Can You Justify Your Beliefs?

Scenario 1

You have a medical complaint (subjective). How are you going to find out what the problem is? Will you go to a local chiropractor, naturopath, or some other quack (pseudoscientist)? Or, will you go to the appropriate licensed physician/physician extender (science-based practitioner) who can objectively determine the truth?

Scenario 2

You are told by a friend that there are space aliens in the military complex in the next town (subjective). Are you going to accept the claim because he or she is a friend who has always been truthful in the past (subjective)? Or, are you going to research the plausibility of the claim and any evidence of such by availing yourself of the findings from recognized experts in the appropriate fields (objective)?

Scenario 3

All of your life you have been told about a God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. You have accepted this claim because you have loving family and friends and they all agree that this is The Truth (subjective). You also look around and see a reality that you feel must have been created and you long for a relationship with your creator to feel secure (subjective). Do you accept these claims without objective evidence (on Faith) or do you investigate objectively what science has to say about the claims for a God?

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The word "science" is from the Latin for "knowledge." "Knowledge" is "JUSTIFIED, true belief." In the scenarios above, what actions are justified in understanding objective reality?

The Erroneous Thinking Of Sam Harris

One of the most known personalities in the promotion of atheism and science-based thinking is Sam Harris. I follow him semi-regularly and appreciate his work. However, I can no longer stay silent in the face of his continued bias as represented in this recent podcast. Following are examples of this erroneous thinking:

He supports the Alt Right's “Intellectual Dark Web.” He believes that Islam is the only reason for 9/11, but ignores Israeli terror on the Palestinians. He accepts the discredited racial pseudoscience of Charles Murray. He doesn't accept the reality of systemic racism or unconscious bias. He is not accepting of the full spectrum of evidence regarding police violence. (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) (link) 

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11/27/2020 - UPDATE: This link debunks him regarding his claim that "the police used more deadly force against white people—both in absolute numbers and in terms of their contribution to crime and violence in our society."

12/10/2020 - UPDATE: This link shows his continuing "blind spot."

1/15/2021 - UPDATE: This link focuses on his whataboutism/false equivalency regarding the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th.

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Magic And Skepticism

Click on the link below for a video by Matt Dillahunty that is an interesting and informative presentation of how the use of magic can enlighten people to the truth and value of skepticism/science-based thinking:

Magic and skepticism

No Matter The Topic, Experts Are Ignored In The USA

"A tussle between science and politics is defining the pandemic response of the Trump administration. How did this increasing rejection of expertise get started?"
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Most of what we, as individuals, "know" is not from direct experience but from those around us and from other sources to which we are exposed.

If one is a magical thinker, it is difficult to determine if claims are true because there is no way to justify claims with such an epistemological method. The background of the party making the claim, nor the level of evidence for the claim, are not major considerations whether one should accept the party's opinion.

If one is a science-based thinker, however, one uses the scientific method to evaluate all claims on our objective reality. The method contains internal elements that justify/verify the results through such measures as peer review and replication. The higher the level of expertise in the appropriate areas and the quality of evidence supporting the claims, the more confidence one may have in the findings.

The link below highlights the history and our present crisis of generally rejecting the experts and it's consequences:

Why Don't Americans Trust Experts any more?

Pros And Cons Of A Single Payer Healthcare System

I personally favor some sort of a national single-payer healthcare system either under Medicare or under a Federal program regulating corporations. However, this is a good example of an honest and respectful presentation of some of the issues.

Pro-Con: Should states create their own single-payer health care system?

How to silence those who say, “But, how are you going to pay for it?”

What the Medicare for All fight is really about

22 studies agree: 'Medicare for All' saves money

 

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/opinion/editorials/article212770499.html#storylink=c

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/opinion/editorials/article212770499.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/opinion/editorials/article212770499.html#storylink=cpy

The Gumball Analogy

Matt Dillahunty is known for using the gumball analogy to help people understand science-based thinking, the burden of proof, and certainty:

"Let’s say you have a jar of gumballs (or anything). Without counting, no one’s going to know whether the number of gumballs in the jar is even or odd. If someone (without counting) insists that the number is odd, it’s perfectly reasonable to say that you don’t believe him, even if you haven’t counted them either. And, perhaps more importantly, the fact that you’re saying you don’t believe him does not mean that you are stating that there must, therefore, be an even number. 

"In the same way, stating that I don’t believe your god claims does not necessarily mean I am stating with certainty that there is no god. I don’t know anything 'for certain'. And neither do you."

I would add that actually counting the number of gumballs, and others verifying the count, to determine the correct answer, is using the scientific method.

The Worst Disease

"Official government lying from the top has gone viral. It kills democracy as surely as the Spanish flu, which in 1918 claimed 50 million lives and afflicted 10 times that number. False, weaponized and dysfunctional information will wreak even more havoc, literally affecting everyone on the planet."

"Weak watchdogs and lax social media bred a pandemic of dishonesty. We need new laws."
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The only ultimate cure is a society that has mainstreamed science-based thinking and marginalized magical thinking:

Lying Politicians Are Killing Our Democracies

Bias Within Christian Apologetics

As humans, we ALL are prone to confirmation bias, "the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that affirms one's prior beliefs or hypotheses." A science-based thinker can essentially look outside of him or her self and objectively determine if claims are supported by objective evidence.  

I have said it many times before but Christian apologists do not get it: stop just planning your retort when interacting with us and LISTEN.

If A Word Describes Your Position On A Topic Use It

Why are some scientists reluctant to use descriptive words to present their opinions on some topics? Leonard Susskind is a noted physicist who does an excellent job in this 8-minute video of countering religious dogma. He clearly is an atheist and an agnostic but will not declare himself as such (see beginning at about the 6:30 point in the video).

Why do I think this issue is important? Language is how humans communicate with each other and every word has a meaning. Atheism and Agnosticism are words that can stir up negative emotions and, thus, some influential people who know better fail to use them. Until this changes, it is my opinion that the route to acceptance of science-based thinking will be significantly impeded.

Magical vs Scientific Thinking

I am going back and forth with a Catholic who is having difficulty following me on the difference between magical vs. scientific thinking. This link clarifies it pretty well.

Humility Is Required To Be A Science-Based Thinker

Are you humble enough to admit that you, as an individual, really don’t know what you think you know? If you aren’t, you don’t accept science-based thinking.

Why Do We Believe Things That Are Not True?

Beware Of How School Vouchers Are Being Used

With the many issues confronting the US public school system, there are many ideas floating around regarding how to improve the problem, to include such efforts as pouring more money directly into the public schools, alternative education for teacher training, busing, charter schools, and vouchers for private schools. Out of all of these, the last effort is on the shakiest educational and constitutional ground.

School vouchers use tax dollars to teach religious doctrine

A Template To Get The Vote Out

Polls are interesting but if people don't vote they don't mean anything.  The Democrats need a much greater turnout than the Republicans because of Gerrymandering and the relative greater power of the rural areas. Unfortunately, the largest voting group are the Millennials but they also are the least apt to vote.  Tom Steyer, the Billionaire philantropist, has a strategy that I think may work for the 2018 mid-term election:

" - - - efforts will focus on person-to-person contact, voter registration, and a get-out-the-vote ground game. For instance, it is training teams to mobilize young voters on more than two hundred college campuses and across seven states using data-driven field strategies, digital tools, and creative tactics. As part of that effort, the group also will continue its Climate Organizing Fellowship Program, which aims to develop climate leaders eager to push for climate action and clean energy solutions through November and beyond.

"'Millennials are the biggest cohort in this election cycle,' Steyer told the Times. 'When they do engage, it can make a difference in these states. This is about turnout and letting millennials' voices be heard.'"   (https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/nextgen-climate-to-spend-25-million-on-get-out-the-vote-efforts)

Please Tell Me Jesus Didn’t Say That

"As much as Christians celebrate the virtue of faith, they rely far more on doubt—as in benefit-of-the-doubt—when they want us to believe that the gospel accounts of Jesus are true. Only just so much can be downgraded to metaphor (“Well, of course, you can’t take that literally…”), so their default position is that we need to be overly generous as we scrutinize the gospel stories; give the gospel writers the benefit of the doubt that they were sincere and somehow got it right.

"But sorry, it doesn’t work that way."

 

Mark, Chapter 4: The gospel writer pushed history off the page

There Is No One Direction For The Democrats

The following three articles are typical of the different opinions within the present Democratic party. There probably is more than one way to proceed and it is dependent on the individual Democrat's constituency.

This moderate Democrat’s model is being copied where it matters -- in Trump territory

Want a pragmatist for president in 2020? This might be your guy

Democrats are moving left. Don't panic

(monroepadems.com)

Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article215418105.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article215048600.html#storylink=cp

Can Political Common Ground Be Achieved?

"The goal of the Hauenstein Center’s Common Ground Initiative is not to turn Republicans into Democrats or Democrats into Republicans. It is not to provide mere entertainment by reducing politics to cable-TV-style shouting matches over the issue de jour. Rather, our purpose is to foster an environment where progressives and conservatives can share the same stage, hear each other out, and possibly discover common ground. The history, philosophy, and culture of these two strong traditions lead them to clash. In spite of their opposition to one another, at other times–surprisingly–they make common cause and have a rollicking good conversation to get there. The historic reality of America is that We the People have worked together and found common ground around important issues at critical historical moments. When that happens, we all benefit as members of the same American community.

"We could sum up by paraphrasing Winston Churchill: Seeking common ground is the worst way a self-governing people can conduct their public affairs–until all the other ways have been tried and found wanting."

Progressives & Conservatives: Is There Common Ground?

(Credit: ELLEN WEINSTEIN)

Polls Don't Count, Only Voting Does

" - - - Republicans have a built-in turnout advantage on Election Day. White voters often turn out more heavily than other racial and ethnic groups, as do older voters, wealthier voters, and voters who own their own homes. All of those groups vote more heavily Republican than their counterparts: Whites more than nonwhites, older voters more than younger voters, wealthier voters more than poorer voters.

"A recent PRRI poll found that 74 percent of those 65 and older were certain to vote in November, compared with 28 percent of those under 30. That obviously disadvantages Democrats.

Only a quarter of the country identifies as Republican. There are two reasons the party keeps winning anyway.

Who Are Hurt By Voter ID Laws?

It's easy to reflexly think that there is no reason why a citizen cannot simply get a voter ID. This article presents how it really is NOT that simple for many.

Who does the NC voter ID amendment target? My mother

Can Our Polarized Politics Be Changed?

In my lifetime of 73 years, I have never experienced as much political polarization that the USA has now. As many people who know me, I am not on the "far left" politically, even though I consider myself a progressive politically. Thus, I have disagreed with those on the left who essentially say, "To hell" with the conservatives and the Bernie wing of the Democrats should just get active and overwhelm the Republicans.  The last time THAT was tried was in 1972 with the Democratic candidate George McGovern. How did that work out?

The following shows that there really is a Third Way:

Who says progressives and conservatives can’t compromise?

(Quartz)

The Psychological Differences Between Liberals And Conservatives

Whether you are a liberal or conservative, we all know it is difficult to persuade a liberal to become more conservative and vise versa. Brain function research can explain at least some of the resistance, and also suggest ways of persuading conservatives to adopt more liberal views. Perhaps liberals can keep these factors in mind when interacting with conservatives. Just talking about science-based thinking usually is not enough.

These key psychological differences can determine whether you're liberal or conservative

(Patheos)