definition of a lost cause
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Argument of the Beard has always been one of my favorites, sadly it is not on the list.godix wrote:Just once you might want to consider that maybe <a href="http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/">this</a> is a list of thing to be avoided instead of a howto for internet arguments.
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I had to look that one up. What type of addled brain crack fiend would even try this argument? This is without a doubt the single dumbest thing I've ever heard of since, well, the last time I read a Sukunai post.NerdStrudel wrote:Argument of the Beard has always been one of my favorites, sadly it is not on the list.godix wrote:Just once you might want to consider that maybe <a href="http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/">this</a> is a list of thing to be avoided instead of a howto for internet arguments.
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You'd be (or perhaps not be) surprised. It's used many times especially when concerning things like fisheries or deforestation.godix wrote:I had to look that one up. What type of addled brain crack fiend would even try this argument? This is without a doubt the single dumbest thing I've ever heard of since, well, the last time I read a Sukunai post.NerdStrudel wrote:Argument of the Beard has always been one of my favorites, sadly it is not on the list.godix wrote:Just once you might want to consider that maybe <a href="http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/">this</a> is a list of thing to be avoided instead of a howto for internet arguments.
- jasper-isis
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Re: definition of a lost cause
We should never assume that a lack of evidence means the evidence doesn't exist, or that the evidence we have is all definitive. We shouldn't assume that the data available to us contains all we need to answer our questions. In science, one can never possess the complete truth. One can only look for what, at a given time, cannot be proved wrong.Sukunai wrote:Any time one makes a claim and is incapable of providing verifiable evidence, the person might as well not bother making the claim.
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- Sukunai
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Re: definition of a lost cause
Why?jasper-isis wrote:We should never assume that a lack of evidence means the evidence doesn't exist, or that the evidence we have is all definitive. We shouldn't assume that the data available to us contains all we need to answer our questions. In science, one can never possess the complete truth. One can only look for what, at a given time, cannot be proved wrong.Sukunai wrote:Any time one makes a claim and is incapable of providing verifiable evidence, the person might as well not bother making the claim.
Someone says they believe in god, so what. They claim all manner of evidence, but in the end none of it is worth anything accept to the believer.
I can hold up a rock and say the rock proves everything the average atypical religious person believes in, is based on flawed thinking. But you don't really know if I even have a rock in my hand right now, or if it has been properly carbon dated either.
I might as well talk about the dragon in my garage. But wait, you can't even be sure I have the garage.
Evidence isn't evidence of anything until it's offered. And right now you are not going to be getting any proof I have a garage.
You're falling into the same trap that the religious fall into. You expect to have an answer provided for you BEFORE it's proven to answer anything. And proof doesn't come in the form of "faith". Proof is like the sensation of drowning because you can't breath under water. Proof is like holding your hand in a flame and knowing that fire burns.
That is why you can claim anything you wish to claim. But, in the absence of it being verified, you have proven nothing to another.
Granted, it is possible to know a truth, and have no way to prove you have found that truth, and it still being the truth.
When I depart this life, you won't be getting any closer to the truth of what happens next, from me
Anime, one of the few things about the internet that doesn't make me hate the internet.



