Rational beliefs should be able to withstand scrutiny and opposing arguments. The inability to do so indicates that the belief is more about personal bias and emotional investment rather than objective analysis.
This is not unpopular nor is this an opinion
This is literally the process of falsification in the scientific method.
Doesn’t seem to be very popular
Absolute horseshit.
What’s the counterargument to the belief that nothing exists outside of nature, that religion is a bunch of fairy tales?
LOL, bro, is your actual counter to this putting on the fedora and flexing the neckbeard as hard as you can?
Religion is clearly rubbish! How can you argue against that!
If you were actually an atheist of any caliber, you would be familiar with apologetics enough to not be so dismissive in an inadvertently hilarious manner.
Christ. This really is Reddit.
I guess I’m emotional about whether I should breathe oxygen or not.
That’s not exactly what I mean by belief and you know it.
Speaking of sincere counter-arguments…
I dunno, sounds like your belief doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, you’re getting pretty emotional about it
What’s the sincere counter-argument to this belief?
I posted it below already
Counter-argument for this would be that some deeply held ethical convictions might be difficult to argue against because they are based on fundamental values that many consider non-negotiable. These beliefs can be rational, yet difficult to counter without feeling a profound moral dissonance. “Don’t litter” would be a good example that’s really difficult to honestly argue against.
I believe gravity is real.
I just can’t come up with a sincere counter-argument.
I must be extremely biased and emotional.
Removed by mod
Counter-argument for this would be that some deeply held ethical convictions might be difficult to argue against because they are based on fundamental values that many consider non-negotiable. These beliefs can be rational, yet difficult to counter without feeling a profound moral dissonance. “Don’t litter” would be a good example that’s really difficult to honestly argue against.
Wonderful observation.
It’s really our duty to be familiar with both sides and be ready to debate.
Of course, exception guy will be in the thread pointing out extreme edge cases in which we all agree that there is no alternative to the accepted opinion (“R*pe is bad, mmkay?”)… But this is besides the point.
In that case a counter argument is to appeal to the predator not knowing what he/she was doing which can happen. However it does not make the act of ruining a person’s life justifiable and the predator should be held accountable.
Everybody makes mistakes, but mistakes on this level are still bad.
“Sincere” doesnt seem right or relevant. and “counter argument” is a bit too adversarial for me. You’ll get sucked into bad-faith tennis matches with flat earthers; which is just a waste of time.
So +1 unpopular - but it’s not far off.
If you’d said . . . “you should consider a range of different hypotheses, grant them equal respect and try to gather (and assess) evidence in a way that is not biased for or against any of the hypotheses. You should then see which of the hypotheses seems most likely given the evidence.”
Then i’d agree. And I’m not sure how unpopular it’d be. Science vs not-Science.
But if your hypotheses are: H0: A is true. H1: A is false. Then I don’t see how you can be “sincere” about both if you literally believe A in the first place.
You probably do have to be open to the possibility of being wrong - so maybe the tough part is actually being a little insincere about H0. It’s the evidence that should decide afterall.
The point I’m trying to get at is that if you can’t lay out the counter-argument your opponent would make against your view in a way that they would agree with (steelmanning) then you’re not debating in good-faith. It doesn’t automatically mean you’re wrong - it’s possible to be right by accident or intuition too, but it does cast doubt on the quality of one’s reasoning.
This thread is a good example of that. “I believe the sun will rise tomorrow” and “I need to breathe oxygen” are not good-faith counters to my argument. They’re the opposite of that; strawmans. I’m perfectly willing to admit there are edge cases where this way of reasoning falls short (rocks are hard, fire is hot, water is wet …) but I don’t feel like that in any way refutes what is the essence of what I’m saying.
