Comment on big facts

• lime@feddit.nu ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  the atheist says “i will not believe”. the agnostic says “i can not believe”. one is as dogmatic as the beliefs they purport to refute, the other lacks the capacity for dogma, as belief for them is simply not possible.

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  • MalReynolds@slrpnk.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’m willing to accept Atheism, ‘I do not believe in God’, as somewhat dogmatic, but as others have said, it’s the null hypothesis and they have Occam’s razor going for them. Pragmatically it is a useful stance in light of the societal harm religion does.

    I am however unwilling to conflate Agnosticism with ‘I can not believe’, always been “I’m waiting for evidence one way or the other” to me, so perhaps the more scientific point of view.

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    • cynar@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It’s not 3 points, but 4.

      Atheist==>Theist Agnostic==>gnostic

      There are agnostic atheists and agnostic theists.

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    • lime@feddit.nu ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      to me, those last two statements are pretty close in the grand scheme of things. it was allegorical anyway, since we weren’t really talking about god.

      if there is no proof one way or the other, the pragmatic stance is to be neutral. if one side is more theoretically sound, the pragmatic stance is to assume that’s the correct side while still being open to the other. only when there’s proof of one side can you dismuss the other. none of those steps require “belief”, i.e. unfounded assumptions.

      as an aside, personally i feel like religion is one of those issues where there is proof.

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  • cynar@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Belief in a null is a lot more reasonable than belief in something so powerful it can pretend to be a null.

    Belief that I am not in a Truman show like environment is a lot more reasonable (without evidence) than belief that I am in a Truman show, and they are doing a perfect job.

    That doesn’t mean I don’t try disproving the null hypothesis.

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    • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I don’t think reasonable is even it, it’s just a helpful assumption.

      If “they” are doing a perfect job, there’s nothing you can do, so you might as well assume they’re not and play your role.

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      • cynar@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        It’s more reasonable via Occam’s razor (more complexity is less reasonable, when everything else is equal). However it is still just a belief axiom. You have to assume 1 holds.

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    • lime@feddit.nu ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      a hypothesis based on established facts is no longer belief but extrapolation.

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      • cynar@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        It’s an assumption, not an extrapolation. Assumptions, without evidence are beliefs.

        We assume several unprovable axioms to allow science to function. A lot of work has also been done to collapse them down to the core minimum. What is left is still built on belief.

        The fact that the results are useful back validates those beliefs. It doesn’t prove them however.

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