{"id":15793,"date":"2013-07-13T08:22:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T12:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=15793"},"modified":"2013-07-13T08:22:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T12:22:46","slug":"self-sealing-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/07\/self-sealing-argument.html","title":{"rendered":"Self-Sealing Argument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is from a recent post on the blog Leaving Fundamentalism<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

From Marianne Talbot, I have learned a useful expression: a self-sealing argument<\/strong>. This is an argument which cannot be refuted, because it doesn\u2019t allow any counter-argument. Almost every fundamentalist argument is self-sealing. This is why, in the end, I concluded that fundamentalism couldn\u2019t possibly be true. Some will accuse me of scientism for this, but I concluded that unless a belief is testable, there\u2019s no point holding it. All will become clearer if I show you an example.<\/p>\n

The worst insult a fundamentalist can ever throw at you is \u2018unbeliever\u2019\u2026In other words, we\u2019re entirely happy to accept criticism, but it can only come from people who agree with us. And when they apply this criterion, fundamentalists magically find that everybody agrees with them!<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a mechanism to stop people leaving fundamentalism, this is extremely powerful. Remember, salvation is by faith, so if you find yourself straying into unbelief, you\u2019re going to sit on your doubts hard, lest ye lose your salvation entirely.<\/p>\n

Now, here\u2019s the thing about self-sealing arguments: You can\u2019t disprove \u2018em. They could, in theory, be true. But because there\u2019s no evidence that could ever disprove them, they could equally be false, and the believer would haveno way of knowing<\/em>.This requires you to believe that God has designed the path to truth in such a way that it looks identical to the path to destruction, and there\u2019s no way of checking which path you\u2019re on. There are other religions with equally self-sealing paths, and adherents who are equally certain they are right. Travellers on all paths claim to have direct experiences of God, so religious experiences don\u2019t offer any clarification.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I think that if you\u2019re going to base any important decisions on a belief, you have to ask the question \u201cHow would I know if I\u2019m wrong?\u201d If the answer is \u201cThere\u2019s no way to tell\u201d, you\u2019re on shaky ground.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read the whole thing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is from a recent post on the blog Leaving Fundamentalism: From Marianne Talbot, I have learned a useful expression: a self-sealing argument. This is an argument which cannot be refuted, because it doesn\u2019t allow any counter-argument. Almost every fundamentalist argument is self-sealing. This is why, in the end, I concluded that fundamentalism couldn\u2019t possibly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[1896,1897,3675],"class_list":["post-15793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fundamentalism-religion","tag-circular-argument","tag-circular-reasoning","tag-fundamentalism-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nSelf-Sealing Argument<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is from a recent post on the blog Leaving Fundamentalism: From Marianne Talbot, I have learned a useful expression: a self-sealing argument. 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