Comment by wat10000
2 days ago
Do you apply this reasoning to everything? Maybe the apple fell from the tree because of gravity, or maybe it was caused by some higher being that purposefully moved the apple along that path in a way that exactly matched what it would do if it were falling under the influence of gravity. Who knows, could be either one!
I posit that there's an elephant in your living room. You can't detect it because it's invisible and doesn't interact with ordinary matter so you can't feel it. But it's there. Is it equally logical to believe my claim as it is to believe that there is, in fact, no elephant present?
This is a tiresome argument. Nobody thinks this way until you start talking about gods and then suddenly you turn basic reasoning on its head. "Some incomprehensible entity has a purpose and a plan for the universe but you can't detect it" OK and why should I take this claim seriously?
> Maybe the apple fell from the tree because of gravity, or maybe it was caused by some higher being that purposefully moved the apple along that path in a way that exactly matched what it would do if it were falling under the influence of gravity. Who knows, could be either one!
They aren't mutually exclusive beliefs.
> there's an elephant in your living room
As you realize later on, when it comes to only one claim do we really start entertaining that there might be more than we can objectively measure: the purpose of our lives.
> "Some incomprehensible entity has a purpose and a plan for the universe but you can't detect it" OK and why should I take this claim seriously?
Because the alternative is nihilism. And even the fiercest proponents of it do not seriously live as if their lives are meaningless