I will be hosting a workshop at Apostacon. This will be the first one I’ve ever done. So helpful suggestions will be appreciated.
I will present a series of faith-based woo arguments and explain the philosophy or fallacy behind them. We will share the arguments we’ve heard, these Points Refuted A Thousand Times, and compare them to my template to reveal a weakness in their armor. Why do they think theirs is a convincing argument for God/scripture/aliens, whatever? What’s going on in their minds when they hear our side? We’ll look at their motivation and the strategies in play, and see how to turn it around. How do you reach the religious? How do you reason with one who rejects reason? It’s not always impossible, but there is a trick to it.
We often have arguments on the internet knowing that we’ll never change that one’s mind, but that we might convince the people on the fence. However sometimes we really want to reach THAT person. They might be more than just an anonymous internet handle. They might be someone we know, someone in our circle of family or friends. This conversation may be inevitable, and we’re either going to butt heads, or we’re going to communicate. How do you get THAT one to understand enough of your position to at least respect it and get passed it?
This is not intended as a course to de-convert, though that will work on some people. There are categories of believers which will be effected differently, and we’ll talk about that too.
Apostacon is a Pastafarian conference in Omaha Nebraska, September 19th – 21st. Last year’s event was well-organized and a good time for all. This year’s keynote speaker is Lawrence Krauss! But there is also another associated event with Neil deGrasse Tyson! The host of the new Cosmos will present ‘an evening of scientific inquiry’ in the same venue that Friday night.
Tickets for both events are on-sale today, June 16th, and should be purchased before the end of July. Be sure to register for early-bird pricing to Apostacon using my speaker code, ARA1443.
WOOT! I’d heard you were coming to the NDgT event, but not that you would be doing a panel for Apostacon. I’ll totally be at your panel!
Sounds interesting. Will it be recorded? I wonder why they missed the opportunity to have APastaCon?
Maybe an idea would be to take some fallacies and make explanations for them without the code words.
So in stead of “that’s the no true scottsman fallacy!”, try to make a 3 sentence paragraph explaining what the fallacy is and why it’s illogical.
I think that using an exclamation what fallacy someone is sprouting is very counter productive. Either someone knows what the fallacy means, and you don’t have to convince that person, or someone does not know what the fallacy means and is none the wiser.
I know NDgT used to make such short descriptions for things like the Big Bang and black holes in case he ever needed to explain things quickly and to the point. I think making a list of short explanations for fallacies might as well prove very handy in debates. And not just formal debates, but interpersonal debates as well.
See you there.