Open-mindedness

Kinky Enigma
Kinky Enigma Members Posts: 4
edited June 2010 in The Social Lounge

"I don't believe X" does not mean "X can not be true".

The video makes a good point... it is not a virtue to be easily persuaded by others. In other words, it's not a virtue to believe things without evidence.

I also liked the contradiction example, lack of explanation = supernatural powers is like saying "I can't explain something therefore I can explain it."


Thoughts?

Comments

  • BiblicalAtheist
    BiblicalAtheist Members Posts: 15,668 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2010
    Excellent video. I wish more people would be open minded to receive what it's saying lol.
  • shootemwon
    shootemwon Members Posts: 4,635 ✭✭
    edited June 2010
    The video specifically address science and belief in ? /supernatural things, but the threadstarter's conclusion "it's not a virtue to believe things without evidence" should be applied to many things.

    In today's political dialogue, many are guilty of these logical fallacies. It's sad that one very successful tactic in today's political debates is to make asserts with no proof, and then repeat them until many believe it to be proven fact.

    Here's an example:

    The government needs to stop spending so much, and they need to stop right now. The national debt is the most serious economic issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
    But wait, in an economic recession, increased government spending has been shown to get the economy back on track. Government spending cuts during a recession have usually lead to further recession.
    Working families have to cut back their spending cause of the economy, so the government needs to be do the same thing!
    Huh? How does that make sense?
    If the debt gets any bigger, we'll be ruined!
    What makes you so sure of-
    LOOK AT GREECE! Their debt was high and now they're in shambles. That means the same thing will happen here!
    Well, there are more factors to look at. For one, the inflexibility of the Eur-
    YOU CAN'T JUST KEEP SPENDING! YOU'RE STEALING FROM OUR FUTURE GRANDCHILDREN!!!!!!!

    Now, I don't want to make this thread a debate on the debt, though I'd love to have that conversation in another thread. But my point is that we can't have a real debate on anything these days because hysteria and "truthiness", or knowing something to be true because you can "feel it" has taken over our national dialogue.
  • shootemwon
    shootemwon Members Posts: 4,635 ✭✭
    edited June 2010
    I also liked the contradiction example, lack of explanation = supernatural powers is like saying "I can't explain something therefore I can explain it."

    Yeah, thats a good one. If science has yet to find an explanation of one thing, all of science is debunked. If religious kooks can't explain something, it proves that they're right, because ? does unexplainable things.