Photographers often strive to find new ways of seeing the world. In a sense, this involves looking for new information, which is a healthy way to live. Unfortunately, we tend to avoid this due to our innate tendency for something called “confirmation bias”.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. –Wikipedia

Confirmation bias makes it harder for us to adopt new perspectives, perhaps even to learn new ideas, because we will tend to avoid information that could lead us to change existing beliefs.

This is common among religious people who are often reluctant to learn about other religious perspectives (including non-religious). Fearing heresy, the loss of salvation, being ostracized from the community, and so on, the religious often choose not to explore ideas outside their existing belief systems. Instead, they continue seeking sources that confirm supernatural viewpoints through additional religious study that supports their existing beliefs. They find ways to interpret whatever they see in terms of those supernatural beliefs, never questioning whether there are valid objections.

However, this isn’t limited to religious thinking, especially in our science-focused culture.

The non-religious may avoid serious consideration of religious or spiritual ideas and avoid ongoing learning about such perspectives. Wanting to avoid seemingly useless learning, acknowledging the limits of science, seeming irrational to others, and so on, the nonreligious often choose not to explore ideas outside their existing belief systems. They also continue seeking sources that confirm materialist viewpoints through continued focus on secular reporting and analysis that support their existing beliefs. They find ways to interpret whatever they encounter in strictly materialistic terms, never questioning whether there are valid alternative viewpoints.

In both cases, there’s a desire to move from ambiguity to certainty even when it is not warranted. Religions thus have a reputation for dogmatic blind faith, but it’s often overlooked how much fundamental uncertainty still underlies our materialist understanding of reality.

This is why, since metaphysical topics are among the biggest influences in many societies, we need to continue to work towards open discussions, listening rather than arguing, and understanding common ground when it exists.