91 wrote:
Fnord wrote:
Some have told me that I should keep my questions and beliefs to myself, and to refrain from using reason and logic to determine why people believe as they do.
Can you define what you mean by reason or logic? What standard are you using?
Simply asking "Why?", then describing their answer in terms of fallacies of reason, and then repeating the process. This method is based on the hypothesis that once all of the fallacious claims have been winnowed out, what remains - no matter how illogical - must be their core reason for believing. Unfortunately, most of the core reasons seem to fall into one of two broad categories: "I believe it because it's true; if it weren't true, then I wouldn't believe it" and "I just
believe, and that's enough reason for me."
Other examples:
"Why do you believe?"
"Millions of others believe as I do, so there must be something to it!"
(Fallacy of Appeal to Popularity)
"Why do you believe?"
"Non-believers are sent to Hell!"
(Fallacy of Appeal to Consequences)
"Why do you believe?"
"No one has proven my belief invalid!"
(Fallacy of Appeal to Ignorance)
"Why do you believe?"
"Ancient believers knew what they were writing about!"
(Fallacy of Appeal to Antiquity)
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No love for Hamas, Hezbollah, Iranian Leadership, Islamic Jihad, other Islamic terrorist groups, OR their supporters and sympathizers.