RE: Atheists: would proof of the resurrection matter to you?
July 17, 2015 at 6:43 am
(This post was last modified: July 17, 2015 at 6:46 am by robvalue.)
Let's take it a step further, forget Jesus for the minute.
Say a guy made the following claim, "You can't kill me. I'll come back to life no matter what, because [reason X]"
X could be "I am God" or "I'm a super powered alien" or "your reality isn't true", or anything at all.
We put him to the test, and he is correct. We shoot him, slice him into pieces, fire the pieces across the earth... We do everything we can to try and kill him. But every time, as we watch, he reforms. He sucks himself back together and he's alive. It's repeatable, and everyone can see it.
Now. What does this tell us about his reason X? Does it mean:
(A) It is definitely true, his demonstration is sufficient
Or
(B) It is something worth investigating, and may be true if we can gather sufficient evidence for that particular reason
This is what I call the "wow fallacy". If we take position A, then we are in the position where we believe anything and everything, just because he says it. I suppose it's a version of the appeal to authority fallacy. Of course, he may himself be able to provide further evidence for his reason X. But that's not the same as taking his cool tricks to be evidence.
Say a guy made the following claim, "You can't kill me. I'll come back to life no matter what, because [reason X]"
X could be "I am God" or "I'm a super powered alien" or "your reality isn't true", or anything at all.
We put him to the test, and he is correct. We shoot him, slice him into pieces, fire the pieces across the earth... We do everything we can to try and kill him. But every time, as we watch, he reforms. He sucks himself back together and he's alive. It's repeatable, and everyone can see it.
Now. What does this tell us about his reason X? Does it mean:
(A) It is definitely true, his demonstration is sufficient
Or
(B) It is something worth investigating, and may be true if we can gather sufficient evidence for that particular reason
This is what I call the "wow fallacy". If we take position A, then we are in the position where we believe anything and everything, just because he says it. I suppose it's a version of the appeal to authority fallacy. Of course, he may himself be able to provide further evidence for his reason X. But that's not the same as taking his cool tricks to be evidence.
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