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The role of evidence in the Christian faith (Part 1)

What is faith? How is it conceptualized in Christianity? In certain circles, it has somehow become popular to think that "faith is believing in something without evidence". That... is just wrong. That is manifestly not what the Bible teaches, nor is it anything that any thinking Christian has claimed. In fact, a Google search of […]

Christianity and falsifiability

Falsifiability has a troubled history, but fundamentally it's not a bad idea. Put simply, an idea is falsifiable if it is capable of being disproven. It is considered a desirable quality in meaningful statements, especially in the sciences. Some have even used it as the essential property of scientific statements that separates science from non-science. […]

A common mistake in Bayesian reasoning

You and your friend are investigating a murder, and you have following conversation: You:Alice is obviously the culprit. The knife has her fingerprints on it.  Your friend:Why are you ruling out Bob? It could have been Carol or Dan, too. Or anyone else, for that matter.  You:Um... because of the knife with the fingerprints I […]

Basic Bayesian reasoning: a better way to think (Part 4)

Have you read the last several posts? In those posts we began the tale of Alice and Bob, a pair of murder suspects who recently started dating one another. Through their sordid tale, we'll examine Bayesian reasoning, the scientific method, and the so-called fallacy of "affirming the consequent". Alice and Bob are going through a […]

Basic Bayesian reasoning: a better way to think (Part 3)

In my last post, I introduced Bayes' theorem: P(hypothesis|observation) = P(observation|hypothesis)/P(observation) * P(hypothesis) Now, this is a powerful equation that tells us how to use observed evidence to update our beliefs about a hypothesis. But as I mentioned, it has two difficulties with its use: first, the probability prior to the observation - P(hypothesis) - […]

Basic Bayesian reasoning: a better way to think (Part 2)

In my previous post, I explained that instead of thinking of logical statements as only being "true" or "false", we should assign probability values for their chance of being true. This is the fundamental tenet of Bayesian reasoning. This allows us to employ the entire mathematical field of probability theory in our thinking and expands […]

Basic Bayesian reasoning: a better way to think (Part 1)

What is Bayesian inference? I've already mentioned it in several of my previous posts, and I'm sure to bring it up again in the future. I obviously think it's important. Why? Bayesian inference is the mathematical extension of propositional logic using probability theory. It is superior to deductive propositional logic, which is what many people […]

The dialogue between two aliens who found a book on Earth

Alice and Bob are two aliens. In their interstellar journey, they pass by Earth and there picked up a book. Some time afterwards, they meet to discuss their new acquisition. Alice:So, have you had a chance to look at that Terran artifact that we got? Bob:I have. It has many fascinating properties. I and my […]

How to determine the specific purpose of the universe

Last week, I cited the fine tuning argument to conclude that the universe does have a purpose, for it is nearly impossible for its features to be the result of purposeless randomness. Just as a rational but ignorant alien who comes across a human book will conclude that it has a purpose, we too are […]
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