RE: Question about "faith"
September 26, 2020 at 4:22 pm
(This post was last modified: September 26, 2020 at 4:26 pm by possibletarian.)
(September 26, 2020 at 12:48 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: My views on evidence are that it is underdeterministic and theory-dependent. By underdeterministic I mean that any individual bit of data is insufficient to draw any specific conclusion. This goes hand-in-hand with the idea that science doesn't prove it disproves.
And by theory-dependent I mean that all data requires interpretation; data only becomes evidence through the theory by which it is interpreted. Data is objective; evidence is subjective.
As an example, a bloody knife and a dead body, underdetermine any conclusion about whether a murder or a suicide occurred. They become evidence for either depending on which theory you interpret with.
As far as the alien question, the drunken man is free to take any piece of data he has, and interpret it through the abduction lens. And if I have any disagreement with him, my job is to falsify his claim, not to ask him for more evidence.
But John the aliens have since departed, there is nothing to disprove or test.. do you believe him ? do you for instance give it as much credence as a theistic belief given that science cannot help you here ?
Perhaps let's try it a different way, how confident are you that your god exists ?
1-10, 10 being 99%+ sure
And how confident are you that other gods do not exist ?
'Those who ask a lot of questions may seem stupid, but those who don't ask questions stay stupid'