RE: Do you know that homeopathy doesn't work, or do you just lack belief that it does?
August 21, 2018 at 8:46 am
(This post was last modified: August 21, 2018 at 9:09 am by I_am_not_mafia.)
(August 21, 2018 at 8:41 am)vorlon13 Wrote: Imagine the financial incentive for Mexican drug cartels to work out homeopathic heroin or cocaine !!
And no one ever claims they have made that work.
Imagine buying some homeopathic pills then taking it back to the shop complaining that it doesn't work because it clearly hasn't been properly diluted. The concept is absurd.
But then so too is the concept of a god
The absolute absurdity of God
(August 21, 2018 at 8:42 am)vulcanlogician Wrote: Even if you do clearly define what God is, how can you test the hypothesis?
Depends how you define it.
If you can define it that is. Personally I don't think it can be properly defined because once you do, you end up with something that isn't a god.
And by define, I mean, explain exactly what it can and cannot do, how it came about, where it gets its energy from, or failing that how you can reliably reproduce some phenomenon that is 'god'.
(August 21, 2018 at 8:30 am)Aroura Wrote: I think, by some definitions, there are very few things we "know".
Can I be certain, 100% that there is no all knowing creator, or that homeopathy is bullshit? No. Nor do I claim such knowledge.
If you climb out the window and let go, do you know that you will not float away on a gentle breeze?
What is more likely, if any? That homeopathy works or that you will float away?
If you can't know that you won't float away then I'd argue that your use of the word 'know' is too restrictive to be useful. Because for all intents and purposes you do know (hint, don't let go if you do try).
Now it may be that someone doesn't know enough about physics and chemistry to say that homeopathy is absurd. But that's different to what a lot of agnostic atheists say about the existence of a god being unknowable. A physicist or chemist knows enough to say that homeopathy does not work. I personally argue that we collectively know enough from the scientific literature to say that a god cannot exist.