Michael Shermer on being wrong
More Michael Shermer: Here he is on John Stossel's show (???) responding to an audience member's question: "What if you're wrong?"
His answer rings true. What difference does it make whether I believe? Why is mere belief so important – moreso than how I live and treat others? And if mere belief is so important to God, why make the evidence so ambiguous? Why make the correct religion – and the correct interpretation of it – seem so arbitrary? Why make answered prayers indistinguishable from random improbable events, or make the religious texts full of scientific and historical errors – not to mention internal factual contradictions?
Sorry, I'm ranting. There's simply no reason to believe an all-powerful deity would give a hoot whether someone simply believed in its mere existence. Ho-hum.
His answer rings true. What difference does it make whether I believe? Why is mere belief so important – moreso than how I live and treat others? And if mere belief is so important to God, why make the evidence so ambiguous? Why make the correct religion – and the correct interpretation of it – seem so arbitrary? Why make answered prayers indistinguishable from random improbable events, or make the religious texts full of scientific and historical errors – not to mention internal factual contradictions?
Sorry, I'm ranting. There's simply no reason to believe an all-powerful deity would give a hoot whether someone simply believed in its mere existence. Ho-hum.
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