RE: Annoying Atheist Arguments
January 30, 2013 at 3:58 pm
(This post was last modified: January 30, 2013 at 4:06 pm by genkaus.)
(January 30, 2013 at 3:49 pm)Zone Wrote: If everyone else in the world but me professed a belief that the Lochness Monster which forms part of a Trinty in union with God the Father and the spirit of Hamish McDuff and by consuming the sacrament the Lochness Monsters body in the form of haggis and drinking of it's blood in the form of malt whisky eternal life will be granted, because I'm taking on the essence of the Lochness Monster. I wouldn't have a belief if I didn't join in, or if I said I think there's something a bit silly about it all. That opinion is just the default setting everyone would normally have.
Yes, you would. If you think that this outlandish claim is not true then you do have a belief regarding it. That being the default position does not exempt it from being a belief.
(January 30, 2013 at 3:23 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: Do you think the meaning of "I don't believe your mother is alive' is the same as 'I believe your mother is dead'?
That's correct.
(January 30, 2013 at 3:23 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: Because I don't believe your mother is alive AND I don't believe she is dead. I don't know anything about your mother, so why would I believe she's alive or dead? But I can't honestly say I believe your mother is dead AND I believe your mother is alive, because the two are mutually exclusive. If I believe your mother is dead, I can't believe she's alive.
Barring some staggering form of cognitive dissonance, I don't see how. But is that the point you are trying to make? That simultaneously rejecting a proposition and its negation is acceptable because of the possibility of cognitive dissonance?
