RE: Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence?
August 3, 2017 at 11:26 pm
(This post was last modified: August 3, 2017 at 11:31 pm by Whateverist.)
(August 3, 2017 at 8:47 pm)SteveII Wrote:(August 3, 2017 at 8:44 pm)Whateverist Wrote: So why not stick with extra-ordinary then. And how about we define it as something never before witnessed. The fact that you think the resurrection was witnessed this one time -and presumably only this one time- cannot substantiate the genre when it is the first/only instance of what you've claimed.
If what you've claimed is not extraordinary, then point to the prior noncontroversial instantiation of the same phenomenon. If it is the first/only of its kind, then it is certainly extraordinary and, for those of us not already inclined to expect such things, in need of extraordinary evidence. Otherwise just go on about your business believing stuff you feel satisfied to believe while we go on rejecting it for being beyond the realm of what can be accepted without more than you've offered as justification.
[Sorry, Steve, but I've butchered what I had quoted from you here and I'm not sure how to fix it.]
Extraordinary evidence is first and foremost evidence that the extraordinary phenomenon exists at all and in what its nature lies. If you insist on defining 'God' as that which is beyond nature, then you have defined it right out of our known universe. You've as much as said it does not exist in any way already known..
To show that an ordinary, garden variety common-as-dirt event occurred it is relevant at least to show that the opportunity was there. But when the phenomenon in question is of the absolutely mysterious variety, the opportunity is indeterminable. No one knows under what conditions it could be induced.
With the ordinary, you can argue that X is precisely the sort of occurrence one might expect for a well-known phenomenon. But with the deeply mysterious, no one knows what is or isn't likely. No one knows under what condition the mysterious phenomenon would be expected to occur.
Extraordinary evidence would be that which grounds the extraordinary phenomenon in the world as we know it. By defining it as outside the known, you raise the bar for what would constitute acceptable evidence by first and foremost establishing what it is and by what it is known.