My favorite illustration of confirmation bias is Nicholas Taleb’s retelling of a tale by Cicero in his book
The Black Swan:
One Diagoras, a nonbeliever in the gods, was shown painted tablets bearing the portraits of some worshippers who prayed, then survived a subsequent shipwreck. The implication was that praying protects you from drowning. Diagoras asked, “Where were the pictures of those who prayed, then drowned?”
Well, there’s no picture, but here’s a story of one little girl who witnessed the awe-inspiring power of prayer:
WESTON, Wis. – Police are investigating an 11-year-old girl’s death from an undiagnosed, treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for her rather than take her to a doctor.
Wisconsin girl, 11, dies of treatable diabetes probed after parents pick prayer over medicine
