{"id":98,"date":"2009-09-28T07:33:30","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T07:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/?p=98"},"modified":"2009-10-20T20:07:18","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T20:07:18","slug":"chapter-17b-i-think-therefore-you-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/belief\/logic\/chapter-17b-i-think-therefore-you-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 17b – I Think, Therefore You Are"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circular logic of one kind or another is common in many religions. Christianity teaches us to believe in God because the Bible tells us to, and that the Bible must be correct because God wrote it. Not allowing to question<\/em> and doubt<\/em> is also some sort of circular defense mechanism of religions: Questioning means you\u2019re in doubt and do not have enough faith. Yet, the \u201cfaith package\u201d itself arrives with the built-in ban on questioning. This is true for Christianity, as well as for Islam and Judaism.<\/p>\n

In a previous chapter, we already mentioned the wonderful logical statement \u201cThere\u2019s no proof that there\u2019s no God\u201d. Perhaps this is the proper time to complement that statement with a well-known joke:<\/p>\n

A couple went on vacation to a fishing resort up north. The husband liked to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife liked to read. One morning the husband returned after several hours of fishing and decided to take a short nap. Although she wasn\u2019t familiar with the lake, the wife decided to take the boat. She rowed out a short distance, anchored, and returned to reading her book.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Along came the sheriff in his boat. He pulled up alongside her and said, \u201cGood morning, Ma\u2019am. What are you doing?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cReading my book,\u201d she replied \u2026as she thought to herself, \u201cisn\u2019t it obvious?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re in a restricted fishing area,\u201d he informed her.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBut officer, I\u2019m not fishing. Can\u2019t you see that?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYes, but you have all the equipment. I\u2019ll have to take you in and write you up.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIf you do that, I\u2019ll have to charge you with rape,\u201d snapped the irate woman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBut, I haven\u2019t even touched you,\u201d groused the sheriff.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYes, that\u2019s true,\u201d she replied, \u201cbut you have all the equipment.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then, perhaps the most disturbing and truly amazing logical conflict is the one that deals with democracy and pluralism. It\u2019s best described as \u201cHelp us to make you unable to help!\u201d<\/p>\n

1991-1992 was a rather tempestuous election time in Algeria. The Islamic Salvation Front<\/em> (FIS), an Islamic fundamentalist organization intent on governing by Koranic law, made huge gains in the elections. The elections were considered fair, but still the fundamentalist victory made people think that future elections were not going to be so democratic. Eventually, the regime cancelled the elections that would have created a Muslim state.<\/p>\n

In 1997, Mr. Israel Eichler (who later became an Israeli parliament member, in an Orthodox Jewish religious political party) was a regular guest on Israeli TV talk shows. On one particular show one of the discussions focused on a case of a large Orthodox Jewish family, which \u2013 for some reason \u2013 wanted to live within a closed secular community.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must accept them,\u201d said Mr. Eichler, \u201cyou believe in pluralism!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you accept me and my family in your ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood?\u201d asked one of the secular participants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf-course not,\u201d said Mr. Eichler, \u201cwe do not believe in pluralism!\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no worse method of abusing the term \u201cfreedom of speech\u201d than using it to promote religious ideas that encourage control of speech and thought. Similarly, there\u2019s no worse method of abusing the term \u201cdemocracy\u201d than using it to promote a religious anti-democratic regime. It\u2019s as fair as using your feet in a basketball game. Either you take part in the pluralistic game and obey its rules, or you don\u2019t, but please choose your arena clearly!<\/p>\n

In February 1999 there was a big ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstration against the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) people demonstrated against the court\u2019s recent decisions, which they seemed to dislike. In a nearby park, a much smaller demonstration was spontaneously formed, of non-religious people who protested against this mass abuse of democracy. Two of them held a big sign that read \u201cDaddy, why didn\u2019t you protest when it was still allowed?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<< Prev<\/a> Contents<\/a> Next >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Circular logic of one kind or another is common in many religions. Christianity teaches us to believe in God because the Bible tells us to, and that the Bible must be correct because God wrote it. Not allowing to question and doubt is also some sort of circular defense mechanism of religions: Questioning means you\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,14,10,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-book","category-logic","category-the-truth-is-wrong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}