[lbo-talk] An Appeal to Ignorance

[Jeffrey Fisher]

On 6/16/05, ravi <gadfly at exitleft.org> wrote:
> On 16/06/2005 11:09 AM, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
> >
> > conversely, try proving that there's no god. go ahead. in an ethics
> > class once, i was trying to explain this, and one of my true believers
> > said, "you can't prove there's gravity, either". i picked up the desk
> > in front of me and dropped it back to the floor: "there's gravity.
> > next question?" of course, he had neither an answer not another
> > question. then i said, "so do the same for me for god"? and of course,
> > it can't be done.
> >
> 
> hmm... i (admittedly not the brightest bulb) don't get this. what if the
> student had picked up the book off the ground and put it back on the
> table, or perhaps dropped it back on the floor, and claimed that as
> proof of god? what sort of proof is this kind of thing?
> 
> confused,

he wasn't that stupid. actually, he was one of the smartest kids in
the class. used to talk circles around everyone else, and set them up
a mile off and they couldn't tell he was doing it.

well, what would it mean to "not believe in" gravity?

if we agree that things we drop falling to earth suggests that
(practically speaking) our idea that some more or less "universal"
"law", which we refer to for the sake of simplicity as "gravity",
accounts for the repeatable downward motion (and this student clearly
agreed to that), where do we then have analogous empirical evidence of
god? well, nowhere.

that's all.

i mean, yes, this is all very coarse and hackneyed (and YES
problematic at deeper philosophical levels). but so was his argument,
which was that "we can't prove that there's no god" doesn't matter
since "we can't prove there's gravity, either". that's crap. bad
science. bad philosophy. bad logic.

j

-- 
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Among medieval and modern philosophers, anxious to establish
the religious significance of God, an unfortunate habit has prevailed
of paying to Him metaphysical compliments.

  - Alfred North Whitehead