I'm Actually Not Admitting Anything

Now Serving The Man, in the face

Descartes argues that, epistemelogically, an individual can only be certain of one thing: the individual exists. Thus comes his famous phrase "Cogito Ergo Sum," along with an excuse for high school philosophy classes to watch The Matrix. The idea is more or less that we go about our daily lives treating as certain those things which are "certain, but not really," because of course otherwise we couldn't function.

This means that what was once utterly and totally impossible is now merely "extremely, extremely unlikely" (with of course the exception of the only impossibility one can be sure is genuinely impossible, that one does not exist). Nothing about this is quite wholly agreed upon by everyone, of course, but this isn't a philosophy paper.

No, this is a list of some statements which fit the category of "extremely, extremely unlikely," dismissers of which are accused of being close-minded.

"No one has ever been on the moon."
"A secret cabal of Jews runs the world."
"Aliens landed at Area 52 and they now control the government."
"The Lions will win the Super Bowl this year."

Ah, the Lions. It amazes me every year, how they manage to convince people that they have a shot at being good. I guess sometimes the first converts don't realize that they're also the first true believers.

Enough of that, though - on with the list!

"Evolution is a false theory."
"Global Warming does not exist."
"Global Warming exists, but has not been facilitated by humans."
"The Earth is flat." (Yes, real people really advocate this belief, just like the others.)

Just a quick break here - do you suppose it's possible that, between two patently ridiculous statements, one of the statements is even more patently ridiculous than the other? If you were trying to get people to believe something patently ridiculous, would you create a fringe group that advocates something even more ridiculous to make yourself look normal by comparison?

But I digress! Back to the list...

"Creationism accurately shows how the world came into being."
"Intelligent Design accurately and scientifically shows how the world came into being."

And one last jab!

"A teapot is in orbit around the planet."

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. Disregard that.

Anyway, the point of this isn't that religion is bad - the point is that we need to stop dismissing these ridiculous statements outright as "impossible." They ARE possible. Instead of immediately branding them "impossible," we should take a closer look, and then say "These beliefs are so unlikely as to be worth no consideration." And it's true. They're not worth consideration.

OH MY GOD, THE SCARECROWS ARE WALKING AND TALKING AND PREACHING INTELLIGENT DESIGN!