(June 9, 2015 at 4:59 pm)Randy Carson Wrote:
(June 8, 2015 at 10:54 am)Esquilax Wrote: Hey Randy? Supernatural claims are a reason to doubt somebody.
"I had lunch with my wife yesterday."
"I had lunch with Tom Hanks yesterday."
"I had lunch with the entire cast of the Avengers yesterday."
"I had lunch with a dragon yesterday."
Four claims. Please point to the claim on that list that is, as far as all the evidence you have shows, impossible. Now, let's take a step back: please point to the claim on that list for which you would require additional evidence before believing out of hand.
If I were trying to be completely sure, I would require additional proof for ALL of them. After all, you might be single and lying about a wife or about having lunch at all. How do I know? It's more common, of course, but people lie for all sorts of reasons.
BTW-Is this a standard argument from an "Atheist-in-a-Box" kit or something? It's been posed about four times.
Way to ignore the crux of the question, Randy.
It is not a standard argument of atheism, it is a standard argument of critical thinking, skepticism, rationality.
The best method to assure ones internal representation of reality maps as accurately as possible to external reality, one should always proportion the strength of ones beliefs to the strength of demonstrable evidence available.
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.
