Nick Watts #fundie

Nick Watts #fundie nickwattssoulfood.com

What is the “Begging the Question Fallacy”?

Read the following hypothetical exchange carefully.

Sy Garte has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Garte is a fellow of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) and serves as vice president for the Washington, DC, metro chapter of the ASA. He’s also a Christian.

“Begging the question” is a logical response to a questionable claim. But, said “logical question” is just that: a question, that will most likely lead to further intellectual dialogue.

“Begging the question fallacy” is actually not a question at all, but rather a truth-claim made by the interlocutor, whose claim is equally impotent to be proven scientifically.

In this case, whether or not you believe Jesus is God, virtually all scholars, Christian and non-Christian, state he most certainly existed, as well as reportedly performed signs that could not/cannot be explained naturally.

The interlocutor’s claim is not scientific, but philosophical. That miracles are impossible, or possible, is a philosophical claim, not a claim supported by science.

Think deeply, nw

4 comments

“In this case, whether or not you believe Jesus is God, virtually all scholars, Christian and non-Christian, state he most certainly existed, as well as reportedly performed signs that could not/cannot be explained naturally.”

No. They certainly do not. In fact there’s no evidence that Jesus ever existed as a real person, let alone did anything supernatural. The only claims that he did were accounts written about 40-70 years after he supposedly by anonymous writers who did not claim to be eyewitnesses, and the accounts contain countless plot holes, contradictions, geographical, theological and historical errors and inconsistencies.

The Gospels as evidence for Jesus’ existence and supernatural deeds has as much validity and historical backing as My Immortal is evidence that Hogworts actually exists.

PS.

Why would any scholar (particularly a non-Christian one) say “Oh yeah. This Jesus guy really did do impossible things! The fevered and contradictory writings of his fan-club that was started decades later, written by people that never knew him, totally said that he did! Good enough for me!”

Whoever is doing that displays a serious disregard for critical thinking, and should probably have never received their degree in the first place.

In this case, whether or not you believe Jesus is God, virtually all scholars, Christian and non-Christian, state he most certainly existed, as well as reportedly performed signs that could not/cannot be explained naturally.

So what? People with messianic delusions and claims and legends of great supernatural power are dime a dozen even today, and were much more so in the past, especially in a time and space with such a tense socio-religious climate as Palaestine during the Principate.

Do you also accept Siddharta Gautama, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, Shoko Asahara, and so many more? According to your objection, you should.

Think properly. tu

"That miracles are impossible IS a claim supported by science."

That was 2000 years ago and we're relying on millions of people having said it had happened. That's pretty unreliable proof.

The problem with trying to prove God is real and that the miracles happened is that they are by definition supernatural. They're suppose to be outside of nature, otherwise they wouldn't be miracles! If you take the general characteristics of God, you wouldn't be able to test to see if He was real or not because he's a omnipotent. He can simply choose not to answer/participate in your test.