Bad Intellifundie Arguments

Here are two typical Intellifundie arguments that I have heard many times, most recently from Moshe.

1. You take many things on faith, for example your existence, so why not God?
2. I have intuition that God exists (or that TMS is true).

And here is why these arguments don't work.

1. This can be countered in two ways, each of which is independantly strong enough to reduce the argument to naught:

1a. A secheldic person takes nothing on faith. I think therefore I am. But I don't have faith that I exist in any actual way. I could be a brain in a jar, a figment of my imagination, a thought in the mind of God (or an alien), or in the matrix. Even according to Science what am I exactly? A collection of vibrating strings? And what are srtings made of? It's turtles (or strings) all the way down. The truth is since I'm thinking I can say I exist, but only because the definition of existence for me is to think. Any aspects of my existence apart from that are really an illusion, even (and especially) according to science. Solids are not actually "solid" and blue things are not actually "blue". So bottom line, I don't have any faith in any specific type of existence.

1b. Assuming I exist, and other minds are real, are basic assumptions that everyone has in order to function. However taking that basic assumption and then saying that we can also assume God, gods or the Loch Ness Monster exists is simply unwarranted. By the same logic we could assume anything exists. (Some Intellifendues will actually accept that just to win the argument).

A lot of skeptics go with 1b, but I think 1a is actually closer to the truth, certainly for me. I don't assume or have faith in anything where there is no evidence, unless it's from a biased perspective. Also, this argument doesn't really help the believers. Once you go radically skeptical, then nothing is real, and certainly not God.

2. Intuition is an interesting concept. What is it exactly? At some level, it is just a reflection of someone's experience and expertise. At another level, you could argue it's some kind of spooky ESP or something. But either way, it's idiotic for anyone to claim they have intuition unless they have a proven track record of being right. If I say I have intuition about who will win the World Series, and I get it right year after year, then I have something credible. If I say I have intuition but I have never gotten it right, or this is first time, then it's hit or miss. For people to say they have intuition that God exists, or that TMS is true, is simply another way of saying that they feel God exists or TMS is true. In other words bias! Now if they have a track record of being correct about the existence of supernatural entities then that would be another matter. But of course they don't.

I find it funny how the Intellifundies can't step out of their subjective brains for a second, look back at themselves from a more objective standpoint and just admit their bias. I guess that's hard to do, because that would open up a can of worms for them, which could be quite painful.

A few intellifundie's agree they are biased, but then say 'so is everyone'. There are two responses to that:

1. No, many people are not that biased, and attempt to discern the truth from an objective standpoint as possible. You're not even trying.

2. Everyone speaks loshon horah too, does that mean you should?

Bottom line: Of course all these faith based beliefs are due to bias i.e. emotionally wanting these beliefs to be true due to extranaeous reasons. And that's not neccessarily bad or wrong.