The Informal Fallacy I want to invent: "Special knowledge" / "Mind reading"

For quite some time in my videos on my youtube I've highlighted a fallacy that I called "Special knowledge" &/or "Mind Reading" this fallacy happens if a person/group claims to know (or infers to know) the thoughts/motives of the other person. 

Ie: 

"You made that video because you want to get attention." 

"You are not a Christian because you hate god"

"Republicans hate America and want to destroy it."

"You are just saying that because you do not want to know what is TRUE."

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Do note that one does not have to SAY they are able to read your mind NOR does someone have to SAY they have special knowledge of your thoughts/feelings and so on. Its implied by the statement(s) they are making.

No one can know your inner thoughts, motives or intent. Thus - if a person/group claims to know "why" someone is doing (X) then the fallacy has been committed. 

The logical fallacies of Bulverism & Appeal to motive. are close to this fallacy, The Fallacy of Speculation is in fact called "Mind-Reading" here (click) (number 74) this is almost exactly what I am proposing. As such, mine could simply be called "Special knowledge" to avoid confusion, or maybe it is covered well enough. The idea of making new fallacies is not just mine, this webpage (click) also came up with two new fallacies - by blending other fallacies together.

Granted, none of this is, or perhaps will be recognized by scholarship, and I have zero idea how to get my idea to be even considered. 

You can always of course be skeptical of my fallacy if you want, or maybe you can help me to make it into a "real" one if you know who I would contact to get that ball rolling, or perhaps you can help me shore up the phrasing, if you can - comment on this or email me (my email is found on my youtube channel on my about page, goodness knows what would happen if I put it on this blog)

Thanks for reading. I know you just read this to make me happy.

See what I did there? ;)

The God of the Bible is still incoherent, yet people believe anyway.

200,000 to 300,000 years ago, give or take, Homo sapiens emerged from the hominid predecessors they had been, as they slowly made there way out of Africa 130,000 to 200,000 years latter, they also began to develop language 20,000 to 50,000 years after beginning that journey.

At some point Jehovah, Yahweh, YHWH, reached out, and plucked two people from among them to be placed into a garden full of things to eat, it revealed itself to these two humans, let them be tempted by a talking serpent, then when they failed the test, it kicked them out of the garden with a curse that the man would have to work for food, and that the woman would have to have (MORE) painful child birth. At this time, "sin" entered the world.

Before this point, things lived and died and there was natural disasters, all because it just was that way, but now that sin was here, now there was a reason for all that bad stuff. You see, this god of Abraham Isaac & Jacob let bad things happen before the "fall" because.... it did.

Of course, that doesn't really make sense, so actually God made two humans that already somehow knew language and were homo sapiens, and then put them in the garden, once they failed the test then evolution began due to sin and.. wait no that doesn't work... you see its... a metaphor yes- right the Genesis story is just sort of, kind of what happened. I found out I was wrong when I thought I was right, its always the same just a shame, that's all.  

So, how do modern Christian's make sense of any of this?

Well, you could pretend the world was made 6,000 to 10,000 years ago and ignore the realty of how we got to the place we are, in total denial of all evidence that we have of all the things I suppose. Plenty do this, but many do not. 

Yet, how do they, how can they possibly have the story of Genesis fit within reality? BioLogo's tries its best to do this, and when I was a Christian, I felt that these guys "got it" that they were trying to do what made sense - make seance out of what we know is true, and what these stories tell us are true. 

Still - why would God leave it to us puny mortals to do this for it? Why make the world in such a crazy way in the first place? Just what sort of all powerful being does this anyway?

Of course, Christians might have some excuse answer's to this, but I doubt it.

What happened to all the millions upon millions that existed before Jesus, and during Jesus who did not know about Jesus - when they died, what happened to them? What about the ones who were alive, yet had not heard about Jesus? What about those souls? 

Well, uh. God - had a plan for them? I guess. I mean, the bible doesn't say anything about them.

Of course, the bible does not say much about any of the world, other then the tiny part of it that God happened to visit that day. Revealing itself to a select few people. (Count the times that God reveals itself in the Torah/Old Testament...13!!! just thirteen people!!!) but you know, God wants to have a relationship with "everyone". Sure.

God loves me, I am told by those that believe, yet God doesn't reveal itself in such a way that all of humanity would know, without doubts, without questions, without the need of a book of all things. A BOOK mind you... to tell us it exists. 

Its incoherent. Yet, people believe it anyway.

I am (X), & it does not matter at all.

I see it happen all the time. A person is called something "bad" and this shuts down the conversation, it makes them an "other" it marks them, stains them. Yet I wonder, why does anyone care about words? What happened to seeing that an ad hominem is illogical?

So, screw it. I'll be all the things. I'll simply declare I am (X), then I shall ask, "What is your argument?"

I'm a racist. I'm a homophobe. I'm a islamphobe, I'm a misogynist. I'm a misandrist. I'm a troll. I'm a neckbeard. I'm a MGOTOW. I'm a incel. I'm a simp. I'm a slob. I'm retarded. I'm an idiot. I'm evil. I'm sick. I'm dumb. I'm stupid. I'm far right. I'm far left. I'm a Nazi. I'm a terrorist. I'm religious. I'm spiritual. I'm a new ager. I'm an atheist. I'm a skeptic. I'm agnostic. I'm anti semitic. I'm in. I'm out. I'm up. I'm down. I'm left, right, forwards, backwards. I'm a sloth. I'm lazy. I'm a workaholic. I'm neurotic. I'm a pencil pusher. I'm a drug dealer. I'm a drug addict. I am everything that is good, bad, & other in the whole God Damned universe.

....

So,

WHAT IS YOUR ARGUMENT?

Everything can be known via science. Everything.

A common complaint about "scientism"/"naturalism"/"materialism" is that these things assume the natural, that the first is to narrow, that only using science can not derive truths, the statement, "Everything that is known is known via science" someone might say, is itself a non-scientific statement.

However, I think this is a narrow view of what science is. Its a broad system, that includes maths, logic, testing, verification, and many processes made to try to eliminate personal bias. Its a way to dig at the world, to be critical of it, to find what it really is, not what we wish it to be.

History, some say is not science, but I beg to differ. We have forensic science, a study of the past. We have archaeology, a study of the past. Both require data collection, testing, verification and so on.
In fact, when doing history we must apply the ideas of science to it, if we read in some writing that something beyond what we know can be done now was done, we categorize that as myth, a person flying around like Superman is myth, because we have no reason to think that is even possible, then or now. Some object that this is an assumption, well - how could someone do something in the past that is not possible now? They then must assume that magic or something else allowed that person to fly, the assumption that no, its not possible is what can be observed to be, whereas the other one can not. Simply put, those who want to believe that there myth is true, will make all sorts of excuses to justify it. The one who does science only needs to show the data, the tests, the process, the results. Reality does not require back flips to prove, it does not require dodging, nor does it require excuses, its there, it can be known, though science.

Logic as well, is I think, a sub-set of science, it has a robust yet changing system, its a structured format. It can be used as a short cut, however its limited, one must still check with reality to see if the premises are true, thus one must consult science to discover if it is in fact true.

So it is my contention that everything is known or can be known via science.

Update, my views on this have been challenged, and I think that, yes this is incorrect on technical linguistic norms. I do think that we could view the above things in the category of science, although it currently is not. But, things change. Would it be useful to change to my idea? Hmm, I do not know.

Madness

The year was 1992, the place was Las Angles, city of angels. The people were unhappy, and they had been at a number of things, for quite some time.

African-American and Korean-American communities came in conflict. The former feeling insulted, and perhaps, displaced or pushed back by the latte, after all, this had been "their" community, who were these new comers? Was this about jobs, or lack of jobs, maybe, Korean would hire Korean, but not the other way around, because of language mostly, but also maybe because of lack of trust, these people simply did not know each other, and no one seemed willing, or able to bring them together. Where was the effort of someone to step forth to unite these people? Should the mayor do something, shouldn't someone? No one did, thus the tension built. This reached a point where a Korean was killed by the African-American. Black on yellow violence, if you will.

Alongside of this, the LAPD had been reported numinous times by many prominent blacks and others as being to brutal in their ways, using excessive force, at this time, no mention of the color of the officers was mentioned, perhaps latter people did, but them being white was not the issue, it was that they, collectively had been abusing their power, stepping over the line, and not being punished for it, those that were enforcing the law were also breaking the law. When one Rodney King got beaten by several officers, the tension in the community bubbled and boiled up, the blood was boiling hot. Then, a trial was held. Finally, justice would be done... but the officers were found not guilty.

Then hell broke out. Riots happened over the next several days. Destruction of personal and private property, people beating up other people, and there were hero's risking their well-being to save others from attacks, harm, and assault.

Yet, too few heros to stop the madness, the anger was there, mob mentality and group think had taken over many, "oh look, they are doing bad, I guess I can do bad as well" a single person might be sensible, but a group of people can be insane, and if so — become a mob.

I was thirteen at the time. We wrote about the event in school. I do not remember what I wrote, or what we were told about this event, it was far away, and I saw it as something wrong, something unjust yet it was not something I understood.

Today I am forty-one, and we see, again that a number of things have been building. People HATE the President, and the media is helping them to hate him. The left vs right has become a cold war of sorts, or so some would lead us to believe that is the case, mutters of civil war, negation of free speech, a rise of cultural Marxism, all sorts of things happening all around the same time that are making people upset. The men are the problem feminists say, the whites are the problem some say, white males who are heterosexual are the problem, someone other than the one complaining is at fault for how things are. Yet things are pretty good, all things considered.

Then C19 hit. A virus that spread quickly and killed old and young, and those whose health is bad. It was global, and the government's had no idea what to do. Lock down was called. People had been, mostly, keeping at home, loss of jobs was stress, lack of freedom was stress. It had only been a few months, but people were TIRED of being stuck inside, they demanded freedom, protesting in numbers. Not a wise idea. A giant bee that kills other bees was around, and oh right, a black person had been killed by the police.

Uh oh.

So we see again, riots. I'm not sure where the hero's are out there, the protests grow, people have forgotten or perhaps do not care about C19 now, they are ANGRY they are MAD, justice was not done, again! How many blacks have been killed by whites anyway? If it was the other way around and a black man had killed a white man, there would be lynching right? Justice — what a joke.

Or so some believed. Why? Oh, many reasons, BLM did not help anything. Spouting a false narrative that blacks are dispositional harmed to whites, that everything is about race. (studies contradict such narrative but who cares about data), and lo — its history repeating. On a new cycle. Yet, people will pack up at some point, as they always do, something else will distract them and bother them. C19 might take a few of them out. No one can know what will happen next for sure, yet I do think that its madness.

I reflect on how wrong the Rodney King beating was, and yet, how it was not about race, and it was not. It was an abuse of power, but the narrative has changed, every time anyone that is black is harmed, it is because of race. No idea when that happened, but that seems to be what we are being told, or telling our own self's. I do not believe it, because the data says otherwise.

It should not be about the color of our skin. It should always be about doing the right thing. About being the hero, not the villain. If you want to protest, do it like Marten Luther King Jr. there was a man that knew how to lead, how to speak, and how to protest properly to make a lasting change. His dream came true, well... sort of. Segregation ended, but then became self-imposed. Opportunities  opened, but people took the wrong paths. I do not know why, I can not pretend to have the answers to what was, or to say what will be or even what should be.

I can just look at it, as all of you can and sigh and ponder when the madness will end, oh also its getting hotter all over the world and that is changing weather like crazy, so there is that as well.
Bleep me. We really need some hero's. Some brave people to step forward from the dark, to speak just and right into this void. To say kindly, yet firmly (X) is wrong, yet we will not do wrong, we will do right. To bravely face hate with love. To fight war with peace. Oh for those brave hero's, wherever they might be, I long for them.

Yet, here I am, wondering who will save us all, could I be that person? Could I get up and speak?

Could you?

Well, last time no one did anything to change things it went badly... so maybe, just maybe we will learn from the madness of the past.

Yet, here we are, repeating it all the same.

Madness.

Reconstruction Man:

When I had faith in Christ, and the whole Christian ideas, mindset, bible, God & so on, my life was largely shaped by those ideas. I would ask God for direction, although none really came, it was always me directing myself, but at the time, I didn't know or believed that. I tried to think the right thoughts, impure thoughts were bad, looking at porn was bad, desiring sex was bad. The things that a typical teen & young adult want, perhaps need to do are "bad", because this is how the meme (and the belief of God is a meme) takes hold of our brain, and keeps hold of it. The meme only exists as long as we believe the meme is real, it stops once you no longer believe in it.

Yet this writing is not about my deconversion per say, but my reconstruction after it took hold. For a year or so, I was an angry atheist. I was bitter, depressed, and low. Nothing mattered. I simply existed, barely from day to day. Yet, I was still learning, still reading. I realized, I had to say something about this nonsense. I had to go back to making videos again. I loved to do it, I wanted to. This was my thing, as Deconverted Man. This music video (click this) shows this transformation well I think.

Learning informal logic, helped me to place myself properly. Having a label "skeptic" helped me focus. Looking at arguments and analyzing them gave me purpose. So, yes when or if you deconvert, it might be hard, it might be easy, for me it was rough on the emotions, but I am glad to be a skeptic now, because, for the first time in my life, I can honestly LEARN anything - ANYTHING and never worry that it will hurt my beliefs, because I hold none to be hurt, or any that I do, I have become willing to challenge, willing to question, eager to learn something new, something amazing. Wow, I didn't know that was how that worked! Cool! I no longer have to worry about "bad" thoughts, I am not slowed down by looking to the sky for answers, they come from me, and when I do not know, I can ask others.

Rebuilding is something I did on my own, but I hope that I can somehow help if you need it and are reconstructing after deconversion, if you want said help, let me know via twitter @deconvertedman or via email.

Best to you, and yours, always.

The Good Place

The Good Place (NBC, September 19, 2016, to January 30, 2020) was a great, and fun ride.
Very funny, and also, deep, but not super deep.

The question of afterlife, what would it be like to get everything you wanted, forever? You would get tired, you would get board, and this happens. The answer: actual death. A way to leave when you are done.
There is a hint that the particles that made up "you" go on to effect others in some small way. The wave returns to the ocean. 

Its a nice way to think about it. Also there is that, you don't really know, and no one knows what it is to die. Not even the all knowing Janet knows. That seems very, human.

Unanswered, and perhaps for the best is why the system exists at all - why was the universe made, why is there any afterlife at all? Who made all of this? No real answers are given. This is just the way it is.

No clear devil or god, just demons and angel like beings who are not perfect. (They run away leaving Michel in charge of the Good Place)

The other idea of the Good Place being the Bad Place at first - and them all working though this together, improving along the way, its a nice idea.

What is the point, if any, of life? How to be ethical? Is it all just a test? The Good Place says it is a test, sort of, but then you get tested over and over until you pass, or I suppose if someone never passes then they do, in fact, go to the Bad Place. But, its never made clear.

As a skeptic, I do not believe in an afterlife, but I do ponder what would it be, or how could it be, what would make sense, or how one should be judged, if one is to be judged, fairly. I think that the Good Place has a nice system, but not a perfect one in mind. Perhaps, in the end, that is also the way it is, even an afterlife is not perfect. 

I enjoyed the show, and it was a nice send off, may we all find a Good Place here, and now. Perhaps we must make it. No idea how, but its worth trying.

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