(February 12, 2014 at 11:56 pm)orangebox21 Wrote: All good examples for the sake of this conversation. I would add Jonah being in the fish three days and virgin conception, not metaphors all actual historical events.
Where is the historical evidence of these events?
Quote:Supernaturally.
"Supernaturally" is a concise way of saying "I have no fucking idea but I'm not going to admit it".
Quote:The "burden of proof" argument is more of a tactic than it is sound debate. The burden of proof is on both the person making the claim and the person who disagrees with the claim. This is foundational to debate/science/truth seeking.
The skeptic can satisfy the burden of proof simply by pointing out that the events you suggest happened have no recorded or observed precedent. You have to explain why we have to make an exception for your specific example.
Quote: The claim that these are empirical questions that need to be settled by (empirical?) evidence is made by you. These may be empirical questions but they could be very well explained as supernatural events. My evidence is the written testimony of these events. If the truth is outside of your set of beliefs, to say it's not possible as truth is an argument from ignorance. The Laws of logic say that truth is justified independently of a person's beliefs.
With no evidence of anything supernatural, we are not required to give you the benefit of the doubt that a supernatural explanation is valid. You have to demonstrate evidence of the supernatural. If you define 'supernatural' as 'anything which cannot be empirically measured', then you have won the argument for us.
Quote:Why does calling something "religion" denigrate it? Seems like the prejudice toward the word is on your side?
It is a denigration, and the prejudice we have towards the word is honestly deserved.
Quote:If you rule out the answer before you ask the question, you will either search for the answer forever or you will accept any answer as truth.
If you can't demonstrate the validity of your answer, and no one else in human history has succeeded where you've failed, then we have no choice but to rule it out.
Better to have to search forever for the right answer than to settle for a wrong one just to end the search.
