I've asked that very question many times.
I am going to throw some ideas at you. I am uncertain about how correct these ideas are. Consequently, I will reserve the right to change my mind.
Meg's Bible quote concerning how deceitful the human mind is is quite provacative. I have struggled with that passage for a long time.
Proverbs 28: 26 also says that 'he who trusts himself is a fool.'
Do you see the nasty implications of that bible passage? Society tells us to trust ourselves, yet the Bible tells us 'not to lean on our own understanding.'
But I am a born-again Christian. Surely, I can trust my heart and my own Biblical understanding?
Everyone seems to think they can trust themselves. Every religious denomination seems to figure they have the proper understanding of the Bible.
When I worked, I can not tell you the number of times that I have heard people criticize co-workers, employees, bosses, etc. They seldom criticize themselves. They themselves are always right.
Every car driver seems to think they they are good drivers surrounded by a whole bunch of bad drivers.
In bad marriages, the spouses generally blame the other spouse, not themselves.
I believe that this is because we often keep our own evil buried within our subconscious mind. I suspect we keep our evil intentions in the subconscious and out of awareness.
For the most part, we are not conscious of our own evil. We can be hyper-conscious of our brother's evil, but not necessarily our own.
One author described the subconscious mind as being the mental activites that are 'out of awareness.' I see this in myself and in other people.
Examples:
1) A person that has a chemical addiction may have no conscious awareness that he has that addiction because the immemse need for that chemical is lodged in the subconscious mind and out of awareness. The overwhelming need for the drug drives his consciousness to chemical abuse. Call him a drug addict, and he will probably throw a 'righteous' fit.
He will sincerely think you are wrong.
2) A person that has a destructive behavior problem, like chronic complaining, often has no awareness of how this drives people insane because the behavior is out of awareness and not at a conscious level.
The conscious mind may not be able to bare the shame. The conscious mind is only aware of the object of complain.
3) With myself: in 1984 I started to slowly become disabled. For many years, I physically struggled with the illness but my conscious mind refused to admit it. When my doctor said my fatigue was due to my illness, I cringed. The extent of the illness was rejected by my concious mind.
4) Bay of Pigs Disaster: In 1961 or 1962, the US helped a handful of Cuban exiles try to overthrow a much larger Cuban force. This ended in disaster. In hindsight, JFK admitted that this was a stupid idea, and he accepted blame.
People inside and outside the JFK administration blamed this disaster on Groupthink. Groupthink is a subconscious need for group members to reach agreement and place dissenting information out of awareness. The subconscious need to agree blinded them to the massive risks inherent to the operation. Criticisms were 'discouraged.' and excluded from group consciousness.
5) Many prejudices are subconscious. For instance, we humans frequently judge by looks. We are not necessarily aware of this, however, properly controlled studies have shown that attractive, slim, well-dressed people are viewed as being more trustworthy, intelligent, etc.
We say we don't discriminate because these judgements are in the subconscious. We subconsciously judge people by the way they look.
Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island just looks more trustworthy than that greasy guy with 15 gold necklaces. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Your subconscious probably thinks she is more trustworthy.
6) Ever have a smoker say that cigarettes will not hurt him? This is probably because the hazards of cigarette smoking are so real that he drives uncomfortable thoughts of cancer out of awareness into his subconscious.
7) When I was in Grade 8, I behaved poorly. I talked too much, I said stupid things, etc. I did not really accept this fact until very recently. I believe that I subconsciously pushed this out of awareness because this fact is humiliating. I thought certain classmates were jerks, but really I was the jerk.
8) My mother lived in Holland during WWII. A few years after the bombing stopped, a book case fell in her family's home. My mom's whole family IMMEDIATELY ducked under tables - without thinking.
Normally a noise like this would be surprising, but not really traumatizing.
However, the trauma of WWII was so profound that, without thinking about it, the whole family treated the event as a bombing raid. Their subconscious mind had taught them to immediately seek cover when loud noises occur. Their conscious minds knew that the bombing had stopped.
My prayer to God is, 'Lord help me see what I need to see, not what I want to see.'
I suspect that on the Day of Judgment many professing Christians will be confronted by sins that they drove from their awareness. My prayer is that God gently show me my sins now, so that I can repent now.
I hope this post makes sense. I have struggled with this issue quite a bit.
Question: Why did the Pharisees persecute Jesus? Did God harden their hearts? Did the Pharisee subconsciously demand a militaristic Messiah?
Were the Pharisees subconsciously jealous of Jesus' power? I do not know. Do we need to know?
Humerous aside: I discussed this once with a professing Christian. His response was, 'I am not deceived in any way. My subconcious is not hiding any information.' I later asked a co-worker how bright he was. Her response: 'Not very.' I agreed.
