People don't like it when you question their beliefs, as you can see from the comments in my Prayer Doesn't Help Sick People entry. One of the tamer replies was from Leon:
Prayer does work. I've seen it's effect. I've seen cancer patients whose tumours suddenly disappear. No "placebo effect" can do that.
Here's the problem with that statement...
It's anecdotal. Basically, Leon is asking me to take his word for it. He's seen it (he says), so I should believe it.
I replied to Leon, asking for documentation. What do you think the odds are of getting it?
See, here is what people don't understand. I'd love to believe that there is a loving God up there somewhere, looking out for me. I'd love to believe that when I die, I'll be reunited with my son, my wife, and my friends and family someday.
But I'm not going to believe in something just because it makes me feel better. Humans can fool themselves into believing a lot of things. Your wish for it to be true can affect your objectivity. And when I say "How do you know?" to people, the answers I get are always, "Well, I've seen it. Or heard of it."
The late great Carl Sagan wrote a wonderful book that everyone should read, called The Demon-Haunted World. In one of the chapters, he talks about "The Dragon in My Garage". Here is a synopsis, from NewSpeakDictionary.com:
"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage."
Suppose I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!
"Show me", you say, and I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle - but no dragon
"Where's the dragon", you ask.
"Oh, she's right here", I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon".
You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints. "Good idea", I say, "but this dragon floats in the air". Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. "Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless", I say. You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. "Good idea, except she's an incorporeal (bodyless) dragon and the paint won't stick!"
And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.
Now what is the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? You're inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.
Do you see the analogy?
People say God exists. Prayer works.
Okay, I answer. Prove it. Show me.
Reply?
Can't do that. God's invisible. Or, He's in Heaven, you can't see him.
Well, okay. If you can't see him, how do you know he is really there?
I get various answers to this one. The universe exists so someone must have created it, they feel him in their heart, or some other such nonsense. But we can't see God, we can't talk to him (at least, he doesn't answer), we can't buy him lunch, or find any other evidence of his existence. (See God of the Gaps -- click here.)
So back to the dragon. What is the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?
And what is the difference between a God that you can't see, can't hear, can't touch, and no god at all?
Leon continues,
It's a shame you have more faith in a man's word than the word of the Creator of the Universe.
Yes. Well. Shame on me.
I get reproached by some people, saying I "act like I'm superior" to religious believers. I don't feel I'm superior; but I do feel that if you're going to believe something, you need to have a good reason to believe it. Yet I get the above kinds of statements all the time.
Shame on you, Mr. Martian. Shame, shame, for not believing in the myth that I believe in.
In addition, let's analyze Leon's statement. He says I have more faith in a man's word than in the Creator's. That sentence assumes that there is a Creator. But more importantly, this sentence underscores the faulty logic that a lot of believers use.
I don't have "faith" in anything. And outside of the particular myth that they are addicted to, neither do most people, though they've never thought about it.
When faced with a ridiculous claim, most people demand evidence.
After all, if I were to tell a Christian believer like Leon that I really am from Mars, would he believe me? Probably not.
Well, just have faith, I would say. It's a shame that you need it to be proven to you.
But that's ridiculous, he might answer. It's a lie -- or a myth. Or I'm crazy.
So what makes his particular myth any better than mine?
Nothing.
It comes down to evidence. If you can't back up a claim with evidence, it is not worth considering.
And by the way -- this doesn't mean you can't have a sense of wonder. The universe is an amazing, strange, incredible place, and there is so much in the real world to be amazed at.
You don't have to settle for a myth.
Read more of the Martian's writings here.