(click the above title to view whole blog post)
The previous blog post explained that we tend to interpret data and evidence via our Confirmation Bias. Our Confirmation Bias is like our eye lenses. If we are not aware that we have been implanted with a pair of red lenses in our eyes, then we would not realise that what we see as red objects are actually white. How can we overcome our Confirmation Bias to reduce the chance of us interpreting evidence wrongly and reinforcing our mistaken beliefs (if any)?
A Wrong Way To Test Our Beliefs
Whether our belief-system is atheism, Buddhism, Christianity or Daoism, it would be a wrong way to test our beliefs if our emphasis is to see if our belief-system is supported by any evidence. Such an approach would likely result in us successfully finding supportive evidence. Even modern flat-earth believers could find evidence that supports their belief in a flat earth!
Our Confirmation Bias would tend to result in us interpreting evidence in such a way that would support our belief-system.
The Correct Way: The Test of Falsification
While we should give consideration to evidence that supports our beliefs, our emphasis should not be placed there. Instead, our emphasis should be to actively seek information and evidence that would seem to contradict or falsify our beliefs. For example, a Christian should actively seek information and evidence that seem to contradict his belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. A Buddhist should actively seek information that seems to contradict his belief that there is no Unconditioned Creator or Uncaused Cause for the world of conditioned existence. An atheist should actively seek evidence that would seem to falsify his belief that a person’s life does not continue after his physical death. Only when such information and evidence (which contradict our beliefs) are being accurately understood and properly reconciled with our belief-system then are we warranted to claim to others that our belief-system is essentially true. Otherwise we should strongly suspect that our belief-system, be it atheism, Buddhism, Christianity or some other worldview, is false. This of course needs honesty, courage, and the love for truth.
By asking a simple question on mathematics, the following video shows a social experiment that illustrates
(1) how seeking supportive evidence hinders us from the truth, and,
(2) how seeking falsification leads us to truth.