Items in sci.skeptic

Subject:Re: Agnosticism is more LOGICAL
Date:1 Jul 2003 11:42:24 -0700
From:wen-king@myri.com (Wen-King Su)
Newsgroups:alt.atheism,sci.skeptic,talk.atheism
In a previous article "Rhode Island Red" <rirrooster2000@hotmail.com> writes:

:> :Not true. You cannot ever shift the burden of proof to the negation under
;> ;any pretext.
:>
;> No one is doing that.
:
;You are sir.

Prove it.

;The problem for you is that nobody ever has to prove that the hypothetical
:gods do not exist,;

Yes sure do.  Any one who claim other then the null hypothesis of god
may exist has to show that evidences warrant the deviation.

;you have the full burden of proof in the matter.

Those who accept the null hypothesis of "god may exist" have no duty
of proof.   It is the default hypothesis in absence of evidences to
suggest one way or another.

;because
;whifting the burden of proof is logical fallacy (argument _ad ignornatiam_).

No one is doing that.

;> ;This is a principle of valid argument (logic) thoroughly
:> :explained by Copi in his logic textbook.
;
:> ;<quote>
;> :Famous in the history of science is the argument _ad ignorantiam_ given
:in
;> ;criticism of Galileo, when he showed leading astronomers of his time the
:> :mountains and valleys on the moon that could be seen through his
;telescope.
:> ;Some scholars of that age, absolutely convinced that the moon was a
;perfect
:> :sphere, as theology and Aristotelian science had long taught, argued
;against
:> ;Galileo that, although we see what appear to be mountains and valleys,
;the
:> :moon is in fact a perfect sphere, because all its apparent irregularities
;> ;are filled in by an invisible crystalline substance. And this hypothesis,
:> :which saves the perfection of the heavenly bodies, Galileo could not
;prove
:> ;false!
;> :
:> ;Legend has it that Galileo, to expose the argument _ad ignorantium_,
;offered
:> :another of the same kind as a caricature. Unable to prove the
;nonexistence
:> ;of the transparent crystal supposedly filling the valleys, he put forward
;> :the equally probable hypothesis that there were, rearing up from the
:> ;invisible crystalline envelope on the moon, even greater mountain
;peaks --
:> :but made of crystal and thus invisible! And this hypothesis his critics
;> ;could not prove false.
:> :</quote>
;> ;(Copi and Cohen, _Introduction to Logic_, p. 117)
:> :---
;
:
;