“I don’t believe that Sweden exists,” my friend suddenly declared from across the coffee shop table. He took a sip of espresso and stared intently at me, clearly awaiting a response. I paused, my cinnamon roll halfway to my mouth, as I digested what he’d just said.
“Pardon?”
“I don’t believe that Sweden exists,” he repeated. “I think it’s just a political conspiracy, designed to motivate other European citizens to work harder. All that talk of the best health care system, the highest standard of living, of tall and beautiful people. It sounds like a myth and I’m not buying it. I don’t believe in Sweden.”
I stared at my friend silently for a moment, allowing the sounds of the coffee shop to drift over us as I pondered. In the background, the radio began playing ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba.
“What do you mean, ‘You don’t believe in Sweden’?” I finally replied. “That’s insane. If Sweden doesn’t exist, how do you explain IKEA furniture, or the Swedish chef on The Muppet Show, or what glues Norway to Finland? That’s a staggering claim! What’s your evidence?”
“What do you mean ‘evidence’?” he asked.
“Evidence,” I said. “You must have more than just a hunch but some pretty impressive evidence for your belief. I know Sweden only has 9.5 million inhabitants, but you can’t simply deny outright that it exists!”
“Aha,” said my friend sagely, “I see your confusion. You think that my denial of Sweden is a belief. But it’s simply a non-belief and so I don’t need to give evidence for it.”
“Come again?” I said.
“Yes,” he continued, warming to his theme, “I don’t have to provide evidence for my non-belief in Atlantis, El Dorado, or Shangri-La and nor do I need to do so for my non-belief in Sweden. You see I’m not making a claim of any kind—quite the opposite: I’m claiming nothing, I’m merely rejecting one of your beliefs—your belief in Sweden.”
Why Atheism Is a Belief System | Zacharias Trust | RZIM Europe
Thoughts?
It is quite obvious where the problem is. There is, de-facto, evidence that Sweden exists. And there is even a simple epistemology to find that out: buy a trip to Sweden. So, in order to not believe it, requires evidence that this evidence about Sweden is wrong, or that it is no evidence at all.
On the other hand, Pinocchio, Jesus, Apollo, Allah, Vishnu, Superman, etc. they all share the same evidence of existing, which is zero. Therefore, it does not require any evidence to justify disbelief in any of them.
What has no evidence can be disbelieved without evidence.
But that does not entail that what has evidence can be disbelieved without evidence. It just entails that the evidence must be scrutinised.
So, there is no symmetry between the two cases (Sweden vs. Apollo, Pinocchio, Jesus, etc.). And the analogy breaks.
Hej då
- viole
