NDE, Dowsing, Faith Healing, and Magic Rock Believer Mocks Flat Earthers

[malkie]

Except everyone that has ever sailed at all knows another ship sailing away from view appears to sink into the ocean.

Yes. You see that in the distance. But the boat you are in, that you are experiencing, does not feel as though it is going over a hill. It feels like you are sailing along on a flat (but maybe choppy ) earth.

You mean that you don't experience the roller-coaster effect when you reach the top of the hill and start running down the other side?

[Physics Guy]

The fact that the Earth isn’t flat, but has a radius of nearly 4000 miles, is a good metaphor for the general fallacy of extrapolation. Ideas that work well within a wide range of contexts can nonetheless break down badly under more extreme circumstances. Not recognizing this, and so applying familiar rules beyond their range of validity, could be a generalized kind of Flat Earthism.

Believing highly implausible things, because of evidence that would only suffice to establish much less implausible things, could be considered an example of this kind of generalized Flat Earthism. Accepting an angel with plates because of eyewitness testimony that might be persuasive about whether it rained last night is like assuming that geometry that works well over a few city blocks can be trusted to place things over thousands of miles.

[canpakes]

There's a horizon, but unless you're on a seashore or a wide plain, the horizon seems just to be due to hills or buildings or trees …

I stupidly walked through the back door of one of those buildings one time without thinking to look first, and fell for days. It was extremely unnerving.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

There's a horizon, but unless you're on a seashore or a wide plain, the horizon seems just to be due to hills or buildings or trees …

I stupidly walked through the back door of one of those buildings one time without thinking to look first, and fell for days. It was extremely unnerving.

Ha! One upvote

[Physics Guy]

I stupidly walked through the back door of one of those buildings one time without thinking to look first, and fell for days. It was extremely unnerving.

[Resists temptation to calculate the subsequent trajectory falling under a flat Earth]

[I Have Questions]

DCP believes that not eating food for 24 hours and saying a prayer can conjure up, or stop, rainfall somewhere on the planet. But thinks flat earthers hold a ridiculous belief. Is believing in a “flat earth” (which is more nuanced when you dive into it than you might expect) any more irrational than believing in the Jaredite Barges, or that Jesus died and came back from the dead? Is there any more scientific evidence for resurrection than there is for the flat earth theories?

I’m surprised that DCP chose to mock people who believe in a flat earth. He wasn’t forced into it. He wasn’t asked to review them. He went looking and made a choice. He chose to mock the belief of others. Within days of President Oaks exhorting members to not do that exact thing. Peterson has figuratively stuck the middle finger up at President Oaks. Nobody tells Peterson he cannot mock other beliefs.

Dan, how are you justifying to yourself that you sustain President Oaks, but can continue mocking and disrespecting the memory of Christopher Hitchens?

Were someone to treat your mother’s memory as disrespectfully as the way you treat Christopher Hitchens’ memory (whose kids are still around to see you doing it) how would you feel about it?

These are genuine questions that I hope you will ponder.

[huckelberry]

DCP believes that not eating food for 24 hours and saying a prayer can conjure up, or stop, rainfall somewhere on the planet. But thinks flat earthers hold a ridiculous belief. Is believing in a “flat earth” (which is more nuanced when you dive into it than you might expect) any more irrational than believing in the Jaredite Barges, or that Jesus died and came back from the dead? Is there any more scientific evidence for resurrection than there is for the flat earth theories?

I’m surprised that DCP chose to mock people who believe in a flat earth. He wasn’t forced into it. He wasn’t asked to review them. He went looking and made a choice. He chose to mock the belief of others. Within days of President Oaks exhorting members to not do that exact thing. Peterson has figuratively stuck the middle finger up at President Oaks. Nobody tells Peterson he cannot mock other beliefs.

Dan, how are you justifying to yourself that you sustain President Oaks, but can continue mocking and disrespecting the memory of Christopher Hitchens?

Were someone to treat your mother’s memory as disrespectfully as the way you treat Christopher Hitchens’ memory (whose kids are still around to see you doing it) how would you feel about it?

These are genuine questions that I hope you will ponder.

Question, to my view a person who makes themselves known for polemical ends is fairly treated by reverse criticism. In fact to fail to meet Hitchens on his own terms (polemics) is to disrespect him. Far better to openly criticize than to smile and falsely nod one's head.

I am happy DP speaks his mind instead of offering silence. He can go overboard at times, I still prefer that to silence.

And in that spirit of disagreement I note I do not think DP or other believers imagine fasting and prayer conjures up anything. They are requesting help from God. The request actions are not a power. In the same sense everybody knows dead people have no power to come back to life. Some people believe the power of God raised Jesus from the dead. Flat earth is a very different matter. The earth is present to us to learn about. We observe unlike reported miracles which we cannot hold, observe, and dissect.

A person might decide flat earth and miracles are both false. There is difference in the ground of those separate conclusions. On the other hand a person may believe in God And miracles and realize the earth is not flat.

[drumdude]

DCP believes that not eating food for 24 hours and saying a prayer can conjure up, or stop, rainfall somewhere on the planet. But thinks flat earthers hold a ridiculous belief. Is believing in a “flat earth” (which is more nuanced when you dive into it than you might expect) any more irrational than believing in the Jaredite Barges, or that Jesus died and came back from the dead? Is there any more scientific evidence for resurrection than there is for the flat earth theories?

I’m surprised that DCP chose to mock people who believe in a flat earth. He wasn’t forced into it. He wasn’t asked to review them. He went looking and made a choice. He chose to mock the belief of others. Within days of President Oaks exhorting members to not do that exact thing. Peterson has figuratively stuck the middle finger up at President Oaks. Nobody tells Peterson he cannot mock other beliefs.

Dan, how are you justifying to yourself that you sustain President Oaks, but can continue mocking and disrespecting the memory of Christopher Hitchens?

Were someone to treat your mother’s memory as disrespectfully as the way you treat Christopher Hitchens’ memory (whose kids are still around to see you doing it) how would you feel about it?

These are genuine questions that I hope you will ponder.

I think it’s poor taste to bring his mother into it, no matter how poorly DCP treats Hitchens’ memory.

I find Dan’s posts about his lost loved ones endearing, there’s nothing in them to find fault with.

I imagine it’s hard getting older and having so many close loved ones gone from your life. I am not looking forward to that.

[I Have Questions]

I think it’s poor taste to bring his mother into it, no matter how poorly DCP treats Hitchens’ memory.

If Hitchins was your father or a personal relation then you might feel differently, no?

I find Dan’s posts about his lost loved ones endearing, there’s nothing in them to find fault with.

Where did I find fault with his post about his mother, or any of his posts about his relatives?

I imagine it’s hard getting older and having so many close loved ones gone from your life. I am not looking forward to that.

Yes, must e hard for those people related to Christopher Hitchins too, no?

[I Have Questions]

Question, to my view a person who makes themselves known for polemical ends is fairly treated by reverse criticism. In fact to fail to meet Hitchens on his own terms (polemics) is to disrespect him. Far better to openly criticize than to smile and falsely nod one's head.

I agree. Were Peterson to spend everyday addressing Hitchins argument instead of mocking the man, then you'd have a point. Posting an example of something religious people have done that's good, is in no way Peterson addressing Hitchins on his own terms.

Posting a "good news" story about something Mormons have done, purely as a way of facilitating a snide little mocking reference to Hitchins, ironically makes Hitchins' point. Peterson is poisoning the good news because he's using it for the sole purpose of throwing shade at Hitchins.