Posted: Sep 30, 2018 12:45 am
Kafei wrote:One of the terms that atheists often apply to themselves is the term "skeptic".
Skepticism is defined as the disposition not to accept claims without proof – to be skeptical that a claim is true unless and until one has been provided reason to believe it. The skeptic, when presented with a new proposition, adopts a default value of "false" and only switches the value of "true" to that proposition when proof has been provided.
False the default position is: 'I don't know' or it has not been demonstrated.
To believe something is false requires evidence or reasons to support that X is not the case.
Kafei wrote:Furthermore, skepticism is supposed to be a virtue. It is a quality that a good person would have.
It's rational. Which imo, is better than irrational.
Kafei wrote:
Using the terms of desire utilitarianism,
The fuck's that got to do with anything?
Kafei wrote:
Gullibility, in other words, is a vice.
It is indeed irrational to uncritically accept claims, especially extraordinary claims, propaganda and similar unreliable claims.
Kafei wrote:All of this can well be true. However, there is a form of skepticism (or a degree of skepticism) that is contrary to these claims.
This is a paralytic form of skepticism that prevents a person from acting because the person cannot know what the results of his actions will be.
That's not skepticism.
Kafei wrote:This form of skepticism
It isn't.
Since the rest of your rambling quote rests on this misconception of skepticism, it can be dismissed on that basis.