-Leviticus 20:9
Argumentum ad populum. What is that? It means 'appeal to the people' and can be summed up in the common theistic argument, "How could so many people believe it if it was wrong?" or similarly, "Why would so many people endure such persecution for nothing?" This is a nothing argument, because the fact the people agree with you does not make your argument more valid. Eighty percent of people believe they are above average. This means 30% of people are flat out wrong (coincidentally, 31% of the world population are Christian). A huge number of children believe in Santa. That does not make him real. For centuries people believed in witches and witchcraft, but any sensible person today dismisses this as laughable. The entire Greco-Roman Empire had their mythology, which we flat out deny as being real. Everyone is an atheist with respect to all gods that came before their own; I simply go one step further. Countless example of argumentum ad populum can be cited, the earth is flat, there are no continents in the ocean west of Europe, God exists, the tooth fairy exists, etc. All of these things are or were believed and accepted to be totally true by a large portion of a population, but that does not mean they are true.
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| apenotmonkey.com |
I always wondered whether or not prominent religions today would exist in a thousand years. I find your comment about 31% of the world's population being Christian as interesting. You are raising some good arguments here :)
ReplyDeleteThe cartoon is a Straw Man. I know of no apologist that makes the claim that Christianity is true because of the number of adherents. It is essentially refuting an argument that does not get made.
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