(November 23, 2010 at 3:10 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote:(November 23, 2010 at 12:25 pm)orogenicman Wrote: orogenicman Wrote:
And I never claimed that you did. However, most Christians DO use anecdotal evidence to argue for the existence of their god. I hear them use such 'evidence' every day. Your quote of Shermer points out that:
Since you have not scientifically surveyed the majority of Christians on Earth, you yourself are using anecdotal evidence to bash on Christians for using anecdotal evidence? Nice! I’d expect nothing less of you.
But then, I'm not making a scientific claim in this regards. It was based on 52 years of experience dealing with Christians, including those within my own family. But I do note that you don't deny that it's true that Christians use testimonials (i.e., 'my aunt Betzy was cured of cancer after our congregation prayed for her') to bring people into the fold.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
