[vhawk01]

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In some situations better information doesn't exist and popular opinion doesn't matter.

Imagine you're a turkey in a group of turkeys. Every day the humans come out and give you food and watch you get fat. You have no reason to believe humans are anything but great and friendly. 90%+ of turkey's would think the same thing and keep eating the food the humans give them...and then Thanksgiving comes and you all lose your heads. Prior observation and opinion was rendered useless in a single day.

A proposition like "Does God Exist" lives in the world of extremistan, like the turkeys. We will live our days until the day we die believing one way or the other and then we will either be sent to some heaven or hell(who knows which religion is right) or we will just die and will never know we were right or wrong. 90% of the people believing either way is useless as evidence.

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Awfully results-oriented, don't you think?

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I'm suprised vhawk. I thought it was a good representation of your weak-atheist view that legitimate evidence is not available so No Belief makes the most sense.

PairTheBoard

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My belief in this analogy, I think, if I'm understanding it correctly, is the same as the stupid 90% of the turkeys, i.e. that the humans are benevolent. There is no reason to think otherwise, thus, the standard position is they are good. I think you have my position confused with those who would actually say things like "I make no claims about my own knowledge or beliefs" or "I have no belief on the status of God." I have a belief on the status of God, and that is one of disbelief. I don't think God is impossible, I just don't believe in him. In this turkey example, they don't think its impossible the humans are out to eat them, they just have no reason to think it. Thus, the best guess is that the humans are benevolent.

It is entirely possible I am misunderstanding the analogy, though.