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With regard to claims about Life, The Universe, and Everything, I am an Apistevist, this means, basically, that I follow a few, very simple rules to weed out woo in my life.

  1. Lex Parsimoniae (AKA Occam's Razor) - In the absence of compelling, testable evidence to the contrary, the most parsimonious explanation for something, the one that involves the fewest steps and least complexity, should be assumed to be correct.

  2. Nullia in Verbis (nothing by word) - Any claim that is made just on the word of someone, or on the word of an anonymous person or group (e.g.: "Scientists say..." ), in the absence of evidence to support it, has no value for understanding.

  3. Sagan's Law - Positive claims require positive evidence; Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The further from the Null hypothesis, or the Parsimonious answer a claim is, the more evidence it requires.

  4. Hitchens' Razor - That which is asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence. This follows from the first 4 principles.

Using these principles, I called BS on an article of woo 3 days ago, and, after spending that time showing why it was BS, the poster blocked me on Facebook.

Mweens 4 Dec 17
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8 comments

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2

what you see is what you know [ for certain ]

2

Well you’re no fun 😉 facebook’s difficult, it’s like ..how many friends and family members do you want to lose or alienate..? Your level of skepticism would likely strip most bare, and they’ll hate you for it. But I love it.

Varn Level 8 Dec 17, 2017
3

You won't get blocked here. This is truly a Freethinker site. Thank you for sharing.

2

Valid and workable rules!

1

Whoa! I'm just an agnostic. Simple me. You the man... go get them.

2

you need to go on Facebook less it is teaming with idiots.

4

been there, done that , been blocked too. When you get too close to shattering or explaining away someone's long held belief. they tend to ignore you, tune you out, block you rather than accept and deal with a fundamental shift in their perception of reality. Most people don't want enlightenment. They prefer the rigidity of dogma. I don't get it. I crave new ideas.

2
  1. Actions have consequences.
skado Level 9 Dec 17, 2017
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