RE: On Belief in God X
July 14, 2013 at 6:27 pm
(This post was last modified: July 14, 2013 at 6:33 pm by paulpablo.)
(July 7, 2013 at 11:16 am)FallentoReason Wrote: Recently I've realised that it's not correct to counter someone's belief in god x by pointing to n number of historically possible gods and deducing that x/n is low. This is incorrect if, and only if, the believer has experiential justification for their belief.
This thought is exactly the same as if we were all playing poker and we were dealt 5 cards. Someone could look at their hand and say "I've got a royal flush!" and then someone could counter by saying "it's unlikely because the probability of that happening is 1/x". Well, the *fact* is that they have got a properly basic belief that they have a royal flush (i.e. their belief has come directly via the senses). Therefore, they are justified in believing they have a royal flush even if the odds are 1/(10^99).
This is where the believer is positioned. Whether their senses *actually* gave them a true encounter is another matter, but my point is (I guess) that saying the truth of their belief is statistically unlikely is meaningless to someone with a justified belief (of some degree), hence why the two parties just slip right past each other without really engaging in a proper discussion.
Eager to see what the atheist response would be to this...
I didn't read anyone elses personal response but my own would be that when ever I have pointed out to someone who believes in god that their god is one of many that has been and is being worshiped it isn't to point out they might be worshiping the wrong one,
It's to point out that throughout history and throughout the world today mankind is constantly making up strange and unbelievable gods and prophets, plenty of them contradict each other and they are all passed on via human culture, it all points to their being either a bi product of human imagination and superstition.
Making a statement saying there are many gods you might be worshiping the wrong one makes the assumption that there are any that exist at all.
Also what do you consider to be experiential justification for a belief? If someone believes in god because of an experience with god I wouldn't be able to argue much against that I just simply wouldn't believe them when they told me about it because of my previous point about the amount of prophets and messiahs who have been on this earth already, charles manson, reverend jim jones and so on.
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