Thursday, June 30, 2011

"All the world old is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer"


Confirmation bias is a funny thing. What’s funny about confirmation bias is the way the accuser misuses the accusation. The accuser typically uses the accusation one-sidedly. It’s always the other party who suffers from confirmation bias. Shame on you for being so deluded! Why can't you be objective like me!

But a one-sided application of confirmation bias is, itself, a reflection of confirmation bias.

Take the OTF. The OTF is just a thinly-disguised exercise in confirmation bias. Loftus is sure that Christians suffer from confirmation bias, but whenever Loftus has to explain and defend the OTF, he betrays his own confirmation bias in the process.

To be oblivious to your own confirmation bias is the epitome of confirmation bias. Outsiders to the Outsider Test can instantly see that. The OTF is merely the unconscious expression of atheistic confirmation bias. But since the atheist is blinded by his own bias, he is blind to the biased nature of the OTF. He lacks the critical detachment to view the Outsider Test from the perspective of an outsider to the Outsider Test.  

2 comments:

  1. That's one convoluted argument.

    The OTF is a method of evaluating competing religious claims. (hence the word faith in the title) What methodologies do you use when evaluating the claims of muslims, wiccans, buddhists, etc? How well does your own religion fare when evaluated in the same way?

    It strikes me that a standardized way of evaluating the truth claims of competing religions would be beneficial to what you believe to be the 'true' religion. Wouldn't such standardization REDUCE confirmation bias?

    The OTF is only a tool. Alas, such a tool doesn't benefit your or any other religion so you shout 'bias!'.

    Sad, really.

    ReplyDelete