Agnostic Nudists on the Serengeti

in #religion8 years ago

That which you don't believe can never hurt you.

Roger and Emma, two nudist Political Science majors from an east coast American university, hired a bush pilot to fly them across Africa for their first spring break adventure together. Sadly, their King Air 200 aircraft went down somewhere in the middle of the Serengeti Plain and their pilot didn't survive.

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Fortunately for them, some of the locals saw their plane go down and quickly pulled them from the wreckage.

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The leader of the locals explained that they had very little contact with the outside world but the students were welcome to stay with them as long as they used whatever skills they had to earn their keep.

Being products of the liberal American education system, they of course had no skills that would be useful is such a situation, so they were given unskilled labor tasks and corresponding subsistence accommodations.

This quickly became unacceptable to Roger and Emma, so they decided to set out on foot in search of civilization. The locals tried to warn them that two unclad and equally unskilled people would not last a day on foot in the Serengeti. They were told about the predators they would encounter. Giant cats weighing hundreds of pounds able to run across the plain at twenty times the speed of a human.

Being products of the liberal American education system, Roger and Emma had never heard of such a thing. They had never been to a zoo and had grown up spending all their time on video games and partying with their friends. Cats couldn't possibly grow that big and besides, it would be unfair for them to have such an advantage and immoral for them to attack innocent people in any case.

Roger disdainfully informed the locals that he was an Apreditorist and didn't believe in such animals. Emma was merely Agnostic about it, but like all Agnostics was certain that what she didn't know couldn't hurt her. Besides, they had both amassed enough participation trophies since grade school to have very high levels of self-esteem. They were sure there was nothing they couldn't handle on their own.

Roger fell back on his liberal training. "What proof do you have that such predators exist?" The locals looked at him in disbelief and the leader said, "Each of us has seen what these cats can do to to their prey. One swipe of their claw can disembowel any animal you could imagine! Some of us have even been eyewitnesses to such things."

Roger scoffed. "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof! You guys are still in the bronze age here. Your stories have no credibility at all! Most have probably been handed down for generations by word of mouth growing in ridiculousness with every retelling! Besides, you are just making all this up to scare us into working for you forever!"

The leader merely shrugged, "We have done our duty to you." He and the rest of the village went on about their business.

Roger and Emma hiked off into the sunset, enjoying the fresh breeze across their bare skin and smugly laughing at the superstitions of the Serengeti people. After all, foolish notions for which there is not 100% proof could hardly be a threat to anybody.

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Meanwhile on the other side of the planet in Ireland we have a naive little boy named Staniel. Staniel believes whatever he's told and doesn't ask questions. He is the product of being raised by religious parents that believe in magic and superstitions.

Because Staniel was raised to believe anything he's told regardless of how absurd it seems and even if there is a total lack of evidence to support it, Staniel never developed critical thinking.

Staniel wasn't long for this earth he ended up falling off a cliff while chasing rainbows to find the pot of gold. Staniel thought he could fly because magic was real.

I'll admit that I know what I know because I first trusted what I learned from my ancestors as a child.
As a result, I have been willing to invest the time needed to examine the evidence and become sufficiently convinced for myself.
You, of course, have no incentive to spend that kind of time if you secretly believe (or desperately hope) there is nothing worth investigating.
But then, that's not really being agnostic, is it?

" if you secretly believe there is nothing worth investigating."

LOL you still don't get it. You keep trying to push beliefs on me. The consistent use of straw man arguments is quite telling. Why are you afraid of debating the topic fairly without trying to constantly force beliefs that you wish I held on me?

Is it because you envy my ability to be comfortable with mystery? Does my lack of beliefs cause you some sort of anxiety over your own?

You ought to read all my posts before jumping to such conclusions.

I have already done my duty to you.

If you would like to have a debate on something, make a post and I'll engage you there. This particular post is not pushing any particular belief and I'd like for it not to go down any rabbit trails that distract from it's intended role of poking fun at agnostics.

Note that the only moral to the story is:

  • Saying you "don't know" does not absolve you of the risks you incur from not knowing.
  • The burden of proof lies with the person taking the risk not the person providing the warning.
  • You have to decide what negative assurances you need to walk out into the Serengeti having been warned that the opposite of what you hope is true.
  • You require 100% proof on the warning side but 0% proof on the assurance side.

This applies to all questions, not just theological questions.

I provided the simple parable for pedagogical purposes.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

LOL I had a post, it inspired this post and you invited me here. Why would I make another post about it?

All you've done is construct a bizarre straw man. The straw man itself is even riddled with logical flaws. The biggest one being that cats exist and are known to exist all over the world.

To say that there are large cats is not an extraordinary claim. We don't have any gods that we know exist and can point to. The credibility of those giving the advice is far superior to anyone gabbing about god. There are reasons to tentatively trust the villages based on evidence.

Your tale actually betrays the weakness of your argument for being so absurd to begin with. It's not a real life scenario. People know lions exist from the outset the premise is absurd. You've had to purposefully craft it to remove normalcy and protect your bias.

It's just getting awkward and cringe worthy.

Let me know if you'd like to drop the straw men.

I shouldn't have to read all your posts to be able to have an honest debate.

That which you don't believe can never hurt you.

I do not believe in carnivore lions.

I'm banking on the 90% @stan (lol) :-O

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