RE: Help me refute the "suffering will be insignificant in heaven" theodicy
November 15, 2024 at 5:16 am
(November 15, 2024 at 4:15 am)Sheldon Wrote:(November 14, 2024 at 11:21 pm)Belacqua Wrote: It's probably better to get an in-depth knowledge of what Christians say before doing a refutation.
Or one could simply ask if they can demonstrate in any remotely objective way, that what they are claiming is possible. If not then one need refute nothing, just treat the claim as one would if they claimed they owned an invisible dragon, or any other unfalsifiable claim. The fact a claim is made by someone of obvious intellect, does not on its own lend the claim any credence, this is a form of appeal to authority fallacy.
Not believing a claim, is not the same as refuting it, and thus need carry no epistemological burden of proof, to suggest otherwise would be to invoke an argumentum ad ignorantiam fallacy. I remain agnostic about all unfalsifiable claims, as I must, and withhold belief from them all, as I must.
There is no reason at all why you should deal with Christian claims. You can go your whole life never thinking about them.
However, if you plan to make a video refuting Christian claims, it makes sense to understand what the claims are.
Remember the case of poor Richard Dawkins, who attempted to refute some basic Thomist arguments in one of his books. He misrepresented the Thomist ideas so badly that for anyone knowledgeable, he damaged his own credibility.
You sometimes use the term "straw man." What Dawkins did was a textbook example, comically misrepresenting someone else's argument in order to pretend to refute it. He did not refute it, because he didn't know what he was talking about.