WOTM: Religion Makes People Stupid, Evidence, Addendum I
Finally, we have the first part of a two part addendum to my one part series of videos with four parts. There were so many great points made in the comment sections of the previous four videos that I thought it warranted another couple of videos. I always say, if you're going to bury someone, bury them deep (even though I neither look like, nor embrace the philosophy of Nikita Khrushchev)! And that's what my viewers helped me do. I almost feel bad for poor Cameron... not. I'm sure he's making bank off of the nonsense on his channel. Enjoy. And thanks again for all your help! B
WOTM: Religion Makes People Stupid, Evidence, Addendum 1 (YouTube)
Comments (4)
“A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage.” “Show me,” you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle—but no dragon. “Where’s the dragon?” you ask. “Oh, she’s right here,” I reply, waving vaguely. “I neglected to mention that she’s an invisible dragon.” Excerpt From "The Demon-Haunted World" Carl Sagan
Your belief about gravity matters because it accurately tells us something about the future. I wouldn't say the belief in gravity matters because of the consequences since the religious say their beliefs matter because of the consequences 🙃 Even if one of the panoply (!) of religious beliefs were true, the belief is pointless unless it accurately tells us something about the future.
But telling us that belief has consequences in the future and demonstrating those consequences (as I can do with gravity) is a very different matter. The consequences of gravity will be evident immediately. I can retort to the religious that God will punish those who believe without evidence — eternal damnation for the credulous!
Doesn't anyone learn argumentation in school anymore? Evidence cannot be an argument (ask any court in the land). An argument links the truth of the premises to the truth of the conclusion. Fundamental arguments usually offer premises with "truth" assumed but not proven. So, a conclusion is simply a consequence of the premises, nothing more. An argument cannot prove the existence of anything. It can argue the existence, saying that "my conclusion is true" . . . if you accept the premises as being true, which is where all of these so-called arguments for the existence of a god or gods come a cropper.