I spent a large chunk of my life deep in conservative christian culture and one of the patterns I notice a lot now when I run into the "intellectual" arm of the movement is the obstinate and determined push to fit facts to narrative. Narrative always comes first, then maybe, sometimes, they'll find some facts. "See, I was right all along". "My belief which I have held for so long in the absence of evidence is fully justified by this small set of cherry-picked data". Over and over and over again.