Coffee Jesus is correct actually guys. He did not make an ad populum fallacy, he merely gave the correct elucidation as to what evidence is.
See above.
He's right actually.
You're equivocating "evidence" with "truth". All evidence is, as Coffee correctly stated, is that the probability of X is more likely given Y. If someone makes the claim "I own a dog.", their statement, along with one's background knowledge, lends evidence to the likelihood that he does in fact own a dog. And yes, the fact that there are god concepts in existence DOES make it more likely that there are gods than the probability would have been if humanity had no god concepts.
(April 11, 2014 at 7:39 pm)My imaginary friend is GOD Wrote: Ever heard of the ad populum fallacy? Look it up, son. /thread
See above.
(April 11, 2014 at 8:04 pm)tor Wrote: Unstoppable stupidity.
He's right actually.
(April 11, 2014 at 8:55 pm)Rampant.A.I. Wrote: For a while, popular opinion was that the world was flat.
In the Middle Ages, people believed in Spontanious Generation. Rats spontaneously generated from piles of rags, maggots from meat.
People still believe hair and fingernails continue to grow after death, old windowpanes appear wavy because glass stays "liquid" and flows downward very slowly, taste zones on the tongue, that Columbus was concerned about falling off the edge of the earth, that a Brontosaurus was a type of dinosaur... The list of "facts" goes on.
The popularity of an opinion has no bearing on the truth of that opinion.
You're equivocating "evidence" with "truth". All evidence is, as Coffee correctly stated, is that the probability of X is more likely given Y. If someone makes the claim "I own a dog.", their statement, along with one's background knowledge, lends evidence to the likelihood that he does in fact own a dog. And yes, the fact that there are god concepts in existence DOES make it more likely that there are gods than the probability would have been if humanity had no god concepts.
