Do you react on emotions or do you really analyze the facts?  Do others do the same?  Should they?

I am often amused at the various ways scientists and researchers spend money.  Many of  the studies and research projects either seem useless, obvious, or are a repeat of information we already know.  For example,

This article was published on MSNBC today --

Political bias affects brain activity, study finds

Democrats and Republicans both adept at ignoring facts, brain scans show

The essence of the article is that when presented with a situation members of both parties ignore facts detrimental to their parties position and make decisions based upon the "emotional" bias of their party.

Does this come as a surprise to anyone?  Did we need to fund a study to determine this fairly obvious fact?  Where else did the phrase "party line" come from?

What I did think about in reading this article is that the results apply to more than just politicians.  Most of us react this way when our belief systems are questioned.  Consider this quote from the article:

"Everyone from executives and judges to scientists and politicians may reason to emotionally biased judgments when they have a vested interest in how to interpret 'the facts,'" Westen said.

Why do people fail to turn to God?  Well, one of the base factors of theology is that a person must realize he or she is a sinner and in need of a Savior before they will consider repenting.  This is often a difficult hurdle to overcome, for if asked if a particular action is a sin against God, most people will react emotionally and say "no, it is not."  This is because they like the sin! They have a bias against giving up a particular action. They do not reason their way to repentance, they emotionally reject all alternatives except the sin in question.

This is the make-up of mankind.  Human nature is so corrupted by the Fall that it must decide in favor of sin almost all of the time.  The corrupt nature likes sin.  This explains why a couple living together outside of marriage will not normally find repentance.  They are enjoying their sin too much.  They do not want to change. So, when faced with the words of Scripture, they simply reject the Bible without reasoning out whether the Bible might be right. They like where they exist, so they fail to consider any alternative.

This is a "party line" reaction, a partisan decision, just like our politicians of the study. No surprise in any of this.

My only question is how do people get the money for these studies? If some one can explain it to me, I might dream up a few studies myself!

Jim A