Philosophy Nexus

https://maxseverin.medium.com/sometimes-absence-of-evidence-is-evidence-of-absence-c2e8afb922ea by  Max Severin “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” This common aphorism is usually employed by theists who believe it overrides  evidentialist  objections to theism. In regards to situations where an occurrence or existence would entail the presence of evidence — for instance, like the existence of a god that interferes or has interfered in human affairs in very salient ways (e.g., disrupting natural laws or causing other types of miraculous events) — it is absolutely false. Photo by  Alexander Andrews  on  Unsplash Logically, if something is said to have interacted with the world in ways that would produce evidence, and a thorough investigation fails to produce non-controversial evidence, then this becomes strong (probabilistic) evidence against the existence or occurrence being asserted. When this aphorism is addressing occurrences or existences ...

  An Introduction to Critical Thinking Section 1: Introduction  [Note: this is an evolving document which I intend to update and improve upon periodically. Feel free to use the  contact page  to send me input or criticisms.] “The critical habit of thought, if usual in society, will pervade all its mores, because it is a way of taking up the problems of life. Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators … They are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain. They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence, uninfluenced by the emphasis or confidence with which assertions are made on one side or the other. They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens.” ― William Graham Sumner Critical thinking, simply put, is a disciplined way of thinking that atte...