RE: Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.
April 21, 2018 at 2:39 pm
(This post was last modified: April 21, 2018 at 2:41 pm by Edwardo Piet.)
(April 21, 2018 at 2:33 pm)RoadRunner79 Wrote: I don't have any reason to believe that fire breathing dragons exist. But I'm not making any statements on the probability that they do exist or spend a lot of time on internet sites arguing that they don't exist either.
So what if you're not making statements about it? You don't think their probability is unknown or 50/50, you think they're improbable, or you're an idiot.
Quote:If you think that my assessment is incorrect.... then why. It seems to me, that you are wanting to make a claim, and not support it (which is what started this thing), and then hide behind skepticism.
I have said repeatedly that I'm not claiming anything, hence why you are misrepresenting me. I'm just saying that theism is improbable for the same reason that fire-breathing dragons are. You believe literally all the other gods are improbable, especially the mythological ones such as Zeus. There are many things that lack evidence that you consider highly improbable, so you're being disingenuous.
Quote: This would be pseudo-skepticism. The fact that you think I making a straw man, says to me, that you are making an argument thus a claim, and thus cannot hide behind skepticism.
What nonsense. I'm thinking you're making a strawman because you are misrepresenting my position.
Quote: Hence, I would say that pseudo-skepticism is not a (so called "straw man"), but an accurate description.
If I'm guilty of "pseudo skepticism" so are you about fire-breathing dragons and literally all Gods you don't believe in. Who cares what you say is improbable or not, there are many things you believe to be improbable without saying it. So you are simply disingenuous.
It's highly rational to expect there to be evidence for something highly absurd before you believe in it. The absurd is improbable without evidence: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Absence of evidence isn't evidence that something definitely doesn't exist, but when evidence is to be expected for something to be far above 0% probable, then you're simply being irrational by pretending the probability of firebreathing dragons or God is 50/50.
Who cares what anyone claims, the point is that some things are more rational to believe in than others, and some things are more probable than others. You can't claim that I'm making an argument from ignorance if you haven't even defined the God you are claiming I am denying.
