I never called anyone irrational for not believing in elves. I only said that a perfectly rational person would keep the possibility open.
Please stop exaggerating my arguments (and those of, for instance, the Book of Mormon) in order to make them easier to dismiss. It’s an elementary logical fallacy which I’m finding quite a lot of here.
I never called anyone irrational for not believing in elves.
You kinda did:
A chance of 0 or effectively 0 is not conducive to a rational analysis of the situation.
In my own personal assessment, the probability of Keebler Elves existing is about the same as the probability of any major deities existing—which is why I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it. My assessment is not dogmatic, though; if I met a Keebler Elf in person, or saw some reputable photographic evidence of one, or something like that, then I’d adjust the probability upward.
I think it depends on the deity; for example, Thor doesn’t have issues with theodicy, either. But, IMO, at this point we’re pretty much down to discussing which epsilon is smaller; and in practice, the difference is negligible.
I never called anyone irrational for not believing in elves. I only said that a perfectly rational person would keep the possibility open.
Please stop exaggerating my arguments (and those of, for instance, the Book of Mormon) in order to make them easier to dismiss. It’s an elementary logical fallacy which I’m finding quite a lot of here.
You kinda did:
In my own personal assessment, the probability of Keebler Elves existing is about the same as the probability of any major deities existing—which is why I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it. My assessment is not dogmatic, though; if I met a Keebler Elf in person, or saw some reputable photographic evidence of one, or something like that, then I’d adjust the probability upward.
I’d assign a higher probability to Keebler Elves than to an interventionist diety. Keebler Elves don’t have issues with theodicy.
I think it depends on the deity; for example, Thor doesn’t have issues with theodicy, either. But, IMO, at this point we’re pretty much down to discussing which epsilon is smaller; and in practice, the difference is negligible.