How much evidence does it take to believe or to know?

Post by **Nyangor Otieno** » June 20th, 2024, 5:12 am

I think believing is a choice. Everything can be faked nowadays, which makes the evidence itself so hard to believe.

Post by **Pattern-chaser** » June 20th, 2024, 10:15 am

Nyangor Otieno wrote: ↑June 20th, 2024, 5:12 am I think believing is a choice. Everything can be faked nowadays, which makes the evidence itself so hard to believe.

Fact-checking, and the like, is your friend here, I think? The underlying problem is that almost nothing can actually be proven, so the conspiracy theorists are (sadly) right when they claim that evidence counter to their beliefs could've been faked...

night912 · Post by **night912** » June 20th, 2024, 11:07 am

Nyangor Otieno wrote: ↑June 20th, 2024, 5:12 am I think believing is a choice. Everything can be faked nowadays, which makes the evidence itself so hard to believe.

Try to choose to believe (I mean really believe not just say that you believe) today that the moon is made of cheese, then tomorrow choose to believe that it's made of water.

Post by **Pattern-chaser** » June 21st, 2024, 6:30 am

Nyangor Otieno wrote: ↑June 20th, 2024, 5:12 am I think believing is a choice. Everything can be faked nowadays, which makes the evidence itself so hard to believe.

night912 wrote: ↑June 20th, 2024, 11:07 am Try to choose to believe (I mean really believe not just say that you believe) today that the moon is made of cheese, then tomorrow choose to believe that it's made of water.

In fairness, perhaps we could say that believing is a choice, but not a random choice? In many cases there is evidence, but not sufficient for an absolute proof. So if we accept 'on the balance of probabilities', we are "choosing" to believe, but not the "I demand that X is true" sort of choosing.