"Whether or not we believe that the future can be influenced by the circular rhythms of the dance or foretold from an analysis of Bible verses, or that from a few underlying physical laws we can generate a cosmos, we all share a faith that lurking beneath the world's complexity is simplicity. Psychologists have found that if you put people in a room with a contraption of light bulbs wired to blink on and off at random, they will quickly discern what they believe are patterns, theories for predicting which bulb will be next to blink. Once a person becomes enmeshed in an ideology or a scientist in a hypothesis, it is difficult not to see confirmation everywhere. Our brains are wired to see order, but we are prisoners of our nervous systems, cursed with never knowing when we are seeing truths out there in the universe and when we are merely inventing elaborate architectures."
Johnson, George. Fire in the Mind. Science, Faith and the Search for Order. pg 21. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995
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