The Ill-Logic, it Burns

[Bob Kelso]

I just had a conversation with someone on YouTube (I know, I know my mistake) over why atheists still use the phrases "goddamnit, bless you and Jesus Christ". This bloke was under the assumption that we (atheists) are still using these terms not out of habit or social norms but because, subconsciously, we know that we're wrong about the state of God's existence and that this is some kind of Freudian slip. When I said that he's overlooking the obvious truth in favor of confirmation bias, and that a quick application of Occam's Razor would remedy his illogical thought process, he told me that;

The principles of Occam's Razor were established on a basis of bias not of a quest for real knowledge.

and that William of Ockham was,

simply mad at the church and in layman's terms stated "God doesn't really exist because I can't see him". This consequently became the premier argument for illogical and uneducated atheists, many of whom don't even know the name of the argument.

I mean... holy fucking shit.

Now I'm not savvy on William's history other than; I know he was a devout Christian theologian who held the notion that god was only revealed through revelation and that he was at odds with the papacy over Apostolic poverty and something to do with a commentary he wrote, but it seems incredibly unlikely to me that he would have made this thought principle just to piss off John XXII.

I'd love to hear anything you all have to say about this, and if any of you have any insight to what this loon is on about. Thanks.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Your YouTubist has gotten nearly everything wrong.

1. Ockham's Razor (I prefer the term 'principle of parsimony') had to do with bias only in the sense that Ockham did not differ all that much from his fellow Franciscans in that he wanted to construct a way to make God necessary. Whether he intended it to be used as a knowledge-gathering tool is moot.


2. Ockham believed in God precisely because he could NOT see him. He viewed God as ontologically necessary and not amenable to reason and logic.

3. Well, Ockham was mad at the Church, but that was only after the Pope got made at William first.

Boru

[Alex K]

Tell him that the viability of Occam's razor can be shown using Bayes theorem
Bayes was a pastor
(It's true - additional assumptions lower the prior probability of a proposal, for details see R.Carrier's book)

[Bob Kelso]

Tell him that the viability of Occam's razor can be shown using Bayes theorem
Bayes was a pastor
(It's true - additional assumptions lower the prior probability of a proposal, for details see R.Carrier's book)

Wonderful! I'll even link to this short explanatory page I found.

Bayes Theorem

[sven]

One does not simply have a conversation on Youtube...

[Minimalist]

Apparently there are all sorts of idiots on Youtube.

How does he feel about "jesus tittyfucking christ?"

[Jackalope]

I use such phrases only because I like blasphemy - or rather, the effect it has on overly pious assholes.

[Minimalist]

Amen, motherfucker!