Have you ever heard someone arguing in favor of a position with which you disagree, but their arguments are so bad that you can’t help but think “Man, I could do a better job arguing for their side than they are, and I don’t even agree with them!” I thought it might be interesting to do exactly that — consider some interesting issues, and come up with my own versions of what the people who I think are wrong should be saying.
The rules would be: (1) The claims would be somewhat judgmental, rather than straightforwardly empirical. I’m not going to waste my time arguing that the universe is not expanding, or anything like that. (2) I have to stick to making individual statements that I really do believe, even if I don’t think they are sufficient to support the ultimate conclusion. I reserve the right to come up with more rules as I think of them.
Here are some possible claims to be considered:
- God exists.
- The Iraq war was a good idea.
- Women scientists shouldn’t complain about discrimination.
- Research on string theory is a waste of time.
- Talking about the multiverse is intrinsically non-scientific.
- We shouldn’t worry about global climate change.
Any other suggestions? I’m sure there are lots of things I don’t believe, but could come up with better arguments for than I usually hear. It’ll be like being on the debate team again.
1. Ed Witten exists.
2. Hm. Difficult to argue that the Iraq war is a success, unless you are al-Qaida.
3. My wife’s scientific career has been far more stellar than mine. I mean, I’m not a member of the Nobel assembly.
4. Ever heard the word “experiment”?
5. Talking to multiversepots is intrinsically a waste of time.
6. If climate change means local warming in Sweden, I’m in favor of it. Alas, I’m somewhat worried that the Gulf stream may stop and cause local freezing.
N-) There´s no point talking about what´s outside the universe. Time and space are things created in OUR universe, and nobody will ever be able to proof anything about such topic.
Sorry my poor english, I speak only portuguese.. 😉
Rodrigo,
If our observations could fix the universe we are in unambiguously then I would agree. However, it is impossible for an observer to exactly determine which of the possible universes he is in. The finite amount of information stored in the brain of an observer will always be compatible with being in many possible universes.
So, when we say “our universe” we are not really specifying a unique universe.
Iraq in the same category as Darfur, sure, easily. Just in terms of the number of people murdered and displaced Iraq actually has more victims of aggression than does Darfur– and this does not even count the decade long sanctions which led to the deaths of thousands more Iraqis. Also, the Darfur conflict is not strictly about differences in belief as some believe– like Iraq it is about the struggle for resources in which a more powerful group is using extraordinary violence to control the water and land of a less powerful group just like the U.S. is using extraordinary violence to control a region that contains two thirds of the world’s remaining petrol so it can continue to cheaply run its Earth-wrecking consumer culture. If Iraq did not contain all of the oil that it does and it’s major resource was vegatables do you really seriously for a minute think the US would have spent over a trillion dollars invading it?
The fundamental moral question is this: Does one country have the right to invade another country and lcontribute directly and/or indirectly to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions more of that country’s citizens so that it can secure natural resources? Wouldn’t the more conservative “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” approach be for the superpower to have used its enormous technological prowess to build, over the past couple decades, a renewable energy based economy? And even if it didn’t that still doesn’t give it the right to thief and murder.
Related, in a way:
Scientists Induce Out-of-Body Sensation
(New York Times, 8/23/2007)
We should buy bigger trucks, they’re bound to run out of steel eventually.
The chosen people are the Jews so why are so many Americans Christian?
Violent video games is an outlet for violence which reduces violence towards others so F*CK OFF!
Big crunch, big freeze, big deal, nothing I can do about it in this lifetime.
Plastic garbage bags keep toxic chemicals from leaching into our water supply. Ok, I might actually believe that one.
$450 trillion dollars should be invested in a war in Iraq rather than health, education, or any other of that social liberal nonsense for Americans. Heck, strong and free? Feeling poor and unwelcome? Just pretend to be Canadian. If you’re Canadian, pretend to be French. If you’re French pretend to be American..
Pingback: Arguments For Things I Don't Believe, 1: Research on String Theory is a Largely Waste of Time | Cosmic Variance
:The WMAP anomalies can be explained away.
:The LHC will find new physics.
:The universe is infinite.
:The Anthropic Principle is just a selection effect.
:The successes of quantum theory prove that Einstein wasted the last thirty years of his life.
:There is no evidence for purpose in nature.
because…
A final cause requires an intelligent agent.
:Brandon Carter was wrong when he said that scientists harbor ideological prejudices that make them willfully ignorant of the directly observed reality.
The near-perfect flatness of the universe does not indicate that absolute symmetry was the nearly-missed goal of the big bang.
But, ‘man, I could[not] argue for their side’… sorry.
6) We shouldn’t worry about global climate change.
The best argument I’ve heard to defend this claim by far is the one given by Bjorn Lomboug in his Ted Talk:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/62
Basically he claims that there are better things we could be spending are money on like fighting AIDS, Malaria, malnutrition since these things are killing people now and we know how to fix them.
Differences in IQ between races are predominantly caused/not caused (depending on your view) by genetic factors.
“Gavin on Aug 23rd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
I like your list, but there’s no sex.
7. Same sex couples should not be allowed to marry.”
Unless both the chicks are hot. lol.
Love the blog Sean. Congrats on the whole getting married thing. Good luck on the day 😀
Regards
-Steven