Is the Atheism/Theism belief/disbelief a false dichotomy? are there other options?

[robvalue]

Psycho: That's a weird scenario! I kind of see what you're saying, I think. Indeed, the more information you have, the more accurate conclusions you can draw.

If I'm reading right, the engineer drew the correct conclusion based in the assumption that they were real horses. So his methodology was correct, and his results solid, but one of his assumptions was false. So he was getting information about something other than what he thought. If another engineer was there and actually checked these horses and found they weren't real, or even if the first guy did that, they could have found that out. So I suppose you could say they should have done that rather than take someone else's word for it.

But sure, ultimately we can never know we're not being duped. Like I said, I'm not certain anything that appears to be happening is really happening. I'm not certain I'm awake. It's just not possible. So that's why we try and make as few assumptions as possible, and just build conclusions from them. In this case, the engineer assumed something that could have been verified, and it cost him. We could let him off as he'd been coerced into ignoring it.

It's an impossible problem. It brings up solipsism, and problem of other minds, and simply being deluded by some other force. It's impossible to count them out. All we can do is make basic assumptions and do what works. There isn't any alternative except total inaction.