Anecdotal Evidence

[bennyboy]

Now here I would quibble, because the problem as I see it, is that you are talking about persuasion which is subjective, and different than providing evidence. I don't think that evidence ceases to be evidence, because you didn't provide it persuasive.  A prosecutor, and the defending lawyer, are both going to provide evidence, for their opposing cases.   And apart from a hung jury, they are going to find one more persuasive than the other.  There is also insufficient evidence to consider.  I'm not dealing in absolute's, and I'm willing to discuss the reasons why something should be rejected as evidence.   With my experience here, I can get past the irrational absolutes, when dealing with the subject, to talk about detail.

Okay, let me make a little list of some of the factors I would consider:

1) Evidence is founded on a single philosophical principle: that there are multiple sentient beings, and that they experience an objective world. The evidence, then, must exclusively describe things and their properties at various times: "I saw a man. He walked along the top of a body of water." This is objective evidence. Note, however, that EVEN THEN, a person can be wrong-- maybe he didn't see a man, but rather a hologram. Maybe he didn't really walk on water-- maybe he walked on a submerged sand bar.

2) Related to (1), it cannot involve subjective interpretations of those descriptions: "A holy and spiritual man walked along the top of a body of water with God's help." This fails because the person is not actually describing only things and their properties, and is therefore not making an objective statement of fact.

3) With regard to credibility, evidence should be disregarded if there is a conflict of interest, and if the evidence cannot be reproduced. So a scientist who claims he produced cold fusion, but cannot prove so, or explain to someone else how to ALSO produce cold fusion, should be disregarded. His testimony is useless, since his personal interest in claiming he produced cold fusion is obvious.


Okay, so let's take the Christians. Millions of Christians will attest that their mood and mental state change at church, during prayer at home, or perhaps in dreams. They can honestly and accurately describe the sensations they have: they felt peace, they felt as though a mysterious presence were in the room, they felt suddenly inspired, etc. All these are fine. This is case (1) above.

Now let's say these Christians get excited, saying the Lord is real and has blessed them, and so on. It's fine if they want to believe that, but their ideas about God are not statements of fact, but of interpretation. Since those similar experiences could be differently attributed by Hindus or atheists, then the interpretations cannot serve as evidence of God. (Case 2). They are really only evidence that Christians sometimes have particular feelings (Case 1)

Finally, let's say that Christians knock on my door. They say they want me to think about Jesus' blessings, and invite me to attend church. If I ask how they know God is real, they will produce the Bible, will attest to their own personal experiences, and work very hard to demonstrate to me the "Truth" of God's existence, and his love for me personally. But there's a conflict of interest. Since I can see that they want me to attend the church, I can reasonably assume that they are saying all of those things in an effort to persuade me to go join their congregation, thereby indirectly increasing their power in the local community. (Case 3).

This is made obvious by people like Creflo Dollar, but I see it as well in much more modest individuals. They are congratulated by the church if they can bring in new members, especially if those members are wealthy, educated, popular, or otherwise valued members of the community. There's a social payoff, and therefore I can attribute the behavior to the desire for a payoff, much as I would for the "cold fusion" scientist's behavior.

In other words, I would disregard the entire Christian community's assertions about God, because ALL their assertions are based on interpretation, and because anyone will to go out of their way to bring me into the religion demonstrates a conflict of interest.