Unable to debunk this, HELP!

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Cognostic's picture
You can convince yourself of

You can convince yourself of almost anything. Believing is seeing. That is why we invented science. Science rips the ideas out of your brain and testes them against reality. Ideas that are not supported by the world around us, can be discarded. Whether they are true or not, we have no justification to believe them until such time as we have evidence. When you hear something weird, like this egg magic crap, do as you have done, make it a habit, seek out the facts and evidence. Belief is allocated to the degree of evidence available for any claim.

Old man shouts at clouds's picture
@ Cog

@ Cog

Also, it helps to have farmed chickens.....

Seek3R's picture
After reading a book which I

After reading a book which I've been wanting to read for a long time about faulty reasoning and going through several examples of argument from ignorance, here is what I've understood what everyone, especially Sheldon, was trying to tell me in this topic:

----

CONCLUSION:

The practitioners of divination of eggs commit the argument from ignorance fallacy when they associate supernatural causes to a phenomenon (different egg appearances) because of their lack of knowledge of the topic. They are obviously not farmers or holders of degrees in poultry science and this leads to the "argument from ignorance".

Furthermore, the claims made by these people cause the burden of proof to be on them and since these claims are unsupported, the entire topic of divination of eggs can be dismissed.

In summary, it's bullshit because the claimants committed the argument from ignorance fallacy and assumed what they saw was supernatural. And then, what they assumed was not just assumptions but rather direct claims and since these claims had no empirical evidence, it makes their whole position in the argument to be not just weak but entirely invalid.

What I did wrong, then, is the following:

1) Encountered "oomancy" or divination by eggs ritual and ignored the burden of proof principle i.e. the claimant (the one who claimed supernatural causes for the egg appearances) has the burden
2) Usually the claimant attempts to shift the burden of proof on the opponent but in this situation, I took the "honor" of shifting it upon myself
3) I then researched for hours on the causes behind those particular appearances of the egg but somehow ended up being unable to find one for the point #29
4) The difference between me and the oomancy believers at this point was that DUE TO THE SHIFTED BURDEN OF PROOF on me by myself and because of my researching, those believers thought all the 29 appearances indicated something supernatural while I found out that 28 of them were completely natural
5) I then asked a question on Atheist Republic about the biological explanation of #29 because I feared that no natural explanation of it meant that the supernatural association to it might be true. Here is when I committed the argument from ignorance fallacy. Next, I did receive a reply and then several replies about this #29 which made me research again and realize that this too was natural. However that didn't change the fact that I could've avoided all the fuss by knowing the burden of proof principle and the argument from ignorance fallacy
6) It all ended when I incurred the wrath of Sheldon and that made me so angry that I became ashamed of myself and started reading a book on faulty reasoning which then led me to understand that my logical reasoning was fucked up and I don't know what the fuck was I even doing.

THE END. Makes any sense? Did I get the CONCLUSION part correct?

Old man shouts at clouds's picture
@ Seeke3

@ Seeke3

Well done you. Forgive old Shelley, we have been beset by fools even more than normal just recently and it did seem you may have been just one more in a line of the gullible. Good for you that you did all this research and on top of that learned something new about reasoning and the burden of proof!

Well done....

Cognostic's picture
@Seek3R: That! Or they

@Seek3R: That! Or they are just lying. What is the point of overthinking all this nonsense.

Sheldon's picture
Seek3r seems to think he can

Seek3r seems to think he can rehash the same fallacious claims again and again, ignore rational objections as if they aren't relevant, and then spit his dummy out when someone points out how tediously dishonest this.

I get enough of that from theists like Jo.

Not having an explanation for something doesn't validate unevidenced claims. This is the very definition of an appeal to ignorance fallacy. I look forward to his apology when he realises his thread was predicated on a known common logical fallacy. or not of course...my general experience suggests no reason for optimism here.

The real irony is I edited out several vituperations from the post he is sulking about. My patience may have been slightly dialled down over the last few days, as I have had to take a few days off work with an attack of diverticulitis, my second in 8 months. My life just keeps getting better and better, and I have a colonoscopy to look forward to yet, plus the inevitable dual with the doctor who "offends my honour" with the test.

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