But even setting aside the genetic argument, human subjective perception is notoriously unreliable. How many times have we heard the guilty party in a traffic accident describe the other car “coming out of nowhere?” Or, consider the famous perception experiment involving a person in a gorilla suit (http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~cfc/Simons1999.pdf), in which people watching a video fail to notice a gorilla walking across the center of the screen. Indeed, as an avid bicyclist, I am highly aware of the tendency of drivers to look at, but not “see,” me on my bicycle.

Another example comes from market research studies — you know, those focus-group studies in which companies evaluate a product by putting it into the hands of target customers and asking for feedback. In one such study, participants were asked to help choose the best color for a music boombox and, as a thank-you gift for participating in the study, subjects were allowed to select and take home a boombox from a stack near the door. Well, during the “official” survey, participants suggested various colors which they though would be best for the boombox — red, yellow, blue, etc.; however, at the end of the study, when they were allowed to select a boombox to keep for their own use, nearly everyone chose black. Clearly, there was a disconnect between what people perceived about the world, and what actually happens in the world.

I often think about this disconnect when I hear people talk about so-called “miracles.” We hear them almost everyday: the “miracle” medical cure, the “miracle” diet, the “miracle” basketball shot, the “miracle” survivor of a car crash, etc. Humans seem to see “miracles” almost everywhere, which should give us great pause when we hear people of faith citing “miracles” as proof of why their religion is the One True Religion. Events that are rare or complex are obviously not “miracles”…but I bet they give a very pleasant endorphin rush.