge? What is good? And what's
the basic problem with the one?What is the humanity's basic problem? It'll
be at least one of those questions, sometimes more than one. And then
how does the author answer the question? He answers it in one of three
ways. He answers it this way. That's what the core assumption is.
He's just not He's either not awareof it or he's not telling you.
(09:52):
And if that assumption is true,that core assumption, if it's true,
then probably what you're being told it'strue. It could be some faulty logic,
but it's a good initial truth tesk. But if the assumption is false,
that core assumption. Anything built ona false assumption has to be false,
even if it makes you feel good, even if it seems persuasive and
wonderful. Anything built on false assumptionshas to be false, even if you
don't understand the complex ideology or argument. Well, you know, we learned
(10:16):
the scientific method in school, sure, and it drives me crazy to see
people conducting an experiment with a falsehypothesis true and then even just following how
you're supposed to get to the endto decide if even your hypothesis was wrong,
right, because that can happen.Sure, they don't even do that,
right, They don't follow the scientificmethod to find out truth. And
(10:37):
so the whole thing just oh makeslike MythBusters. Even that TV show,
I was like, this is notscientific. They were trying to prove that
myth true or false. Oh mygosh. It was like, this is
so not even scientific, right,and the whole and that's what became our
whole world with COVID for sure.You know. Well there was even a
(10:58):
statement in the opening credits of thatshow where Adam Savage would say, I
reject your reality and substitute my own. He said that over and over again
and and and basically, what doyou say, I'm creating my own reality.
That's right, Well, you knowthat's what um the Roots author uh
in movie you know, director College, Yes, he said he was creating
(11:18):
his own reality. Yes, forthe for the black people, and it
was he made it clear that hewas creating reality, new reality. It
wasn't an actual history, but itwasn't at the beginning of the movie either.
They didn't have that in the opening, right, like we're creating a
new reality. They just altered andmade their own history. Sure, but
(11:39):
and then people believe that forever Howardchanged the world. Howard's ended the same
thing with a People's History of theUnited States, which is one of the
standard historical texts today and almost allof its manufactured myth and none of its
actual history. Yeah, but yoursis not. And its parent thing is
(12:00):
that it's a system. It's notjust a general philosophy. It's a system
that you can follows. It's easyenough for adults, of course, but
I can also teach it to middleschoolers and high schools. And so that's
what I was wondering about, becauseyou have curriculum as well. Yes,
and so if we were to takethis as a person and read it,
it would help us understand and helpus change our false assumptions, our assumptions
(12:22):
stuff false and change them, butalso do that with other people. Yes,
And then we have the app thatwe can use to help us.
Yes, the app is a companionto the book. It just automates the
critical assumptions tests. And then atour website learn to discern dot com,
we have training courses. We've gotsome video based ones for individuals and small
groups. But we also have semesterlong courses to teach critical thinking and discernment
(12:46):
to middle schoolers and high schoolers inChristian schools and in homeschools, so that
we can train the next generation tofigure things out for themselves. They don't
have to be told what's true.They'll know how to reliably figure it out
for themselves. Because one million youngChristians or more are walking away from the
faith or have already walked away fromevery year, Yes, every year.
(13:07):
Why do you think it's happening,Well, it's it's largely a crisis of
truth. Yeah, because the prevalentthing that we deal with today is is,
well, it's my truth, it'syour truth. It's true for you,
but not for me. And whenwe come to students with that way
of thinking and say that the Bibleis true, well for them, it's
only true if I accept it astrue. How do you get around that?
(13:28):
Well, they'll say, well,I take one part. I believe.
I believe in heaven, but Idon't believe in hell. I'll hear
people say that, And I'm ata guy the other day that he actually
said he was a Satanist, andI said, you just said that,
like you just said that because mostpeople most people don't just say that.
And he said, well, it'sa combination of Norse yes and Satanism,
(13:48):
because I don't really agree with everythingin Satanism, and I don't really agree
with everything in doors. But whenI put him together, I can live
with that true. And I thought, to create your own reality thing what
people do. But if you takeit, and I was a math major
sure, and an engineer, soif you take if like I can't.
When I hear that, I think, okay, that is why we have
what people call furries, which arepeople that believe they're animals. Like they
(14:11):
don't really believe it, but theywant to live that way, like I
am an animal. And so ifyou can say I am whatever, right,
that's not real. So they dothey they have heard that, They
buy, they do the nails,they get tattoos to look like an animal.
They acutely live that. Only thingthey don't do is crawl around and
live like a dog out there.And it's like, but if you say
(14:35):
that, you can't just it's eitherall or nothing. You can't just take
something that's false and make it aboutI'm going to live in this reality,
and I want everyone else to agreewith me, sure, and have it
not affect the whole world. Right. It's it's like the Emperor's new clothes,
yes, because nobody wants to saythe Emperor is not wearing anything,
because what's going to happen to youif you do. But we all admired
(14:58):
that one boy that actually told thetruth. No he's naked. Yeah,
I mean we always admired that.But what happened to that. We've got
a whole culture of it because nobodycan say anything is true. It's my
truth, that's your true. Canyou got to be willing to suffer?
Yeah? Yeah. And that's whatmy system does is it actually helps you
get to what is true, notjust true for you, but true for
(15:20):
everybody. It actually cuts right throughtrue for you but not for me,
to what is the truth. Whythe Bible is the word of God,
why the Gospel is true? Andwhy truth from God in the Bible doesn't
apply just to my personal life butevery part of our lives. And you
know, they's so important that we'reable to discern that. And I want
you guys to be able to dothat because with COVID and everything that went
(15:43):
along with COVID. It became reallyclear how dangerous it is and if you
don't stand up. I mean Ihad family that wouldn't even let me come
because I hadn't had a vaccine.I have very bad allergies and so it
could have killed me. And mydoctor was like that one that fellow the
first time someone going on TV theyfell over. He goes, remember the
girl that went like that? Imean, because that would be you.
And I'm like, okay, Iwon't get it. Well, I had
(16:06):
family that was saying, you justneed to get it, and I mean
they didn't even care about my health. I mean not really. It was
a mind that they were just somisled that that minute missed Thanksgiving, Christmas,
birthdays, and I was like,oh my gosh, this is crazy.
Well you know now they've all comearound. Sure they haven't apologized for
that, but it was like,how is it? And I've asked my
(16:27):
husband many times, how is itthat we were the I mean, there
were so few people that could reallysee clearly sure, that knew the truth
and actually lived it. I thinkmore people knew the truth than said it.
Sure, but they just went along. So they wouldn't be excluded.
I mean we had a friend thathe ostracized. Yes, you know,
his whole family wouldn't let him goon vacation or anything or see the grandchildren
(16:51):
if he didn't get the vaccine.So even just to see the truth,
know, like the Emperor's not wearingany clothes and be able to say it
and day in that reality. Becauseone of the things in the mental health
clinic that we know is if youpretend long enough, you believe it.
I mean your brain starts. It'snot like you could have known that you
would do that, but it's likethe longer you tell a lie, the
(17:12):
more it kind of becomes a partof your life. Yeah, and you
forget if you you know what partwas true, But you have to really
I've had people have to really separateit out and go back and okay,
I want you to write your truthonly and separate it out and put the
false exaggerations or whatever and put themover here and write it out. And
(17:36):
it's a hard assignment for them,and especially people who are over in like
forty and so. I think thatbeing transparent is being able to see through
that's what you mean, right,to be able to see through the false
screen yes that they're showing and beable to see these assumptions aren't true and
(17:56):
therefore this is not true. Yeah, that's why I have an iceberg on
to cover the book, because whenwe're talking about particular issues, policies,
events, things like that, I'mfor this, I'm against this, whatever,
and so we go back and fortharguing about particular subjects and we think,
oh, I've got the silver bulletargument for this one and blew them
away. But they weren't persuaded,and they didn't change what happened. It's
(18:19):
because you didn't deal with the deeperideas that made their position possible in the
first place. Why did they believethis in the first place. It's because
they bought some deeper ideas about thatparticular issue. And at the bottom of
it is there assumptions about reality thatare totally false and they don't even know
it. So can we do alittle practice thing, Do you have time?
Sure? Okay, because if youlook at people who like my family,
(18:45):
sure that you know I've never seenthem ever believe things so clearly we're
so clearly wrong. They were verysmart people, very loving, kind,
compassion in people, good people nomatter what I said, and I quit
doing that, trying to explain andeven like it could kill me, things
like that. What is amazing,I think what so many people in the
(19:07):
world were confused by is they wouldgive what they thought were really good arguments
for like natural immunity or whatever,and it didn't budge at all. So
my thought was this was my thought, and I guess that would have been
the assumption that I made, isthat they trust the media or they trust
their doctors. Um so that wouldhave been the assumption that these people are
(19:32):
trustworthy. They wouldn't lie to them, they wouldn't way that would be.
That would be a secondary assumption.Think happened, Well, there's there's a
number of things that happened without mosteverybody that was caught up in that or
starting from what I call it typeto assumption, they're they're thinking of an
ideal human, an ideal human societythat while there's flaws and faults and humans,
(19:55):
we can fix it because we seehow it can be done. And
so with our enlightened guidance and collectiveeffort, if we all work together,
we can build a better world.It's it's sort of a utopian thing,
because when you take God out ofthe picture, then some kind of human
utopia becomes the goal, and thatideal of the world that we can build
together becomes compelling. It's not justit can be achieved, but it must
(20:21):
be achieved. And if you canmake people perfect, then we got to
do it. And so what happenswith things like the vaccines and things like
that is that how many times didyou hear, just go get the blankety
blank vaccine so we can get backto normal, Right, that's the ideal,
get back to that better world.It'll be a better world if everybody
gets it. And what happens withthat kind of thinking is there can be
(20:48):
no outliers. It requires one hundredpercent participation, because the people that don't
go along with achieving the ideal areholding up everybody else. They're the bad
people, and so they have toeither be persuaded to conform to the ideal,
and if they can't be persuaded,they have to be made to conform.
And if they can't be made,then they have to be eliminated,
(21:08):
either virtually cancel culture or if youcan get away with it. Actually,
but if but these people, ifthey had been presented this ahead of time
as a you know, possibility,like this is what we would have to
do, and here would be thestrategy, and hear how we would do
it. People wouldn't have gone alongwith that, not nearly as maybe there
still would have been something. Ohyeah, but they would. They would
(21:30):
have been the more doctrinaire type.Right, But how do you move everybody
else along? It's what they callthem the military, the fog of war.
The fog of war. Well,I do think it's a fog.
That's an interesting term, right,because if everyone has to go along,
I mean, if you think aboutit like a mathematical person like me,
there's always those So if it hasto be everyone, it won't happen because
there's always those few people. Buteven seventy five percent, because you have
(21:53):
critical thinkers that will just go reallydeep, sure, and so they'll find
flaws. Yeah right. But thepeople who it's their like their plan,
they can get very frustrated by us. But I was amazed how so many
people, I mean a lot ofacademia, Yeah, seemingly irrational people.
Yeah, yeah, that's where Ithought. It is false assumptions that they
(22:14):
make. But I think there wasa time when our world and the people
in our world seemed I don't thinkyou see, my mom is very much
she believes people are good. That'sI was just about to say that that's
one of the surefire indicators of anidealistic thinker. Yeah, because if there's
a creator and a creation, thenGod alone is good. Humans are not
(22:37):
good. Humans aren't bad. We'rebasically reflectors and we're broken. Reflectors me
to reflect who God is, andwe're turned away from him. He's the
source of good. But when yousay that humans are basically good, that
means that you're a source of good. Well. And I think that they
just hadn't seen to be able tobelieve that people could be that evil,
(23:00):
even people who you know, Ithink we've seen a lot, but when
we started looking at what it appearedto look like was happening, it's hard
to believe that people would set outwith an agenda to depopulate or whatever.
And those are very hard things torealize about reality. But I do know
that the Holocaust, there was atime in our country when we felt like
(23:21):
we couldn't even believe that could havehappen somewhere. But this is the first
time in my lifetime when I beganto see that it could have happened here
and this is how it happens.But I didn't know that. I really
thought it was from the top down, you know, like Hitler, and
that they made people and made people, you know what I mean, do
all this. But what I sawwas with this with COVID, it was
(23:44):
actually your neighbors and your family membersand everybody, oh, your peers and
people around you. It wasn't theleaders. I mean, the leaders did
their thing, but it was actuallythat pressure. It was pushed by the
media, and if you'll remember,in Hitler's regime, Joseph Goebbels is propaganda
minister. They did the same thingthen to get people to push it on
(24:06):
their others. So I think thatyou could see it so clearly. I
felt that pressure from my family.I stood up to it in a very
nice way, but I think mostlyI was just shocked that they could do
something so harmful to someone they loved. I think that what we're finding now
is a lot of people have posttraumatic stress because they really believed they were
(24:26):
going to die sure, and thatif you came over, you would kill
me. And I don't think I'veever in my life time had things with
people that they actually believe they candie any day, right, and that
wasn't true at all. Now,that was a false assumption too, right,
And so that's why this quok,did you time this perfectly on purpose?
Thinking like the timing right, howto see through the powerful assumptions that
(24:48):
control you? And that word controlis true. It is because these people
it does. They did. Theydid take on a demeanor I had never
seen in them before, and theybecame not nice. And a lot of
the people that were pushing it theworst are people now in the media that
are saying, you know, eventhe you know, Dan Bongino, all
these kind of people that are saying, you know, this was wrong,
(25:10):
shouldn't have done that. You know, they've roven all these people. But
they were going on I don't knowabout Mongino, but they've they were all
going along with it, and alot of them, yes, and Russell
Brand, they were all going alongwith that. In fact, they were
talking about how they treated people.And now they're just so shocked and appalled
and angry. Right, they're angryabout it. And I thought, yeah,
you're so angry because you were fooledby it and you did harmful things
(25:33):
steering that time, and so they'rereally mad about it. I'm just shocked.
I'm just shocked about the whole thing. And so when I saw this
book, and that's what we weretalking about, is people to learn how
to understand false thinking sure and assumpsense, and to make it simple enough
that even a student can use itto discern what's true in the classroom,
(25:59):
what's true in the media, andwhat's true in the culture. So how
successful are you getting this into theclassrooms. Well, we are just getting
our courses finished. That's why we'reout promoting it right now. We just
finished. Yes, we have asemester long course for Christian schools and homeschools,
and then we've got some video basedcourses that are for individual study in
(26:21):
small groups, just to kind ofget your feet wet with this way of
thinking. And so how would theyget that. They would get that at
learn to Discern dot Com. Learnto Discern dot com, Learn to Discern
dot Com. That's really good AndI'm glad you majored in all this.
And the fact that you went toOxford is so cool because Oxford would would
be one of the best places tokind of be your lab Yes, of
(26:44):
the false assumptions and then pressuring andteaching from false assumptions. They were.
They were teaching me all of thethings that we're seeing in the culture now.
I was learning it from my professorsand I can see right through.
And so you're major it's interesting.Were they also teaching that may as well?
Yeah, they were teaching postmodernism.I was reading Paulo Frari. I
was reading The Social Construction of Truth, which is one of the top five
(27:08):
most influential books and social science thatgoverns everything we do today. So you
had to have a good base,Yes, before you went there. I
did a grounded worldview, a biblicalworldview maybe, so you were protected from
that was getting really confused about what'sreal. I already had some basic skills.
Yeah, right, ever, way, Wow, that's a gift for
us, but most people don't.And that's what I want to do is
(27:30):
make it simple so I can passit on to other people and it's it's
quick and it's reliable. And thefunny thing is, even though I've got
a post graduate degree from Oxford,I'm actually the son of a truck drauh.
I grew up in a single whitetrailer house, lived in a little
farmtown, and I'm just as comfortablewith farmers and loggers and truckers and mechanics
as i am with business leaders andpoliticians and professors. But don't you think
(27:53):
that protected you, because yes,absolutely, grounding in the real world bases.
Yes, yeah, that's amazing.We need this. So if you
guys would consider just going out andgetting the book Transparent, and then the
app is called what Transparent. Ifyou go to the Transparent book dot com,
which is the website for the book, there's links to download it either
(28:14):
for your iPhone or your Android,so it's a free download and it just
simply helps you to practice the skillthat is described in the book. All
Right, Dave, thank you somuch. David Richardson in his book Transparent,
thank you, thank you.
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