Reading Time: 13 minutes In a world of significant scientific illiteracy, it’s easy to point fingers at “the other side”. Religious extremists, and the politicians who leverage them for power, are a serious problem. But what habits have we formed, and what narrative structures exist in our media, that only make things worse? Today I interrogate my own weaknesses, […]
confirmation bias
Posted inReligion
Atheism is inherently reasonable. That’s why believers don’t ‘get’ it
Reading Time: 4 minutes I’m a nonevangelical nontheist. That’s because I totally accept the fact it’s virtually impossible to convince adult true believers that the divinities they worship, for all intents and purposes, simply can’t be confirmed to exist. With that view, it seems silly trying to convince believers that their faith is folly. It’s already baked-in, impervious, even […]
Posted inPhilosophy
On Refusing Epistemic Interaction: Dealing with People Who Won’t Accept Facts
Reading Time: 9 minutes I recently produced a piece or two on the ontology of abstracts and the epistemic barrier. But let’s now get psychological. Go read them for the foundation. One thing that came up in conversation between two commenters is the idea of interacting with people who do not want to accept facts and data contrary to […]
Posted inNews
The Sad Reality of (Right-Wing) Disinformation
Reading Time: < 1 minute The reaction of this woman in this fascinating video is so depressing… It is uncontrolled confirmation bias, backfire effect and cognitive dissonance all rolled into one. I’m not sure you can actually do anything about this because every action you take is met with the burying of heads in the sand. Stay in touch! Like A Tippling […]
Posted inPolitics, Science
Confirmation Bias: A Mindset That Prevents Growth
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back! The other day, I showed you an odd little essay by Amy Laura Hall, a Duke University ethics professor. In it, she twice displayed a cognitive bias called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, if allowed to rule people unchecked, can prevent their ability to learn and grow. Today, let me show you what […]
Posted inUncategorized
How and Why Al Mohler Changed His Mind About Women Pastors
Reading Time: 10 minutes Hi and welcome back! We’ve been talking lately about the re-erupting squabble in evangelicalism about women pastors. In particular, the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) hate the idea — Al Mohler in particular. Long ago, he fully supported women pastors. But now he’s 100% against them. And today, I’ll show you why and how […]
![By Inside_my_head.jpg: Andrew Mason from London, UK derivative work: -- Jtneill - Talk (Inside_my_head.jpg) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/onlysky.media/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/psychology.jpg?resize=550%2C290&quality=89&ssl=1)
Posted inUncategorized
Quote of the Day on Confirmation Bias
Reading Time: 3 minutes The following is a quote by Verbose Stoic, a regular commenter here with whom I often disagree but who substantiated his claims with detail and, well, substance. The sort of commenter I like – he probably does this because he has a blog of his own, and sometimes takes me to task. I only wish […]
Posted inPolitics
Putting the Trumpian Cognitive Dissonance to Bed
Reading Time: 7 minutes This is my second piece dealing with a comment from someone I know on Facebook. Yesterday, I went to town on the claims that, compared to Trump, Biden is a racist crook. This seemed to be one of the bases of this person’s support for Trump against Biden. I am incredulous at my interlocutor’s public […]
Posted inReligion
Sean McDowell’s Second Big Question Backfires Too
Reading Time: 7 minutes In that first post, we checked out how he contorted illogic and junk history to arrive at the conclusion that his god was totally for realsies. Here, he moves forward into his next question. So today, let’s see how Sean McDowell misinterprets this fictional event to claim validity for his entire religion.
Posted inReligion
Confirmation Bias and Angelic Meddling in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #130, Ch. 17)
Reading Time: 11 minutes In this installment, we discover how Frank Peretti’s tribe thinks angels create coincidences–and how they accidentally destroy their entire religion’s credibility with that conceptualization.