Frustrating, isn’t it – we know what it’s reasonable to be certain about and what it isn’t, and we say so, and the result is that dogmatists think they’ve won the argument.
It reminds me of “Do you believe, yes or no…”
Frustrating, isn’t it – we know what it’s reasonable to be certain about and what it isn’t, and we say so, and the result is that dogmatists think they’ve won the argument.
It reminds me of “Do you believe, yes or no…”
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9 responses to “Good faith argument”
It does, rather.
I wonder if the barmaid will be tactless enough to mention that one of them is 100% certain that God is a trinity, while the other is 100% certain that God is a unity (unless he has changed his mind)
I never liked that “certainty” argument. It makes it impossible to claim certainty about anything.
I’m certain that my refrigerator door is not a portal to the Pacific Ocean, and I’m certain there are no gods. In both cases I’m open to new evidence and prepared to reevaluate my position. In both cases I’m perfectly comfortable expressing “100% certainty”. Nobody challenges or criticizes my certainty in the former case, only the latter. But both are equivalently ridiculous in my view.
@Sackbut:
I was about to say exactly the same thing. Apart from the fridge bit.
Although I’d go a bit further. I’m open to evidence, but I have no idea what that evidence would look like. A giant bearded being bellowing “I’m God”? I wouldn’t be inclined to believe him.
Well we mostly don’t need to express certainty, do we? We’re confident of a lot of basic things and that’s good enough.
I think the word comes into play in areas like this where whether or not one can or should be confident of X is contested.
I’m with the barmaid here. I avoid claiming certainty. It’s safer.
@latsot:
I agree, I also don’t like to speculate on what evidence would convince me; show me evidence, then we’ll see.
@Ophelia:
You are likely more careful in your language than most people. My response to the question posed by Jesus would be to say I’m as certain about that as I am about anything; I don’t like special linguistic handling for the “god” question.
Yes, I would answer Jesus differently too. I would probably be bloody-minded and say “Why are you even asking me that? The issue isn’t whether I’m ‘certain’ that someone or something called ‘God’ exists, it’s why you’re so damn certain it does.” And then Jesus would say something completely point-missing and I would get frustrated. But that wouldn’t be funny.
latsot, that ‘giant bearded being’? I’ve seen him. Blessed be his name; Brian Blessed.