Reason, Faith, Consensus & Government Decision-making Pt. 3

[pitcalco]

I have never been to Australia, but I believe that such a place exists. But it is within the realm of physical possibility that the whole world is just lying to me about such a place. How does such a matter fit in epistemologically?

[PaulMcKeever]

If the purported source of the belief is "God told me that Australia exists" or "We took a vote and 50%+1 of us were in favour of the view that Australia exists", then a strictly rational epistemology would treat the existence of Australia as a falsehood. (cont'd)

[PaulMcKeever]

If the purported source of the belief is "sailors travelled there and mapped it" or "satellites took this picture of it", and if there were no evidence to the contrary, then a strictly rational epistemology would treat the existence of Australia as rational if experience told one that the source of the information had demonstrated his word to be worthy of trust.

[PaulMcKeever]

On that standard, having investigated the claims made by Al Gore in his movie concerning ice core samples and alleged CO2-driven catastrophic global warming, I would not believe a word uttered to me by Al Gore...with the exception of the phrase "I've lied."

[pitcalco]

Thanks for that excellent answer.

[PaulMcKeever]

My pleasure.