"If I Am Wrong...I Want to Know"

Now there's a statement I endorse. What's more likely, that a believer or a skeptic wrote it?

When it comes to supernatural beliefs, there is just no error correcting mechanism-- you have no way to tell if you are wrong-- you just keep making excuses or trying to have more faith or writing it off to mystery. If I am wrong about something I think is true, I want to know--- and I trust reality to correct my errors. But what is there to correct the error of someone who has a wrong supernatural belief?

Believers are not even able to imagine what the world would look like or how it would be different if all gods were an illusion, but the non believer can ask themselves what would they expect if there was a real god-- and they could answer-- For example, a real god should have left some scientifically prescient information for it's favorite creatures. Or a benevolent god would stop suffering or refuse to allow it to exist and so forth. Praying to a real god (who wanted to be believed in) should bring different results than wishing on a star or praying to a jug of milk. Praying to the right god should bring different results than praying to the wrong god if there was a real "jealous god" who didn't want there to be "other gods before him". Why would a good being need to be worshiped anyhow? If there were a real heaven/hell test then how could a god be so cruel as not to give a clear rubric and equal access to "passing"? What would be the point of punishing anyone forever? Wouldn't it be better never to have existed? Why wouldn't he clear up conflicting beliefs and cruelties in the various texts people imagine he inspired? If souls were real, then we should be able to get real and ready information about any afterlife or where missing bodies are and so forth. People should be eager to die if they really believed they were going to "happily ever after", right? Why shouldn't NDE's produce data where we could learn more and devise better tests? How would a soul interact with a brain-- as it must-- since we know the brain is intimately involved with consciousness-- feelings, memory, thought, wants, urges, perception, belief, etc. We should have some evidence-- something so that souls were distinguishable from an illusion of the brain. Why aren't true believers devising such tests? Are they afraid they will fail? Think of how rich and famous they'd be if they'd succeed? And the evidence should help us gain more knowledge... our tests should work every time the way X-rays work every time-- it shouldn't need excuses-- if souls are real. How can people claim to know about such things when science cannot even substantiate their existence? At what point do serious humans stop believing in illusions because they want them to be true? When you are on the right track, more information is discovered (see DNA)-- but when you are on the wrong track, you get mired in semantic games like Kalam.

If I'm wrong about something, then the evidence should correct my misperception. Science has built in error correcting mechanisms. With supernatural beliefs, all you have is word games and the mental manipulations of believers-- the same sorts of arguments cults use-- known logical fallacies.... confirmation bias. There is no means of correcting any errors-- you are told that it's good to believe without or despite evidence-- or that it's a "mystery" and science can't test the "supernatural" or that it's "arrogant" to think you can know the mind of god. A complete lack of evidence can mean god is testing your faith-- ha! So many mind games.

If one wants to believe as many true things as possible and as few false things as possible, then I'd suggest rejecting the supernatural-- I trust that if something is real and can be understood, the evidence will accumulate. All humans have a vested interest in what is real. The skeptic is always right whenever we are able to test these claims. Just like the skeptic will be right on 12-21-2012 when some believers in the supernatural think the world will end. The skeptic has always been right when it comes to Jesus returning or the world ending or anything else we can test (see James Randi's million dollar challenge). The skeptic is always right when we subject prayer or psychics or souls to scientific testing.

Written by articulett.