Do You “Get the Facts” or “Reject the Facts”?

Human nature is not generally supportive of seeking the truth. People are often strongly tempted to seek only like-minded opinions and “facts” supporting their ideas while dismissing facts that challenge what they want to believe. It is a trap we can all fall into. Many times I’ve heard the statement, “Well, I still think [blank] and you can’t convince me otherwise.” But, is this attitude really good for us?

Psychological studies support this “fact”—that we often reject evidence that opposes what we want to believe. Unsurprisingly, our human proclivity is to justify our beliefs, whether personal or groupthink. If challenged, we develop arguments to convince others (and perhaps even ourselves) that we are correct.

This proclivity helps explain why there is so much political polarization today. Facts take a backseat to partisan bias. This is true of disputes among any opposing parties—domestic, business, legal, personal, or religious.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940–1945 and 1951–1955, commented on this human tendency. He said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” People want to continue believing what they want to believe.

In the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), when the Wizard is exposed as a fake by the little dog Toto pulling back the curtain, he tries to continue the deception by saying, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” When the curtain of our prejudicial thinking is pulled back, exposing a wrong belief, are we able to humbly accept and acknowledge the truth? Or, do we “fool ourselves” and hang on to our wrong but comfortable belief that makes no demands and does not threaten our routine?

An old saying I learned early in life still rings true today: “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” The origin of the phrase is uncertain, though it has been attributed to Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People), before that to Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman), and before that to Samuel Butler (Hudibras). I have personally experienced this phenomenon of human nature. For example, some laid-off employees believed they were owed another week of pay that was “held back.” This idea came from the fact that pay was distributed the week after the pay period ended. Using a calendar, I graphically explained, step by step, the payroll period start and end dates and the corresponding pay date up to their last day of work. Some acknowledged the presented facts but continued to believe they were still owed a week of pay because that is what they wanted to believe—in this case goaded on by a desired benefit.

The Bible repeatedly describes this human tendency in terms of refusing to listen—having a stiff neck, a forehead like flint or bronze, a stubborn and hard heart, and being self-willed. The whole history of Israel concerns their rejection of God and His instructions.

John 8 demonstrates this human tendency to reject truth. The scribes and Pharisees opposed Jesus because He threatened their status. Had they listened, they could have known the truth that would make them free (John 8:31–32). Jesus told them the truth, but they did not believe Him (v. 45). Jesus said the world cannot receive the spirit of truth (John 14:17).

When Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, after the Roman governor had heard the accusations of the Jews, Jesus responded that He came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Pilate cynically asked, “What is truth?”

That’s the human problem in a nutshell. Self-willed, stubborn humans, living in an evil and deceived world, reject God telling them what to do and only want to accept “facts” supporting their preconceptions.

If something is proven to be true, we should not reject the truth. For more on this topic, be sure to read The Bible: Fact or Fiction and “What Is Truth?” You might also consider the Tomorrow’s World telecast “Is Jesus God?”