Walter, your response is interesting from a couple of perspectives.  You correctly note that "We all have bias. and it is incumbent upon us to recognized that [sic]."  Yet your ad-hominem-flavored dismissal of St. Thomas Aquinas seems to be completely at odds with the actual quote I cited.  St. Thomas' point is that the intellect's apprehension of truth is measured by the degree to which the apprehension of the thing matches the actual thing.  Is that not the point of empirical science, philosophy and theology?

Secondly, while you argue about flaws in my reasoning (which I disagree with), none of your objections seems to fit with any definition of confirmation bias that I'm familiar with.

Thirdly,  in regards to "lumping a whole series of issues together," insofar that my argument is that confirmation bias is a major contributing factor to many ills, why does it not make sense, from the standpoint of analysis, to compare those issues impacted by confirmation bias?

More to follow ...