Does an invisible sixth toe exist on my foot?

beebuddy · Post by **beebuddy** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:57 am

I also can not feel it. Is it there?

kowtaaia · Post by **kowtaaia** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:05 am

Shouldn't this be in the God thread?

beebuddy · Post by **beebuddy** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:08 am

Whatever are you implying?

Dan Rowden · Post by **Dan Rowden** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:36 am

It should have been asked in the God thread, probably, but well, since it's here let's try and make something of it. Now, beebuddy: if you can neither see nor feel this toe on what basis are you asserting its existence? How would the idea that it exists arise in your mind to begin with? And, how would begin to try and establish the truth of the propsotion that it does exist?

beebuddy · Post by **beebuddy** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 11:40 am

Why are you trying to confuse with all of this smart-talk? Can you prove it isn't there?

Dan Rowden · Post by **Dan Rowden** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:11 pm

Ah, no, obviously I can't. Can you give me a single, sane reason to believe that it is?

beebuddy · Post by **beebuddy** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:13 pm

Great point! I think we can prove one thing though, only stupid people would ask for a definition of "sane." :)

Dan Rowden · Post by **Dan Rowden** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 12:35 pm

Well, this relates directly to the God question. I'm an anti-toeist. That doesn't mean I have to prove that the Toe doesn't exist. It means that there exists no reason for me to believe that it does.

Essentially theism is the presence of belief in God; atheism is the absence of belief in God. Since there is zero empirical evidence for God, and since there are no logical points asserted about God that cannot simply be asserted about Reality itself (making God the unessesary being rather than the necessary one of that hoary old argument), and since there is no credible psychological reason for such belief, there is zero reason - if one is sane - to believe.

You can blame Kant for that sentence....

Tharan · Post by **Tharan** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:54 pm

If it were a black toe that had collapsed to a singularity, then you couldn't see it, but you could notice the effect it had on the surrounding environment. Do the other toes warp in one direction? Do leaves and other street debris seem to cling to your feet? Are your shoes getting tighter? When you stub your toe, can you look back and see a smoldering hole in the ground, bristling with electricity? All evidence of a magical black toe.

Elizabeth Isabelle · Post by **Elizabeth Isabelle** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 6:35 pm

Tharan wrote:If it were a black toe that had collapsed to a singularity, then you couldn't see it, but you could notice the effect it had on the surrounding environment. Do the other toes warp in one direction? Do leaves and other street debris seem to cling to your feet? Are your shoes getting tighter? When you stub your toe, can you look back and see a smoldering hole in the ground, bristling with electricity? All evidence of a magical black toe.

It's true! It's true! It's written just like that in the Toe Te Ching!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!