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THE FLAWED EPISTEMOLOGY

It seems an obvious hypocrisy to me that there are pundits who can't understand why people believe the lies regarding the election and pandemic/vaccine when there is no evidence of either lie having any merit, but those same pundits can understand why someone can believe in a god (and some profess to do so themselves) without a shred of credible evidence to support that concept either.

Republican die hards and vaccine deniers use an epistemology that excludes the necessity for evidence and a denial of science. Their epistemology is "justified in their minds" because powerful and influential people respect and give credibility to their belief in a god without evidence so why should they need to provide evidence for their beliefs about other things like the denial of science?

redbai 8 Sep 1
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13 comments

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0

I like the idea of bringing epistemology discussion into the mainstream here, but your post confuses me on this point:

those "... who can't understand why people believe the lies regarding the election and pandemic/vaccine when there is no evidence of either lie having any merit...."

are not necessarily "Republicans"

kmaz Level 7 Sep 8, 2021
0

Question to both believers and non? Would you be more or less anxious in a plane if you knew that the pilot was a devout Christian? Then ask the same question if the pilot was Muslim?

I don't think I'd care either way unless someone could demonstrate it's relevant to their skillset.

@redbai What the idea that someone thinks everyone gets more than just this life when they have yours in their hands does not trouble you? How about a pilot expecting the rapture any day now? Better still in terms of relevance to US politics, a Senator dealing with climate change legislation or Israel?

@273kelvin I'm not concerned with the pilot unless they start ranting over the intercom that something was going to happen because of their belief, so my answer wouldn't change in that regard. Politicians are a whole different matter. The fact that they make decisions based on their belief system is exactly the kind of thing I brought the subject up for discussion.

@redbai Under 99% of most circumstances, it probably would not matter. But if there was a chance in 100 that a believing pilot would stop doing/thinking of, all that they could to save the aeroplane and start to pray? Then sorry but I would have to go for the atheist every time.

@273kelvin I'd like to point out that atheist was not an option in your first comment. If you had I would have pointed out that I agree.

@redbai I thought I kind of implied that with "More or less anxious"

@273kelvin I didn't read an implication of atheism anywhere in the comment. I inferred it to mean a christian or muslim as opposed to some other religion or no religion. Given that there are theists with no religion I inferred it to mean religious beliefs not whether or not there was a god. I, by default, to separate religion and belief in a god.

@redbai The question was; "Would you be more or less anxious in a plane if you knew that the pilot was a devout Christian/Muslim? Sure atheism was mentioned specifically but if the pilot was not a believer then what would they be? The obvious point of the question is - believing pilot or non-believing pilot because if the fact that a believing pilot causes you any increased anxiety? Then the alternative is obviously atheist.

@273kelvin It was apparently not as obvious as you believe. If you had said, "Would you be more or less anxious in a plain if you know the pilot was a devout theist?" instead of listing religions, you might have a point. But as I said before, religions are not gods and it is entirely possible to be a theist and not follow any religion at all. Deists believe in a god but have no religious affiliation were they also supposed to be assumed in your question?

@redbai Ffs do you guys really need several court hearings and a supreme court judgement every time to dot all the "I" s? It was a broad stroke question: Are theists less responsible with others lives than atheists? Okay, it was couched in terms that a theist could readily understand but that was deliberate.

@273kelvin "It was a broad stroke question: Are theists less responsible with others lives than atheists?"

That was not the question. The original question was couched in a religious context and atheism wasn't even implied.

@redbai Logical progression; If a theist pilot makes you more nervous, then it would de facto mean that you would be less nervous with an atheist one wouldn't it mmmm? It is implied in the question.

@273kelvin I again note that you've changed the question to one of theism vs atheism again where in the original question that was not the comparison. If that had been the original question this dialog wouldn't have even occurred. You seem to not understand that religion =/= theism.

1

Some time back it got more stupid when they put their god in a different dimension in order to protect him from smart assed scientific theorists. God could jump back and forth between his dimension and ours without being detected. This begged the question of how did anyone in our dimension know of such a god in the first place.

Right. It also begs the question, why would an all powerful creator "need" to hide from his hapless human creations? If God feels the need to hide, why then command humans to believe in said God and obey commands cryptically meted out by fallable human clerics and prophets. Why not present self in grand, undeniable fashion and spell out what he wants for us and from us?
The entire paradigm is childish shit.

2

They would claim (and do) that there is plenty of evidence. Their childish evidence is that every coincidence is proof of God; everything they don't understand the basic mechanisms of is proof of God. 🙄

1

You can't cure stupid.

2

Sadly it is a feed back loop, because of course a lot of those "powerful and influential people" got to be that way by being successful at pedaling lies.

If more people fall for your tricks, then the more successful you become, and if those people equate worldly success with morality and truth, then the more they are likely to believe you, which breeds more success, which makes you more credible in more peoples eyes, and so on.

Where rationalists, and professions like scientists, who work long and hard to extract every small grain of truth, and then try to show a healthy level of sceptical judgment to even their best works, are never going to sell many delusions for much profit.

3

Ignorance is bliss.

3

Please thank 100 years of Creationism.

8

On the other side of the coin, these same folks say they won’t wear a mask because they refuse to live in fear, yet give 20% of their paychecks to the church for fear they will burn in a fictitious hellfire.....🤨

3

Science denying die hards should be denied use of anything related to science. No healthcare, no dentistry, no cell phones, no cars, no TV, no Internet, and so on. Without the science behind technology we would have no technology. Pharmacological technology is no different. It is based on science, and the deniers of this should be made to suffer the consequences of their science denial, across-the-board, without exception. Let them all become Amish! 😀

There are a decent amount of Amish living in my area. Even the old timers carry some type of phone nowadays.

@Tejas Cheaters! 😉

4

They believe the lies because it gives them false comfortand something simple they can cling to

But why do they believe them without evidence? Doesn't it make sense that if it's okay to believe in god without any real evidence it's okay to believe in other things without evidence - thus defining the flawed epistemology?

@redbai its in their comfort zone and level of intelligence

@redbai Most people believe what they want to believe, and not what they don’t....Religious people desperately want to believe they are special and above everything else....

3

You aren't wrong.

4

Hopefully covid will thin the herd of republics and anti vaxxers.

Doing a good job as we speak!!

@Reneckliberal 1-2% mortality can scarcely be called thinning the herd. Worse, those that recovere are MORE cognitively impaired at 10-25%. If you can tell.

@racocn8 in florida it was reconed that 4% of voting republicans are victoms of covid... Thining the herd?!!... Its a start

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