Confirmation Bias is to make a selection despite evidence
to the contrary merely because one prefers it for other causes besides that of
reason. David Hume would have noted that it
is shaping evidence by belief instead of shaping belief by the evidence. In particular, there is the confirmation bias
strategy known as the sharpshooter. Think of it this way: you make a mark on surface
by any means and then draw the target around it; in this manner you will always
obtain a bull’s-eye.
Another
way to consider it: someone has a presupposed answer and then they reason everything
to it regardless of the connection and disregarding all relevant evidence.
How does
this relate to Bible Codes?
When a
book was published in the 1990s concerning this, people asked me what I thought
and I noted that this was a prime example of confirmation bias. Use of the Hebrew Bible was easier, of course,
than that of, say, the New Testament Greek.
Why? Because in Hebrew the
alphabet or alef-bet is entirely consonantal. Thus, this gives a lot of leeway to someone
looking for a name or term in it.
Further, that these letters were of “equal distance” supposedly made it
objective, but all that did was make it easier to find whatever words they
imposed.
In any
case, the process illustrates pointedly the notion of having a presupposed
answer and then reasoning to it.
One "codes" author claimed
that when someone found such in Moby Dick then he’ll agree that it
is a mistake.
Many took up the challenge and here is one of
them in full: https://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/moby.html
You can
still find publications about Bible codes in some Christian bookstores, demonstrating
the cheerful lack of baby logic.