Too many people see reality as they wish to see it, and not how it actually is. The atheist, for example, ignores the obvious design evident in living beings because, for some strange reason, he doesn't want there to be a designer. When you have some atheist scientists saying that the probability that even the most primitive of life would originate by random chance is a lot less than 1 out of 10^1018 (e.g., Eugene Koonin) -- there are only 10^80 atoms in the observable universe -- then the game is over. The smartest scientists in the world cannot make even the most primitive forms of life, yet the atheist wants us to believe that life spontaneously generated by random chance. Laughable. Literally. The atheist persists in seeing reality as he wants to see it -- he has already made up his mind that, come hell or highwater, he cannot allow a divine foot in the door. Likewise, "orthodox" religious believers see reality not as it is, but as they wish to see it. The orthodox Christian does all sorts of mental gymnastics to try to justify God commanding people to kill little innocent kids -- and even infants -- in the Old Testament (e.g., 1 Samuel 15:1-3). The orthodox religious believer will say, "oh, God was just being merciful when he ordered the slaughter of infants; he was just sending them straight to heaven," or "oh these stories weren't meant to be taken literally." He will make up any number of theories to avoid confronting reality. He cannot fathom that his holy book contains errors, even in the moral realm. He sees reality as he wishes it to be, not as it is. The same mentality is present, mutatis mutandis, in orthodox Muslims, Mormons, etc. Alas, man's tribalistic nature blinds him to the truth. And this tribalistic nature and confirmation bias is present not just in the religious realm, but in all walks of life. Nowhere do we Americans see this tribalistic mentality on display more than in our current political climate. We must try to see reality as it is, not as we wish to see it. Only by confronting the truth can we craft solutions to the world's many problems.
