Review of the 36 Arguments for the Existence of God #21. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE CONSENSUS OF HUMANITY
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Pastor Jennifer v2
Feb 23, 2012, 8:52:48 PM2/23/12
to Evidence For God
21. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE CONSENSUS OF HUMANITY
1. Every culture in every epoch has had theistic beliefs.
2. When peoples, widely separated by both space and time, hold
similar beliefs, the best explanation is that those beliefs are true.
3. The best explanation for why every culture has had theistic beliefs
is that those beliefs are true.
4. God exists.
FLAW:
Premise 2 is false. Widely separated people could very well come up
with the same false beliefs. Human nature is universal, and thus prone
to universal illusions and shortcomings of perception, memory,
reasoning, and objectivity. Also, many of the needs and terrors and
dependencies of the human condition (such as the knowledge of our own
mortality, and the attendant desire not to die) are universal. Our
beliefs arise not only from well-evaluated reasoning, but from wishful
thinking, self-deception, self-aggrandizement, gullibility, false
memories, visual illusions, and other mental glitches. Well-grounded
beliefs may be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to
psychologically fraught beliefs, which tend to bypass rational
grounding and spring instead from unexamined emotions. The fallacy of
arguing that if an idea is universally held then it must be true was
labeled by the ancient logicians consensus gentium.
(credit to R Goldstein)
1. Every culture in every epoch has had theistic beliefs.
2. When peoples, widely separated by both space and time, hold
similar beliefs, the best explanation is that those beliefs are true.
3. The best explanation for why every culture has had theistic beliefs
is that those beliefs are true.
4. God exists.
FLAW:
Premise 2 is false. Widely separated people could very well come up
with the same false beliefs. Human nature is universal, and thus prone
to universal illusions and shortcomings of perception, memory,
reasoning, and objectivity. Also, many of the needs and terrors and
dependencies of the human condition (such as the knowledge of our own
mortality, and the attendant desire not to die) are universal. Our
beliefs arise not only from well-evaluated reasoning, but from wishful
thinking, self-deception, self-aggrandizement, gullibility, false
memories, visual illusions, and other mental glitches. Well-grounded
beliefs may be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to
psychologically fraught beliefs, which tend to bypass rational
grounding and spring instead from unexamined emotions. The fallacy of
arguing that if an idea is universally held then it must be true was
labeled by the ancient logicians consensus gentium.
(credit to R Goldstein)
Brock
Feb 25, 2012, 11:07:35 AM2/25/12
to Evidence For God
On Feb 23, 8:52 pm, Pastor Jennifer v2
<jennifer.s.jo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> 21. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE CONSENSUS OF HUMANITY
>
> 1. Every culture in every epoch has had theistic beliefs.
> 2. When peoples, widely separated by both space and time, hold
> similar beliefs, the best explanation is that those beliefs are true.
> 3. The best explanation for why every culture has had theistic beliefs
> is that those beliefs are true.
> 4. God exists.
Again, the same limitations apply to this treatment:
> 21. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE CONSENSUS OF HUMANITY
>
> 1. Every culture in every epoch has had theistic beliefs.
> 2. When peoples, widely separated by both space and time, hold
> similar beliefs, the best explanation is that those beliefs are true.
> 3. The best explanation for why every culture has had theistic beliefs
> is that those beliefs are true.
> 4. God exists.
* there is no one "THE ARGUMENT ...", rather it refers to a general
category of arguments, thus to defeat one specific example is not
adequate to dismiss the category
* the argument, to the degree it is a paraphrase, doesn't adequately
represent (either intentionally or accidentally) the argument as put
forward by a proponent, and faces the danger of being simply a straw-
man
Regards,
Brock
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