Can You Prove It Didn't Happen?

[Orrex]

72. You are *STILL* depending entirely on majority opinion

Millions of people believe in ghosts and UFOs and psychic healings and astral projection. Their belief and their testimony are unpersuasive.

Even the majority to which you are appealing is a lot smaller than you want to pretend it is, because those billions sure as shit don't all believe the same thing.

I will give you a clue: it's not, "It means that people have thrown up their collective hands and said 'we believe you.'"

Actually, that's exactly what it means. Revelation is either a direct personal experience or uncontested hearsay. Your refusal to accept this is irrelevant.

The only reason to accept as conclusive the beliefs of "billions of people for thousands of years" is because those beliefs coincide with one's own sufficiently to provide an aesthetically satisfying explanation.

Now, rejecting an answer, or diverting it, or reframing it, does not mean you have not received an answer. It means you either don't get it or you don't like it.

Bullshit. That's as foolish as saying "God answers all prayers and sometimes the answer is no." It might be comforting for someone who chooses not to examine the issue critically, but it's not an answer.

Your continued assertion that you or (or the many before you) have answered the question is delightful but meaningless. You don't simply get to declare the question answered by fiat.

If you understood either revelation - or hearsay - you'd realize any report of a spiritual revelation is perforce a second-hand account. And? Whether you realize it or not, people are sent to prison daily on hearsay.

And often they are erroneously sent to prison based on hearsay. You're willing to base your understanding of the universe on something as flawed has human testimony? I find that pitiable.

It almost sounds like you dismiss revelations because you personally haven't had one.

Nope. I dismiss revelations because, as you note, they are "perforce a second-hand account" and are insufficient to serve as evidence of transcendent reality.

And although I know you don't like it, it is nevertheless true that the only way to accept someone else's alleged revelation as truth is to throw up your hands and say "I believe you."