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jwhendy comments on Recent de-convert saturated by religious community; advice? - Less Wrong Discussion
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You bring up a fantastic point. Everything is covered by clever apologists. This is why I said HERE that believers don't seem to be bothered by anything.
I brought up the infamous prayer study to a believer and she said that one "couldn't put god in a test tube." I asked if the study had turned out quite positive for prayer's efficacy if she would have stood by it and, perhaps obviously, she said (emphatically), "No." I highly doubt this, especially since people push Lourdes Miracles as worthy of investigation for the purposes of building belief. I don't see much difference between the two except that in one, people were expectantly watching and in the other, they weren't.
Yeah, good point. Perhaps I should resolve to let the stream of rationality erode this rock over the next two-thousand years rather than worrying about the fact that I think people are wrong now.
In general, believers will always rationalize whatever they observe as what their religion predicts they should observe. They function on the assumption that it all adds up to normality, so the "sensible" interpretation is always the one that explains what they actually see. In the event that they can be swayed by evidence at all, it's usually because they don't know what reality says, and so they're forced to draw upon the most reasonable interpretation of their religion without reference to the data. This way, when reality contradicts their interpretations, they know that the most obvious interpretation of their religion doesn't explain reality.