Many would agree that human beings see what we want to see. Maybe we already have deeply ingrained personal beliefs, or a cognitive dissonance that we don’t want to let go of, or we have a tendency to make strong associations between stimuli both real and imagined.

Clearly our mind has flaws or it is performing exactly as it should by eluding our understanding again and again.

We often create gross, even perverse, representations of what we are exposed to. Then we make faulty decisions based on those perceptions.

I’ve done this. We’ve all done this.

Lets talk about perception by examining acronyms.

Look at these letters ETS

What does it mean to you?

Maybe as a child ETS was secret code with a friend and it still holds that meaning for you.

Or it could reference …Educational Testing Services.

How about… Extraterrestrial Saves.

Or… Emerging Technology Saves.

Or  Elite Tactile Squad.

Lastly Evangelical Theological Society.

Without the proper context clues the simple acronym ETS could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.