Sunday, October 30, 2011

Like Your Mother Said, Don't Jump Off That Cliff

This article about William Lane Craig points out something people who try and prove something without proof often do and I also find maddening: Simply claim that too many other people agree to have the assertion be false.

Deepak Chopra is another good example of someone who does this. It's a common tactic whereby people name-drop and quote-mine others, dead and alive, to try and claim their garbage isn't.

When I see this kind of thing I'm always reminded of something all of us heard from our mothers: "If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" Old and simple wisdom is sometimes all we need to defy nonsense.

If pure numbers counted as proof, then Aristotle would still be taught in medical schools. All it takes is one new piece of valid and verifiable evidence to overturn a very large majority.

To argue majority opinion is valid based on that one fact is to argue nothing at all.

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