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A question from a new jw

BilliardsBall

Veteran Member
Uh, all other religions?
Also most believers do not know any historicity facts and the ones that do and still believe are just using confirmation bias.
I listened to several scholars debate Carrier to see if they had any good points. Basically they would quote scripture and Carrier would explain why scripture isn't historical and they would say one of these:
"well I don't agree, lets move on"
"but the scripture says"
I'm not so sure, let's just move on"

it was interesting to actually see where the disconnect was. They just cannot except the idea that these are mythic stories and they will not allow their minds to go there.
However, also to your point, on the Atheist Experience with Matt Dillentaugy people call in all the time and say they were strict Christians and once they started listening to the show, hearing faulty arguments and doing research they became 100% non-believers.

Many other call and say they are sure it's not real but are having trouble leaving the church for social, family and traditional reasons. So many people do hear the facts and realize the church has been telling them a false version of history.

Also - ALL scholarship believe Jesus was a man who was later mythicized into a demi-god except the PhDs who support the full mythicist theory.
So really no one in history believes "despite the facts". They learn the facts and realize their religion is one of many myths.

Each specialist in each area in the field considers religion myth. Mark Goodacre (Q gospel),
Elaine Pagels (Gnostic gospels), R Purvoe (Acts), Bart Ehrman (life of Jesus), Thompson (Moses) and so on. This "vast majority" you speak of is simply not the case.

Besides a few scholars the vast majority of criticisms against Carrier on his videos on youtube are people who are ad-hom masters. No one is saying anything about his facts?
Except one video where amateurs try to deny his historical sources explaining other savior gods. But I followed their line of evidence and they were not telling the truth? Why would Carrier lie about source material, his peers would just catch it and call him on it.

You are also wrong about Roswell. I've had arguments with many people who knew all the facts yet still insisted it was real. Most Roswell people know all the facts and somehow when the word "considerable scotch tape" comes up they just hide it away and focus on things that back up their version. You would think it would be easy.
I've shown people the exact quotes from Mat Brazle the rancher, tape, balsa wood, rubber, no metal, foil.....
He clearly found no bodies or ship. So, some people said Brazle was intimidated by the military to lie. Some say "well why did the military do a cover-up" or "why did this or that..." they go off on different lines of evidence and will not consider that the ufo story was made up in the 1970s.

Beliefs do not make something true. Actually, even more important is a Harvard Professor said in a TED talk, you cannot change peoples beliefs with facts. He had research to back this up. You have to give them a way out, explain they had limited/faulty information and allow it to slowly digest.
Facts do not matter when someone makes a belief part of their identity.

I have a degree in Religion from a secular university and comprehend the theorizing you've posted here.

Several hundred individuals interact with Jesus in the NT, putting individual trust in Jesus for salvation.

Jesus impacted Earth more than any other person, with 1/3 of Earth self-identifying as Christian and another 1/3, Islam, claiming Him as sinless prophet and Lord of Judgment Day.

Do you have something other than "99% of people believe in a god DESPITE the facts we all have" or is God the only UNIVERSAL DELUSION you can think of?
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
I have a degree in Religion from a secular university and comprehend the theorizing you've posted here.

Stop talking about your degree. It means nothing, no one cares, it has no bearing on a debate and you stiull believe myths are true. We already know people can have degrees and still have confirmation bias. Are you aware that there are millions of people with degrees higher than yours yet are still Hindu? Hinduism is a religion you believe is not real. Yet people with PhD degrees of all types still consider it true. Same with many other religions.
So having a degree has no bearing on any personal religious beliefs being true.
However I do trust scholarship because they generally employ the scientific method and relies on finding from all PhD researchers in the field.
Historicity PhDs all believe religion is mythology.

Several hundred individuals interact with Jesus in the NT, putting individual trust in Jesus for salvation.
Yes, in a fictional story written by anonymous authors copying mystery savior god religions and making a Jewish version.
Should we count how many people interact with Harry Potter and use that as a guide to deciding if it's a real story?

Jesus impacted Earth more than any other person, with 1/3 of Earth self-identifying as Christian and another 1/3, Islam, claiming Him as sinless prophet and Lord of Judgment Day.

So? How does that relate to the truth of a story? Hint, it doesn't. There are billions of Hindu and other religious types that by your own beliefs are believing in false gods. As well as all the civilizations before Christianity who also believed in false gods. Billions of people who believed things about gods that were completely false.
Yet you still think peoples beliefs suggest a myth is true?
This is the part that shows your degree is meaningless. Believing a religion is one thing but not understanding that popular appeal is not a marker for truth shows a serious lack.
You're flaunting some degree around yet you can't get past a fallacy to popular appeal?

Yes, myths impact people, in fact myths have ALWAYS IMPACTED THE MAJORITY OF HUMANS. Joseph Campbell proved this in his works The Power of Myth and Hero With 1000 Faces.

There is no question that mythology is humanities most sacred tool for communicating wisdom and impacting peoples lives. That is why. The mystery religions savior demi-gods are a particular favorite and it resonate with people. Why do you think the Matrix is so popular?
But we already know Christianity wasn't really that popular until Rome adopted it and made it law then the church enforced it and wiped out any reference to other similar religions and any evidence of contradictory gospels. The secret is already out.
That particular religion won out and in the dark ages people needed some religion. Considering those facts popular appeal has zero bearing on the truth of a story.
It's a terrible argument.

Do you have something other than "99% of people believe in a god DESPITE the facts we all have" or is God the only UNIVERSAL DELUSION you can think of?

How can so many things be wrong in just one sentence?
First most people actually don't have the facts.The actual host of Atheist Experience Matt Dillenhaty was actually a minister for 30 years. People call the show every week and say they had never been exposed to the actual facts and are grateful to be free from lies.
Second, this isn't about "god". There may be a god. No one is saying there cannot be a god. Atheists are saying it isn't Odin.
Also it's not Zeus. Also it's not Yahweh.
Many people who believe in god still do not believe in religious mythology. They just hope there is some sort of afterlife and some creator.
You can't just co-opt people who believe in "god" and make them all on your side. That's another fallacy.
Just as you yourself say Krishna is not a real demi-god (he's a son of a god too) many of these god believers do not believe your stories of revelations and magic abilities are real. You do not get to pretend like all beliefs, hopes and concepts of "god" have anything to do with one mystery religion being real.

Again, almost every single person I meet here in the northeast believes in some type of higher power but believes religion is just stories, all equal in fictional metaphors.
So you don't get to claim god believers as all in your camp.

Third, there are many universal "delusions". Most you already know about and are using confirmation bias to somehow forget because it must make your argument stronger in your mind I guess?
But most people believe ghosts are real to some degree, same with psychics and many other things that if they looked into with an actual open mind they would see there is no evidence and lots of lies, hoaxes and exaggerations/embellishments.

Next, these are not delusions. Is children believing Santa Clause a delusion? No, people tell them he is real. If one grows up in a religious community they may only ever get apologetics as facts. In fact many people convert after encountering the actual facts. Of course some are not willing and simply deny what evidence says and use silly fallacies and similar to continue belief. I don't think even that is a delusion? Using confirmation bias to only see facts that support your beliefs isn't really a delusion.
I thought some type of ESP was probably real for a long time. Eventually I read about studies the military did and there actual findings (rather than 2nd hand reports that bent the truth) and compared skeptics essays with pro-ESP literature and various other lines of evidence and realized the evidence is terrible for any of it being real.
I had just read to many new-age books and articles that played up/lied, exaggerated or focused only on certain positive aspects and avoided anything else.
The fact that you want to even frame it as a delusion is suspect. By over emphasizing the negative and exaggerating what I'm saying your trying to make it seem absurd. Another fallacy really.
 

BilliardsBall

Veteran Member
Stop talking about your degree. It means nothing, no one cares, it has no bearing on a debate and you stiull believe myths are true. We already know people can have degrees and still have confirmation bias. Are you aware that there are millions of people with degrees higher than yours yet are still Hindu? Hinduism is a religion you believe is not real. Yet people with PhD degrees of all types still consider it true. Same with many other religions.
So having a degree has no bearing on any personal religious beliefs being true.
However I do trust scholarship because they generally employ the scientific method and relies on finding from all PhD researchers in the field.
Historicity PhDs all believe religion is mythology.


Yes, in a fictional story written by anonymous authors copying mystery savior god religions and making a Jewish version.
Should we count how many people interact with Harry Potter and use that as a guide to deciding if it's a real story?



So? How does that relate to the truth of a story? Hint, it doesn't. There are billions of Hindu and other religious types that by your own beliefs are believing in false gods. As well as all the civilizations before Christianity who also believed in false gods. Billions of people who believed things about gods that were completely false.
Yet you still think peoples beliefs suggest a myth is true?
This is the part that shows your degree is meaningless. Believing a religion is one thing but not understanding that popular appeal is not a marker for truth shows a serious lack.
You're flaunting some degree around yet you can't get past a fallacy to popular appeal?

Yes, myths impact people, in fact myths have ALWAYS IMPACTED THE MAJORITY OF HUMANS. Joseph Campbell proved this in his works The Power of Myth and Hero With 1000 Faces.

There is no question that mythology is humanities most sacred tool for communicating wisdom and impacting peoples lives. That is why. The mystery religions savior demi-gods are a particular favorite and it resonate with people. Why do you think the Matrix is so popular?
But we already know Christianity wasn't really that popular until Rome adopted it and made it law then the church enforced it and wiped out any reference to other similar religions and any evidence of contradictory gospels. The secret is already out.
That particular religion won out and in the dark ages people needed some religion. Considering those facts popular appeal has zero bearing on the truth of a story.
It's a terrible argument.



How can so many things be wrong in just one sentence?
First most people actually don't have the facts.The actual host of Atheist Experience Matt Dillenhaty was actually a minister for 30 years. People call the show every week and say they had never been exposed to the actual facts and are grateful to be free from lies.
Second, this isn't about "god". There may be a god. No one is saying there cannot be a god. Atheists are saying it isn't Odin.
Also it's not Zeus. Also it's not Yahweh.
Many people who believe in god still do not believe in religious mythology. They just hope there is some sort of afterlife and some creator.
You can't just co-opt people who believe in "god" and make them all on your side. That's another fallacy.
Just as you yourself say Krishna is not a real demi-god (he's a son of a god too) many of these god believers do not believe your stories of revelations and magic abilities are real. You do not get to pretend like all beliefs, hopes and concepts of "god" have anything to do with one mystery religion being real.

Again, almost every single person I meet here in the northeast believes in some type of higher power but believes religion is just stories, all equal in fictional metaphors.
So you don't get to claim god believers as all in your camp.

Third, there are many universal "delusions". Most you already know about and are using confirmation bias to somehow forget because it must make your argument stronger in your mind I guess?
But most people believe ghosts are real to some degree, same with psychics and many other things that if they looked into with an actual open mind they would see there is no evidence and lots of lies, hoaxes and exaggerations/embellishments.

Next, these are not delusions. Is children believing Santa Clause a delusion? No, people tell them he is real. If one grows up in a religious community they may only ever get apologetics as facts. In fact many people convert after encountering the actual facts. Of course some are not willing and simply deny what evidence says and use silly fallacies and similar to continue belief. I don't think even that is a delusion? Using confirmation bias to only see facts that support your beliefs isn't really a delusion.
I thought some type of ESP was probably real for a long time. Eventually I read about studies the military did and there actual findings (rather than 2nd hand reports that bent the truth) and compared skeptics essays with pro-ESP literature and various other lines of evidence and realized the evidence is terrible for any of it being real.
I had just read to many new-age books and articles that played up/lied, exaggerated or focused only on certain positive aspects and avoided anything else.
The fact that you want to even frame it as a delusion is suspect. By over emphasizing the negative and exaggerating what I'm saying your trying to make it seem absurd. Another fallacy really.

So, you start by using an ad populum "most scholars agree" while insisting that my own degree credential are irrelevant. Why are we talking?
 

Jose Fly

Fisker of men
.......interpreted to fit a materialist pov.
This contradiction rears its head yet again. Sometimes the Witnesses argue that there is no evidence at all for evolution, but other times (such as here) they argue that it's a matter of how the evidence is interpreted.

But if there's no evidence whatsoever, then there's nothing to interpret, is there? o_O
 

tas8831

Well-Known Member
It is almost like you have not been on this forum for years and been provided with evidence that makes that statement a blatant lie.

Like this:

I forget now who originally posted these on this forum, but I keep it in my archives because it offers a nice 'linear' progression of testing a methodology and then applying it - I have posted this more than a dozen times for creationists who claim that there is no evidence for evolution:
The tested methodology:
Science 25 October 1991:
Vol. 254. no. 5031, pp. 554 - 558

Gene trees and the origins of inbred strains of mice

WR Atchley and WM Fitch

Extensive data on genetic divergence among 24 inbred strains of mice provide an opportunity to examine the concordance of gene trees and species trees, especially whether structured subsamples of loci give congruent estimates of phylogenetic relationships. Phylogenetic analyses of 144 separate loci reproduce almost exactly the known genealogical relationships among these 24 strains. Partitioning these loci into structured subsets representing loci coding for proteins, the immune system and endogenous viruses give incongruent phylogenetic results. The gene tree based on protein loci provides an accurate picture of the genealogical relationships among strains; however, gene trees based upon immune and viral data show significant deviations from known genealogical affinities.

======================

Science, Vol 255, Issue 5044, 589-592

Experimental phylogenetics: generation of a known phylogeny

DM Hillis, JJ Bull, ME White, MR Badgett, and IJ Molineux
Department of Zoology, University of Texas, Austin 78712.

Although methods of phylogenetic estimation are used routinely in comparative biology, direct tests of these methods are hampered by the lack of known phylogenies. Here a system based on serial propagation of bacteriophage T7 in the presence of a mutagen was used to create the first completely known phylogeny. Restriction-site maps of the terminal lineages were used to infer the evolutionary history of the experimental lines for comparison to the known history and actual ancestors. The five methods used to reconstruct branching pattern all predicted the correct topology but varied in their predictions of branch lengths; one method also predicts ancestral restriction maps and was found to be greater than 98 percent accurate.

==================================

Science, Vol 264, Issue 5159, 671-677

Application and accuracy of molecular phylogenies

DM Hillis, JP Huelsenbeck, and CW Cunningham
Department of Zoology, University of Texas, Austin 78712.

Molecular investigations of evolutionary history are being used to study subjects as diverse as the epidemiology of acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the origin of life. These studies depend on accurate estimates of phylogeny. The performance of methods of phylogenetic analysis can be assessed by numerical simulation studies and by the experimental evolution of organisms in controlled laboratory situations. Both kinds of assessment indicate that existing methods are effective at estimating phylogenies over a wide range of evolutionary conditions, especially if information about substitution bias is used to provide differential weightings for character transformations.


We can hereby CONCLUDE that the results of an application of those methods have merit.

Application of the tested methodology:

Implications of natural selection in shaping 99.4% nonsynonymous DNA identity between humans and chimpanzees: Enlarging genus Homo

"Here we compare ≈90 kb of coding DNA nucleotide sequence from 97 human genes to their sequenced chimpanzee counterparts and to available sequenced gorilla, orangutan, and Old World monkey counterparts, and, on a more limited basis, to mouse. The nonsynonymous changes (functionally important), like synonymous changes (functionally much less important), show chimpanzees and humans to be most closely related, sharing 99.4% identity at nonsynonymous sites and 98.4% at synonymous sites. "



Mitochondrial Insertions into Primate Nuclear Genomes Suggest the Use of numts as a Tool for Phylogeny

"Moreover, numts identified in gorilla Supercontigs were used to test the human–chimp–gorilla trichotomy, yielding a high level of support for the sister relationship of human and chimpanzee."



A Molecular Phylogeny of Living Primates

"Once contentiously debated, the closest human relative of chimpanzee (Pan) within subfamily Homininae (Gorilla, Pan, Homo) is now generally undisputed. The branch forming the Homo andPanlineage apart from Gorilla is relatively short (node 73, 27 steps MP, 0 indels) compared with that of thePan genus (node 72, 91 steps MP, 2 indels) and suggests rapid speciation into the 3 genera occurred early in Homininae evolution. Based on 54 gene regions, Homo-Pan genetic distance range from 6.92 to 7.90×10−3 substitutions/site (P. paniscus and P. troglodytes, respectively), which is less than previous estimates based on large scale sequencing of specific regions such as chromosome 7[50]. "
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCLUSION:
This evidence lays out the results of employing a tested methodology on the question of Primate evolution. The same general criteria/methods have been used on nearly all facets of the evolution of living things.​

Nothing about "similarity" in those studies, since they rely on patterns of unique shared mutations. That similar studies often refer to similarity is not an indication that this was what was relied on - the very act of preparing sequence data for analysis yields such numbers. Not that creationists understand this.



This is 100% wrong. Do you not remember the thrashing you took when you made that same absurd claim some months ago? Or is honesty not required when one is propping up their 'faith'?

As is the usual case, it looks like many you just ignored the refutation of those....blatant falsehoods?
==========================

And, of course, that @Hockeycowboy thinks mere 'genetic similarity' is what is used in inferring phylogeny, well.... never mind...

I actually wasted the time to check out @Hockeycowboy's claim (or rather his confidence in a HuffPo article).
The link for the honeybees did not take me to a NatGeo article, but I searched and found this:

Insights into social insects from the genome of the honeybee Apis mellifera

"Comparison of the 2,404 single-copy orthologues present in exactly one copy in each of the insects and in human revealed that the mean sequence identity between honeybee and human is considerably higher than that of fly and human (47.5% versus 44.5%, with t-test significance of 10−11, see Fig. 6 and Supplementary Fig. 6) and also higher than between mosquito and human (46.6%). "​
One will note the number of genes compared - 2404 (out of an estimated 10,000 in the honey bee). This means that of the ~20,000 genes humans have, there are 2404 that have orthologues in the honeybee, that is, genes that we share with honeybees via common ancestry. When these orthologues were sequenced and compared, they were ~44% (not 44% - that was flies) identical. But 2404/10,000 is but 24% (and 2404 out of 20,000 is 12%) of the honey bee genes have a match with humans, so already the numbers indicate something other than what they are often portrayed. Also, I bolded what I did intentionally - they specifically looked at orthologues that are present in only 1 copy. Why does that matter, well, many genes are present in more than one copy, sometimes, a lot of copies. They looked only at orthologues that were present in a single copy. They had their reasons for doing that, which I am not concerned about, but it would appear that this may be the source for the 44% claim.

For bananas, the 50% similarity link went to the Mirror, where there was just a list of crazy 'facts', some of which appear not to be facts. I was unable to find any actual scientific publications on this (I did not search very hard, I must admit) - lots of internet 'factoids' of course. I did find out some relevant actual facts however -
bananas apparently have more genes that humans (~36,000, but with a much smaller overall amount of DNA than us, only about 400 million bps), which shouldn't be a huge surprise, given that one of the common mechanisms for speciation in plants is genome duplication (any plant people out there, feel free to correct me). Since bananas have ~3x the number of genes as honey bees, the relevant issue here is orthologues. I came across a blog post by a knowledgeable fellow that already did the leg work -

Seems that, in real life, only 17% of genes are shared between bananas and humans.

Now, there were more orthologues, which, given the restrictions in the honey bee paper does not really surprise me, but the sequence identity was not indicated. It comes down to whether one compares numbers of genes, or actual sequence identity, but neither of those appear to rescue the claims.

So, it looks like @Hockeycowboy is refuted before he even gets started....​
===============

But sure - keep making those claims to rescue your failing faith... How sad....

It is almost like you literally know nothing about the things you pontificate on.... Even when your errors have been corrected a dozen times.... Such is the creationists' state.


I hate it when I put time into posts and creationists just ignore it all...
Betting that HC used the same false claims in 'arguments' since this was posted.
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
So, you start by using an ad populum "most scholars agree" while insisting that my own degree credential are irrelevant. Why are we talking?
No. You keep mentioning a bachelors degree as if it has any weight in this discussion.
It clearly doesn't.

What I mentioned is this - PhD biblical historicity scholars who have devoted their careers to the subject, then produce a work, THEN that work is peer reviewed by other PhDs in the field and a consensus is formed or the work is considered flawed.
That is not an appeal to authority when it actually is authority?

You are free to take a consensus held in the historicity field and challenge it.
You say you have a secular degree but argue apologetics lines of reason. So why is this degree a factor? Your beliefs are all non-secular/apologetic. You already know the gospels are anon, savior gods were all over the region, highly mythic writing, your degree is not going to give you any lines of counter arguments? You decided to embrace apologetics thinking so I don't see how some bachelors degree is at all relevant?

Having a degree means nothing, what can you do with it? What lines of debate can you construct with the knowledge? So far it's just been basic apologetics fallacies?
 

cataway

Well-Known Member
I know some JW's that are in fact scientist . to listen to some of you's that would in fact not be possible .
 

BilliardsBall

Veteran Member
No. You keep mentioning a bachelors degree as if it has any weight in this discussion.
It clearly doesn't.

What I mentioned is this - PhD biblical historicity scholars who have devoted their careers to the subject, then produce a work, THEN that work is peer reviewed by other PhDs in the field and a consensus is formed or the work is considered flawed.
That is not an appeal to authority when it actually is authority?

You are free to take a consensus held in the historicity field and challenge it.
You say you have a secular degree but argue apologetics lines of reason. So why is this degree a factor? Your beliefs are all non-secular/apologetic. You already know the gospels are anon, savior gods were all over the region, highly mythic writing, your degree is not going to give you any lines of counter arguments? You decided to embrace apologetics thinking so I don't see how some bachelors degree is at all relevant?

Having a degree means nothing, what can you do with it? What lines of debate can you construct with the knowledge? So far it's just been basic apologetics fallacies?

Help me understand, please, so I can answer you clearly:

1) A PhD and a lifetime of effort has "immense weight"

2) A Bachelor's in the same field (and my lifetime of pursuing the issues) has "no weight"

3) Why then is the Bachelor's a prerequisite to the PhD, do you think?

Is your statement about my knowledge base therefore fair?

4) If not, is there a "weight" between my Religion Bachelor's and your lack of a Bachelor's in that arena?

5) Why are you more able to follow the PhDs in this field than me, who holds the prerequisite degree?

6) If you will reduce your prejudiced view of my degree and immense knowledge of the issues, why is it NOT an appeal to authority when you do it, but IS when I do it? :)
 

gnostic

The Lost One
Help me understand, please, so I can answer you clearly:

1) A PhD and a lifetime of effort has "immense weight"

2) A Bachelor's in the same field (and my lifetime of pursuing the issues) has "no weight"

3) Why then is the Bachelor's a prerequisite to the PhD, do you think?

Is your statement about my knowledge base therefore fair?

4) If not, is there a "weight" between my Religion Bachelor's and your lack of a Bachelor's in that arena?

5) Why are you more able to follow the PhDs in this field than me, who holds the prerequisite degree?

6) If you will reduce your prejudiced view of my degree and immense knowledge of the issues, why is it NOT an appeal to authority when you do it, but IS when I do it? :)

You still don’t understand what @tas8831 and @joelr are saying about your degree.

It is not the that you have this degree. The problem is you personal belief overshadowing your qualification and your education.

If you are not going to use your education you had, by you repeatedly using confirmation bias and apologetic arguments, then it would seem that bringing up your degree to be pretty much pointless.

You are not arguing using the knowledge you have learned from your education. No, BilliardsBall, you are arguing for your personal belief.

So if you are only going to use your belief as argument, then your education don’t really matter much at all. That what irrelevant about you bringing up degree.
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
Help me understand, please, so I can answer you clearly:

1) A PhD and a lifetime of effort has "immense weight"

2) A Bachelor's in the same field (and my lifetime of pursuing the issues) has "no weight"

3) Why then is the Bachelor's a prerequisite to the PhD, do you think?

Is your statement about my knowledge base therefore fair?

4) If not, is there a "weight" between my Religion Bachelor's and your lack of a Bachelor's in that arena?

5) Why are you more able to follow the PhDs in this field than me, who holds the prerequisite degree?

6) If you will reduce your prejudiced view of my degree and immense knowledge of the issues, why is it NOT an appeal to authority when you do it, but IS when I do it? :)


No, not just a PhD and a lifetime of effort but work that has been reviewed by peers and accepted as our current best guess as fact.
The historicity field. You are free to use their findings as well.

If I had to guess why I am more able to follow scholars like Thomas Thompson, Purvoe, Pagels, Ehrman, Carrier or William Denver in biblical archeology it's because the things they say go against your supernatural beliefs. Your confirmation bias turns you away from facts and empirical evidence.

The appeal to authority fallacy is when you say " hey look, millions of PEOPLE believe this to be true!" That is appeal to authority fallacy.
Now if the debate is on the reality of electromagnetism and you say "millions of people believe in light" then it's an appeal to authority fallacy.
If you say " All of the physicists who specialize in classical electromagnetism as well as the physicists who specialize in the quantum field theory of photons, quantum electrodynamics and other related studies, they all believe in electromagnetism".
That is not the appeal to authority fallacy.

Appeal to authority is more of an appeal to popularity. Looking at the consensus of science in any given area is going to give the best guess at truth humans can have up to this point.

Why would apologetics not count? Because they rarely hold any actual specialty, none of them are PhD biblical historians, if that rare situation happened no other specialist agrees and the most important part - they go into the study with a truth/bias in mind. They already know x demi-god exists and are only looking to clarify the godly message.

People who go in without bias - (like Richard Carrier) end up seeing religion is mythology and that the body of work supports that fact.
 

BilliardsBall

Veteran Member
You still don’t understand what @tas8831 and @joelr are saying about your degree.

It is not the that you have this degree. The problem is you personal belief overshadowing your qualification and your education.

If you are not going to use your education you had, by you repeatedly using confirmation bias and apologetic arguments, then it would seem that bringing up your degree to be pretty much pointless.

You are not arguing using the knowledge you have learned from your education. No, BilliardsBall, you are arguing for your personal belief.

So if you are only going to use your belief as argument, then your education don’t really matter much at all. That what irrelevant about you bringing up degree.

Not close at all.

I used my degree credentials to not only study the issues, but pursue professors to explore the issues, in person, and since. You?

Your problem is you are cherry picking experts instead of listening to me, an expert, who is confessing the section of academia he KNOWS is WANTING in methodology, honesty and evidence.
 

BilliardsBall

Veteran Member
No, not just a PhD and a lifetime of effort but work that has been reviewed by peers and accepted as our current best guess as fact.
The historicity field. You are free to use their findings as well.

If I had to guess why I am more able to follow scholars like Thomas Thompson, Purvoe, Pagels, Ehrman, Carrier or William Denver in biblical archeology it's because the things they say go against your supernatural beliefs. Your confirmation bias turns you away from facts and empirical evidence.

The appeal to authority fallacy is when you say " hey look, millions of PEOPLE believe this to be true!" That is appeal to authority fallacy.
Now if the debate is on the reality of electromagnetism and you say "millions of people believe in light" then it's an appeal to authority fallacy.
If you say " All of the physicists who specialize in classical electromagnetism as well as the physicists who specialize in the quantum field theory of photons, quantum electrodynamics and other related studies, they all believe in electromagnetism".
That is not the appeal to authority fallacy.

Appeal to authority is more of an appeal to popularity. Looking at the consensus of science in any given area is going to give the best guess at truth humans can have up to this point.

Why would apologetics not count? Because they rarely hold any actual specialty, none of them are PhD biblical historians, if that rare situation happened no other specialist agrees and the most important part - they go into the study with a truth/bias in mind. They already know x demi-god exists and are only looking to clarify the godly message.

People who go in without bias - (like Richard Carrier) end up seeing religion is mythology and that the body of work supports that fact.

Put the outsiders outside, let's just talk about you and I. Are you saying you have a PhD in a related area? Are you saying you've done as I've done and do? Used my Bachelor's to meet and discuss the issues with conservative and liberal PhDs, have spent thousands of hours not just "studying apologetics" but looking at arguments in-depth from BOTH sides of the aisle and EVERY time when challenged, checking the scriptures to see if the claims were forensic, quoting the text, alleged, refuted in Greek or Hebrew, etc.?
 

gnostic

The Lost One
Not close at all.

I used my degree credentials to not only study the issues, but pursue professors to explore the issues, in person, and since. You?

Your problem is you are cherry picking experts instead of listening to me, an expert, who is confessing the section of academia he KNOWS is WANTING in methodology, honesty and evidence.

I don’t hold any qualification relating to theology or on comparative religion or comparative mythology.

I have never hide the fact that my qualifications have nothing to do with religion, mythology, history or literature.

One is in Civil Engineering from the mid-80s. The second in a completely different field, Computer Science in mid to late 90s, and worked as a programmer, systems analyst, web designer, and more recently as network administrator.

Before I had graduated in 1999, one of pet projects that I did in my own time, was researching on classical literature relating to myths from Ancient Greece and Rome, medieval literature on Norse myths, Celtic myths and the Arthurian legends, and construct my website Timeless Myths.

In 2006, I started another website called Dark Mirrors of Heaven, which related to reading and researching non-canonical literature relating to Genesis creation, using outside sources, such as
  • the Rabbinic Midrash, and Aggadah (eg my page on Lilith);
  • the Pseudepigrapha texts from the books of Enoch, and Book of Jubilees (eg pages on story of Enoch, the Watchers and Nephilim, and on Enoch’s to Heaven);
  • from the Dead Sea Scrolls, like the Book Of Giants (eg page also about Enoch and the Watchers);
  • and some Gnostic books from Nag Hammadi (eg page on Gnostic creation myth).
Both websites are personal researches that I have published online, that I shared with my visitors and answer any question they may have and responding to feedback. The sites are free, and I don’t get much funding from donations, so I have to cover my own expenses to keep buying books to read and research, and paying for domain names and for web hosting, to keep it running.

Do I have qualifications to do these works? No.

What works have you done? Have you publish anything?
 

tas8831

Well-Known Member
No, not just a PhD and a lifetime of effort but work that has been reviewed by peers and accepted as our current best guess as fact.
The historicity field. You are free to use their findings as well.

If I had to guess why I am more able to follow scholars like Thomas Thompson, Purvoe, Pagels, Ehrman, Carrier or William Denver in biblical archeology it's because the things they say go against your supernatural beliefs. Your confirmation bias turns you away from facts and empirical evidence.

The appeal to authority fallacy is when you say " hey look, millions of PEOPLE believe this to be true!" That is appeal to authority fallacy.
Now if the debate is on the reality of electromagnetism and you say "millions of people believe in light" then it's an appeal to authority fallacy.
If you say " All of the physicists who specialize in classical electromagnetism as well as the physicists who specialize in the quantum field theory of photons, quantum electrodynamics and other related studies, they all believe in electromagnetism".
That is not the appeal to authority fallacy.

Appeal to authority is more of an appeal to popularity. Looking at the consensus of science in any given area is going to give the best guess at truth humans can have up to this point.

Why would apologetics not count? Because they rarely hold any actual specialty, none of them are PhD biblical historians, if that rare situation happened no other specialist agrees and the most important part - they go into the study with a truth/bias in mind. They already know x demi-god exists and are only looking to clarify the godly message.

People who go in without bias - (like Richard Carrier) end up seeing religion is mythology and that the body of work supports that fact.

I think it is clearer when it is called the 'fallacy of the appeal to false authority', or the 'argumentum ad verecundiam' because I think that is a more accurate description for what is seen most of the time - a person with some sort of expertise in one area pontificating in another and expecting to be taken seriously. Like creationist Jon Sarfati, with his PhD in chemistry, ranting and raving about biology and geology. Or someone with a degree in theology pretending to be able to make pronouncements in genetics or how the appendix works.
 

BilliardsBall

Veteran Member
I don’t hold any qualification relating to theology or on comparative religion or comparative mythology.

I have never hide the fact that my qualifications have nothing to do with religion, mythology, history or literature.

One is in Civil Engineering from the mid-80s. The second in a completely different field, Computer Science in mid to late 90s, and worked as a programmer, systems analyst, web designer, and more recently as network administrator.

Before I had graduated in 1999, one of pet projects that I did in my own time, was researching on classical literature relating to myths from Ancient Greece and Rome, medieval literature on Norse myths, Celtic myths and the Arthurian legends, and construct my website Timeless Myths.

In 2006, I started another website called Dark Mirrors of Heaven, which related to reading and researching non-canonical literature relating to Genesis creation, using outside sources, such as
  • the Rabbinic Midrash, and Aggadah (eg my page on Lilith);
  • the Pseudepigrapha texts from the books of Enoch, and Book of Jubilees (eg pages on story of Enoch, the Watchers and Nephilim, and on Enoch’s to Heaven);
  • from the Dead Sea Scrolls, like the Book Of Giants (eg page also about Enoch and the Watchers);
  • and some Gnostic books from Nag Hammadi (eg page on Gnostic creation myth).
Both websites are personal researches that I have published online, that I shared with my visitors and answer any question they may have and responding to feedback. The sites are free, and I don’t get much funding from donations, so I have to cover my own expenses to keep buying books to read and research, and paying for domain names and for web hosting, to keep it running.

Do I have qualifications to do these works? No.

What works have you done? Have you publish anything?

I don't understand, you claim to have limited knowledge and not be the holder of the degree I have, and then dare to ask what I've done? Isn't that a massive double standard?

So why should I tell you that I'm the editor, line-by-line of a work on the Book of Revelation, or a frequent lecturer at events, or a Chair or Co-Chair at academic panels? You have NO respect for those things OR FOR THE DEGREE I HOLD WHICH YOU NEVER HELD.
 
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