RE: Please correct me where I am wrong
May 19, 2015 at 8:34 pm
(This post was last modified: May 19, 2015 at 8:39 pm by Simon Moon.)
No one is immune to cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and logical fallacies.
The advantage we have over the faith based religions world view is a much easier method to correct our views of shown better evidence and information. The scientific method is beautiful at eliminating cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and logical fallacies.
I am not tied emotionally to my lack of belief in gods. Nor do I need to spin and obfuscate arguments and evidence (the definition of apologetics) to support my view, because my view is based on lack of demonstrable evidence and lack of valid and sound logic provided by theists.
If someone points out that one of my arguments is fallacious, I will correct it. Not so with theists. I have pointed out the fallacies contained in all the logical arguments for the existence of a god (Kalam, teleological, ontological, etc) and have never heard a theist admit it.
If someone points out that I have a belief based on faith, not evidence, you know what I will do? I will stop believing it. That is what rational, critical thinkers do.
I want my internal representation of reality to map as closely as possible to reality. The best, most reliable method to accomplish this is by basing beliefs on demonstrable evidence and reasoned argument. Not ancient texts, not the word of other people, not faith.
The advantage we have over the faith based religions world view is a much easier method to correct our views of shown better evidence and information. The scientific method is beautiful at eliminating cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and logical fallacies.
I am not tied emotionally to my lack of belief in gods. Nor do I need to spin and obfuscate arguments and evidence (the definition of apologetics) to support my view, because my view is based on lack of demonstrable evidence and lack of valid and sound logic provided by theists.
If someone points out that one of my arguments is fallacious, I will correct it. Not so with theists. I have pointed out the fallacies contained in all the logical arguments for the existence of a god (Kalam, teleological, ontological, etc) and have never heard a theist admit it.
If someone points out that I have a belief based on faith, not evidence, you know what I will do? I will stop believing it. That is what rational, critical thinkers do.
I want my internal representation of reality to map as closely as possible to reality. The best, most reliable method to accomplish this is by basing beliefs on demonstrable evidence and reasoned argument. Not ancient texts, not the word of other people, not faith.
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.
