My Beliefs [Trollville]
I'm new here and I just wanted to introduce myself. I do not adhere to the belief of Karma, any "perilous missions" to rescue humanity on behalf of a particular deity, superstitions, dogma, Law of Attraction, Ego, Satan, Christ, or God; yet I do believe in the existence of an After Life, reincarnation, and spirit beings. All the drama, chaos, and violence in the world can be attributed to the unawareness of one's own subjectivity. I later discovered that Albert Ellis, grandfather of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), illustrated this philosophy through his work so I am also a big fan of his.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
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If you peruse the links, you'll actually find that philosophy is quite objective in the nature of the arguments employed. I suspect you have never studied the subject formally. What I am trying to tell you is that your argument is invalid. Even if we were to accept a premise that a particular concept can be "multi-interpretable" (which isn't a word), there is no conclusion which can be drawn from that premise which could be used to defend any one particular belief about the nature of reality. You cannot use it to defend your beliefs. I cannot use it to defend mine. It is a vacuous premise. The other thing I am trying to tell you is that two people having different positions on a particular issue does not necessarily imply that the two individuals have equally valid but subjective reasoning of the situation. To say that would be a fallacy of false dichotomy. Your argument is broken. It contains three fallacies and a vacuous premise.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
He's right. There is objective evidence to suggest (from the various disciplines of psychology) that anecdotal evidence is fundamentally untrustworthy. Any proposition about the nature of reality based on anecdotal evidence usually contains something called a post hoc fallacy. Sort of like claiming that a particular drug works because after you ingested it, your symptoms disappeared. Because anecdotal evidence never contains a method for determining the mechanism behind some phenomenon under discussion, it runs into a problem called underdetermination. To test whether a medium is telling the truth, for example, is quite easy. In The Enemies of Reason, Richard Dawkins went to talk to a medium. He easily tricked him into revealing the fact that his communication was a scam. For example, he allowed the medium to run on with the notion that he was communicating with Dawkins dead father, despite the fact that Dawkin's father is still alive. The medium had merely inferred that Dawkin's father is dead from Dawkin's age. This sort of test is immediate and objective proof that the medium in question was a scam. It would require similar testing conditions (double blind) to test whether a medium is actually telling the truth.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
Hmm. I suppose it is word. I stand corrected.
Doesn't change the fact that your argument is invalid.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
Petitio Principii or Begging the question - This is a common fallacy wherein your evidence in support of an argument presupposed that you have already accepted the argument, or requires that you have. Example: The case example of begging the question is arguing the validity of the bible using evidence contained within the bible. In order for the evidence to be acceptable, you have to have already concluded that the bible is valid.
I'm trying to tell you that I recognize this so I don't see the point in PROVING myself and I don't see the point in you trying to PROVE something to me either. It's purely subjective. You're assuming that YOUR evidence is gonna readily eclipse my beliefs but you are not taking into account subjectivity. You showed me some of your evidence and I still don't agree because of my own experiences. How is this so hard to comprehend???
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
You have yet to outline precisely what these are. Nor do you need to copy and paste. I studied logic as a formal subject and a branch of mathematics. I know what begging the question is. You have yet to show me where I have assumed a particular thing is true in order to prove it is true.
I am not trying to explain to you why you should have to prove yourself to me. I am trying to explain to you why a propositition cannot be defended on the grounds that two people draw different conclusions about the same issue of contention. I'm also trying to explain to you why this does not necessarily lead to the idea that the two people in question have equally valid albeit subjective views. I have already outlined why this is fallacious. Why is this so difficult to comprehend? Your argument:
Premise: It is possible, in an issue of contention, to have two people draw differeing conclusions, where both people cite differing evidence
Conclusion: It follows that both forms of reasoning are equally valid albeit subjective
I'm trying to explain to you why this is a fallacy of false dichotomy and an ad hoc fallacy. This is extremely simple. What can I do to get you to see this?
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
I already grasp the concept. I am trying to communicate to you that any argument which takes this form "I have my evidence, and you have mine, so we have subjective reasoning and equally valid interpretations" is invalid. There is a basic axiom of bivalent formal logic called the law of non-contradiction, which states that a proposition cannot be simultaneously true and false. So, either I am right, or you are. From a purely psychological standpoint, the evidence I offer is more trustworthy, because subjective experiences have an untrustworthy component, whereas the evidence I offer is entirely based on things which can be confirmed independantly and falsifiably, independant of such experiences. Additionally, we still run into the problem of underdetermination. That is, the problem of drawing conclusions about reality on the basis of anecdote.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
I understand that it is possible for two people to draw differing conclusions. But it does not follow that the sets of opposing arguments are equally valid or true. Neither side of the argument can argue that their proposition is just as valid as the other because people are subjective! That's a form of ad hoc fallacy.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
Specifically, what are those experiences? and how do they refute evidence?
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
Logically, DG's opinion is undoubtedly stronger because it relies on objective evidence and testable observations. Arj's subjective evidence is undoubtedly sufficient to convince him of his beliefs, but they are not valid from a scientific standpoint.
However, if Arj truly believes he has communicated with people in the afterlife, it would be insane for him change his opinions due to an Internet forum. Thus, it is irrational to hold that these two perspectives are equally valid; however, it is not irrational for Arj to hold his beliefs at this time. He should thoroughly investigate these experiences for their validity.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Let me think of one. I had so many. I had a vision in which my grandmother came to me right after my uncle had gotten remarried. She said this would lead to his downfall. On Valentine's Day he was murdered by his son because of this marriage.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
True but irrelevant. There are rational criteria for deciding what is a rational basis for deciding whether some proposition is true. These include correspondence theory, coherence theory, etc. Ultimately, these are based on purely logical argument, and purely logical argument (ie a priori) are based entirely on formal statements which are necessarily true. Anything which can be defend on purely logical grounds has no subjective component whatsoever, because it derives from purely analytical statements. Furthermore, "objective" does have a precise definition. For example, something which cannot be independently verified is by definition less objective than something which can. That's what the word "objective" means. Something which is "objective" is irrespective of individual people or their particular experiences which other people cannot have.
So? That wouldn't constitute a defense of your arguments or an attack on mine. You've commited a circumstantial ad hominem fallacy. T
You haven't clarified where, precisely, I am begging the question.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
That's all I'm saying.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
Fine. At this point I'm not trying to convince you that life after death doesn't happen etc. I am trying to convince you that the fact that two people draw differing conclusions does not necessarily mean that the two opinions are equally valid, which is pretty much what you argued.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
First of all, we don't care if you've arrived at this forum to debate or not. I think someone stated this earlier. A quick glance at the main page will verify that the main objective of this forum is to dispel irrational beliefs. If you're intention is to engage in a pleasant, informal gossip, then this is not the website for you.
No, you still don't understand DG's explanation of the difference between his objective and your subjective evidence. His "schooling" and "training" caused him to arrive at his conclusions, but that doesn't mean it's subjective. Neuroscience is falsifiable, observable, testable, everything "able."
-I have seen a ghost. This is subjective. What if it was shadow created by a passing car? What if it was somebody was playing a prank on me? Etc.
-There is no reliable scientific evidence that ghosts exist. This is objective, not personal experience.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
You know Arj, I've had similar experiences (one or two) where outcomes seemed to be projected to me, but I had to put it down to wishful thinking or just sheer coincedence. But like I said, very few experiences to warrant any other conclusion. If, on the other hand this happens to you regularly you should subject yourself to some sort of study. Aren't you curious? don't you want to know why?Don't you want to understand and harness the power?
That doesn't make it relevant.
Where?
Fine.
If only that were true.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
Amen.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
It certainly sounded like you were. You clearly stated that I was employing subjective reasoning, despite the fact that I was not. The reasoning I was employing was grounded in forms of evidence that are testable, falsifiable, and can be verified independantly, thus they are objective forms of reasoning.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
Ok, DG, Ezc, and Butter, let me ask you a question. Since yall are here. Why do you desire to completely rule out supernatural plausibility??? I'm curious.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
I'm getting the feeling that Arj has already accepted our explanations, but he tends to avoid expressing it explicitly because it puts his perspective on shaky ground.
Clearly, he's implying that we discount his experiences because of our personal bias.
However, when I said.
He agreed.
??????????????
Apparently, the matter has already been settled, and the entire second half of the thread is only a matter of miscommunication due to the fact that Arj will not admit his fallacies on nature of evidence.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
As for me, it is not a desire. It is simply not evident! Your experience is just not enough.
Because I don't consider it to be conceptually meaningful. The reasons for this are outlined in this thread below. Have a read of this link, and note the discussion between me, Topher, Hamby and Thom on the first page:
Does incoherence/meaningless lead to strong atheism, or non-cognitivism?
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
Supernatural
1. of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
2. of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or attributed to God or a deity.
3. of a superlative degree; preternatural: a missile of supernatural speed.
4. of, pertaining to, or attributed to ghosts, goblins, or other unearthly beings; eerie; occult.
By definition, supernatural is something that is "unexplainable by natural law or phenomena." If we could prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that something is true, then, almost by definition, that event or process wouldn't be supernatural.
But, then, I'm just playing with semantics.
My answer is, I don't rule out supernatural plausibility. I just haven't observed any good reason to believe in anything that is considered supernatural.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
I'm starting to have a greater appreciation for the way people think in this forum. It's different.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
Interesting. When you say different, what is this forum different to? What way of thinking are you used to?
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
Of course, as a child I was told there was a god, a devil, a heaven and a hell an everything else in between (catholics). Needless to say I spent a great deal of my childhood in abject fear of not being able to please this insaitable god. Thankfully when the time came, as it does with everyone, where my powers of reason could challenge my powers of belief, it became a no brainer. I simply could no longer hold on to Dogma. It was a liberating experience to say the least, from that point on it's been a journey of discovery. A tenable understanding of my place in this world.
I will be honest DG. My preconceived notion was, with knowledge comes maturity I see I was wrong. Atheists feel they have just as much to prove as the religious zealots. It takes wisdom to see differently.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
I will be honest DG. My preconceived notion was, with knowledge comes maturity I see I was wrong. Atheists feel they have just as much to prove as the religious zealots. It takes wisdom to see differently.
y r my posts posting twice?
I will add scripture nor science can teach you that.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
And what did you see which contradicted that notion?
What on earth are you talking about? Religious zealots don't feel like they have to prove anything. That's why they're called religious zealots! Because they hold to their beliefs without proof (or in many cases, in spite of proof to the contrary). Feeling that you have something to prove can be a good trait, and is certainly not mutually exclusive to maturity.
Pray tell, what is this wisdom of which you speak?
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
*Facepalms*
He was giving a hypothetical example about the problematic nature of anecdotal evidence.
I don't think anyone could meaningfully draw any evidence from the claims you presented. They are too subjective to be meaningfully evaluated by anyone else. It would be like if I told you I saw a ghost. This would require a major upheaval in one's understanding of the nature of reality. From an epistemological standpoint, such an upheavel cannot be rationally made on the basis of someone else's highly subjective anecdotal experience.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
Are you overlooking my point about Observer bias?
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
Definitions of observer bias on the Web:
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178
Even Butta said it:
Realistically, that mentality goes BOTH ways. I ALREADY KNOW that.
‘Cause you keep tellin’ me this and tellin’ me that...You say once I’m with you, I’ll never go back... You say there’s a lesson that you wanna teach.... Well, here I am, baby, practice what you preach...
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/15726?page=9#comment-206178