(August 29, 2012 at 2:09 pm)CliveStaples Wrote: Suppose there were a Bronze Age religion that claimed that certain entities existed in the sky that devoured light and crushed everything--ala a black hole. Let's say that Bob lived back then, but didn't have any tools for measuring things like red-light shifts and so forth, so he couldn't actually detect the presence of a black hole.
Should Bob believe in the existence of black holes, which actually do exist? Or should he refuse to believe in their existence?
He would not have any justification to believe in their existence.
What if Bob's religion also believed that there were giant invisible penguins that crapped stars?
How is he any more justified in believing in black holes than giant star crapping penguins?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
