The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128796   Message #2886830
Posted By: Bill D
14-Apr-10 - 08:23 PM
Thread Name: BS: 'Near Death? It's a Gas!'
Subject: RE: BS: 'Near Death? It's a Gas!'
" Why do you discuss it so much, Bill?

Oh boy...a direct query! Brace yourself....

Because, besides it just being 'interesting' to compare notes on stuff, my major interest (an 'almost' career as a philosopher) is promoting reasoned, rational, logical thinking, and I see and hear (everyday..not just here) a lot of flawed assertions and reasoning in defending them.
Now, it IS possible to make a 'true' statement using bad logic and flawed reasoning....just as it is possible to zoom thru a stop sign at 90 MPH.... but in neither case is it a good idea to depend on the results. I have complained for years that IF I am right about whatever happens after death, I don't get to say "I told you so".
As to "so why not just put up with the fact that you don't know for sure?"... I DO put up with it! What I don't put up with is others telling me they DO know. This is important (to me) for a couple of reasons.
1) People who assure me that they DO know certain basically unknowable things also act, vote and judge differently from those who are, like me, skeptics. This appears most seriously in stuff like attempts to introduce religious principles into political decisions and basing their decisions on emotional 'slogans' rather than evaluating actual conditions...but they also often conduct 'human interactions' using paths of reasoning that tend to lead to conflicts.
2)There is a 'tendency' these days in education to concentrate more on 'adjustment' rather than learning. I see language skills, math, history...etc., being watered down to facilitate 'getting along', and it is reflected in societal conflicts being more common and serious.
It is MY contention that IF people learned basic techniques of language and reason ...starting early... they would find more common ground. (And yes....there **IS** such a thing as 'correct' reasoning, just as there are correct math answers. Correct reasoning does not automatically solve everything, but it avoids many really bad ideas and decisions.
(I have posted a dozen times, and may many times more, the important principle " From false premises, anything follows!". The import of that is: Many people have little idea what their odd beliefs and assertions have as implied premises. They start from superstition and slogans that they like, then resort to startlingly flawed rationalizations to defend them!)

Thus, most of my arguments here are in the line of "you don't have a really good basis for that assertion, and I wish you'd either modify it or provide a disclaimer like 'this is my working hypothesis'"...etc.

I have also said many times that I don't need or expect anyone to alter any basic belief in order to discuss it...but IF they toss it out as revealed truth, they may get grumpy ol' me stating the other side of the issue.....just because I want to leave the best alternative view possible for fence-sitters....and Max says this forum will be here a LONG time.. *grin*

So...aren't you glad you asked?