Why Be Interested In Other Religions?

[goodlife]

Regardless of where you live, you have no doubt seen for yourself how religion affects the lives of millions of people.

[Khandro]

With a Paulaner Pils gazing across lake Constance to the Swiss Alps and don't care too much if you can't speak English

[Khandro]

birdie; I can see the appeal to you of your website, - a sort of 'bluffers guide', of readily available quotes, where by exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone's argument, it's much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate, something you carefully avoid. Chuck in a quote from a cracker-barrel humorist-philosopher for emphasis and the simple-minded might think you are really smart - and all from one claiming a disdain of those "quoting very clever people".

[Hypognosis]

@Khandro (and, obliquely, @Birdie)

What amused me most about sites like yourlogicalfallacyis is that its construction was, I can imagine, inspired by the endless exchanges, dating back to USENET newsgroups, between scientists and the likes of creationists, intelligent design adherents, UFO spotters and all manner of fringe stuff.

Basically, some of us are sufficiently middle-aged to have heard most of the usual lines of (theist) argument dozens of times before, are tired of typing responses to it and just want a boilerplate reply on hand to post a link to.

If I re-branded "appeal to authority" as "celebrity endorsement" then what you offered is just advertising copy. One wonders if someone's going to buy into the product (religion) on the basis of what you wrote?

In the meantime, scientists who persist in believing in god, as *you* might imagine _do_ bother me. One: they are hedging their bets, paying the mortgage by pursuing a science career (even one which is corrosive to the beliefs of fellow theists) while, all the while trying to keep in god's good books by professing their belief on a regular basis (aka sucking up). Two: they give "ammunition" to debaters, of your kind. Three: they debase science by saying "god did it and here's how he did it", whilst large tranches of science go on to show that the universe works quite well without any *need* for sentient intervention, whatsoever.

[Khandro]

birdie; Beware of all you read on internet websites, if you really had an understanding of the subject of logic, you and the anonymous perpetrators of the site should know that the term 'logical fallacy' is itself a contradiction, - an oxymoron.
I have tried to broach the subject of logic before. It is not possible to either prove or disprove the existence of God by logic.
If a statement is as true as it is false, then it has no value in the realm of logic, serves no purpose in discourse and is essentially meaningless because of this.

[jomifl]

https://www.quora.com/How-do-the-average-IQs-rank-by-profession-Which-professions-have-the-highest-IQs

[jomifl]

/the term 'logical fallacy' is itself a contradiction, - an oxymoron./
A touch of intentional irony here I think.

[Khandro]

birdie; // Pray tell how the exact term "logical fallacy" is an oxymoron. I look forward to your reply.//
Avec plaisir, mon ami! A proposition may be logically fallacious (unsound) but it cannot be a logical fallacy, it is like saying something is a "true lie".

You quote me thus; //"... It is not possible to either prove or disprove the existence of God by logic..." //, without grasping that I said "prove or DISPROVE", and your claim that this somehow demonstrates " a belief in 'God' is illogical" is not what I am saying; 'belief' is outside of the realm of logic.

To recap, what I say is that both these following statements are illogical - but this has nothing to do with either personal belief or truth.
"God exists".
"God does not exist".

Either of these statements cannot be proven, however just because they have not been proven true, it does not mean that they are false and equally, just because they have not been proven false it does not mean that they are true: therefore, a stalemate. Such statements which are likely to be true as false, lack all truth value and therefore such statements are meaningless.

[Khandro]

P.S. On re-reading my post above, I would substitute the final word 'meaningless' for 'inconsequential'.

[jomifl]

/Chuck in a quote from a cracker-barrel humorist-philosopher for emphasis and the simple-minded might think you are really smart -/
It doesnt work for you Khandro, why should it work for anyone else.

[Khandro]

jomifl; err.. example please

[jomifl]

Have you forgotten already?

[Hypognosis]

@Khandro

//
"God exists".
"God does not exist".
//

Two logical opposites, as far as some of us are concerned ("it's a binary situation").

Also, a neat example of what "null hypothesis" means. Experimental design seeks firm data with which to disprove the null hypothesis (to 90% confidence level) and thus support adoption of the 'actual' hypothesis.

Mind you, try defining parameters for disproving a deity and see if you can satisfy *anyone*, without squabbling.

Some theists decline to accept most of biology, particularly in its support for the hypothesis of evolution, whereas many scientists take the sum total of the fossil record, comparative biology, behavioural studies, genetic analysis of hard-to-split confuseable species and molecular biology as *way* above their threshold for the stance (offensively described by some as "a belief") that a deity does not exist.

We can do things and make predictions with hypotheses and theories; with god we can't do anything useful or practical, like predicting behaviour. All we can do is pray that the unpredictable creature does not spot us or harm us.

Note: prayer will always give the appearance of working but that's only because those who prayed but died anyway are not around to report their findings. There are a tragic number of prayerful types at the bottom of the Med, just now. (I'd give med crab a miss for the next year or three).

[DaisyNonna]

How other people think and react has to be interesting if we are to understand each other

[Hypognosis]

* to 95% confidence level

(of all the things to typo!)

[jomifl]

I lean towards the idea that total absolutes are a human construct and that in reality everything is shades of grey. Black is really very dark grey and white is very light grey. This reasoning allows for the existence of god ...but a very small one who hasn't done very much and almost certainly not all the things claimed for him/her . Then we come to(thanks to another thread) the question of which toilets god uses (If god made mankind in his image then was he/she/it a hermaphrodite)...but the answer to that question is for others to ponder.