Jesus & Confirmation Bias

This is a huge subject and deserves it's own thread.
Confirmation bias is when you have a certain belief
or opinion and are constantly looking for verification
of it, while ignoring information that may go against
your belief or opinion.

We all do it, we can't help it, and we do it with everything.
When I bought a new truck long ago, for years I
only looked for things that made me feel good that
I had made the right choice in buying a Ford. I convince
myself I have a perfect dog by ignoring the things he
does that irritate me, and playing up the things I like.

No other group on the planet has perfected confirmation
bias like Christians have. They constantly look for things
that confirm their faith and ignore the things that don't.
I have been seeing it in my wife's family for decades.
They thank Jesus for every parking space they find close
to the building. For every sunset, for the raise they got,
for their kids getting an A, Jesus made it happen for all
the things in their life that went the right way. If something
goes awry, they just ignore it, don't think about it.
Drives me nuts, it's maddening.

It's what FrG does, his whole life is confirmation bias. He
see's Jesus in everything because he wants to see him in
everything. He artfully weaves the narrative away from
anything in history that might throw cold water on his
bias. It's an art form, a learned lifelong process. There
is no real evidence for god, but confirmation bias has
Christians seeing it everywhere. They see what they want
to see.

This was written by a former Christian who finally realized
that the Jesus story was just a myth:

"The reason it is so hard to convince people that things like the resurrection are unlikely is that Christians are encouraged to find evidence that confirms what they hope to be true, and reject evidence that does not — for Christians who have the most faith and are often the most revered; opposing evidence simply does not register. So that, over time, it seems to them that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence in favor of the resurrection of Christ, and little against it — to them, the evidence against it, due to the strong institutionalized encouragement of confirmation bias, hardly exists, because it doesn’t confirm what they are hoping for or assure them of a desired sense of reality."

This is the wall you run into with devout believers,
the 'institutionalized encouragement of confirmation bias'.
In fact, FrG uses the phrase "overwhelming amount of
evidence in favor of the resurrection of Christ" all the
time here. To him it's the truth, he can't see anything
else because he doesn't want to. It doesn't fit the
template he's chosen to base his life around.

Now a Christian will say atheists are guilty of the same
thing, we constantly ignore all the evidence that god
is real. But when asked to present the evidence, they
don't have any. Their evidence consists mostly of
circular logic and reliance on the fact that because
there are so many Christians, how can they all be
wrong.

I've seen Christian confirmation bias at work up close,
it's a truly frightening thing.

Confirmation bias goes as far back as
Francis Bacon.

"It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives." --Francis Bacon

Atheists have an advantage here. We have
no belief in god because there is no evidence
of one. We can't really indulge in confirmation
bias by ignoring evidence, because there isn't
any to ignore.

Christianity has no such advantage. I remember
the Christian group I was part of 40 years ago.
They were constantly looking for even the
smallest things to bolster their belief in Jesus.
If you look, you will always think you've found
something. They took every light they came to
that was green as a sign Jesus did that for them.
A lane in the store would open as they approached,
a parking place on the street would appear out
of nowhere, their car would break down in their
driveway and not the freeway. These and and
hundreds of other 'signs' meant Jesus was looking
out for them.

Of course they ignored all the things that didn't
go their way, paid no attention to them. It's a
nutty way to live, there is something desperate
about it, always having to confirm your faith like
that.

I was in the store today and there
were 3 bags of catfood left of the
kind I buy. One of them had a $2
off coupon on it, the others did
not. My sister law in would have said
'thank you Jesus, praise god' right
out loud. Jesus had saved kept
that bag from being sold so she
could get it.

Perfect example of confirmation
bias. If there had been no coupon,
she would never think 'drat you,
Jesus'. Take the smallest things
that go in your favor and confirm
them as being part of your Jesus
infused life. I'm an atheist, I didn't
thank anything except random chance,
which of course is what's responsible.

The religion encourages confirmation
bias. My wife's church has a FB page
entirely devoted to the 'blessings'
Jesus bestows on you every day. Like
you're late for work and happen to
catch every light green. And somebody
pulls out of the closest spot to the
door just as you pull up. Jesus did
all that and it just confirms to your fellow
FB cult followers that Jesus is on the job.

I call it 'living the lie'..