Street Epistemology Breakdown: How Do I Test My God Belief?
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Street Epistemology Breakdown Christianity God Bible Upbringing Personal Experience Summary: Justin returns the next day with Kasia, who wants to explore her claim that Jesus is real, so I turned it into this breakdown video.
Links to References in Video:
Watch BREAKDOWN of this talk: • Street Epistemology Br... (this video)
Watch talk WITHOUT breakdown: • Street Epistemology: K...
Here's our talk from the day before: • Watch People Learn Str...
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Recorded: 8 October 2019
Released: 27 February 2020
Thanks to Agnostic.com for supporting Street Epistemology International:
agnostic.com/g...
Twitter: / magnabosco (follow me)
RUclips: / magnabosco210 (tons of videos)
Facebook: / magnabosco210 (like my page)
Website: anthonymagnabo... (contact me, appearances)
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SE Discord Server: / discord
Skip ahead to a desired point in my breakdown (you may have to scroll back a tad as these links begin at the start of my commentary):
--
Anthony's Intro: 00:16
Wide Shot Cam Notes: 00:38
Talk Without Commentary: 01:03
What's With the First Guy? 01:49
Something Bugged Me: 02:21
He Came Back for More: 03:51
What Did He Tell Her: 04:33
Two Interlocutors?! 04:53
A Serendipitous Moment: 05:30
Rules of Engagement: 06:47
Establish Confidence Level: 07:25
Confirm Scale Adherence: 08:12
Commending Your Partner: 08:54
My Ques...Oops: 10:40
Stay Focused: 12:03
Repeating Questions: 13:13
Encourage Clarity: 13:46
Quick Reassurances: 14:12
Active Listening: 14:54
Brief, Wonderful Pause: 15:36
Whiteboard Usages: 16:16
Revisit Consent: 17:29
What Should I Ask Next? 17:49
Outsider Test: 18:38
Intentional Head Scratch: 19:13
Are They Both Theists? 19:48
Not Entirely Confident: 20:41
I Love This Line: 21:19
Commend Your Partner: 21:58
Parting Gifts: 22:37
Revealing Your View: 23:35
Whiteboard Redux: 24:10
Sharing Narratives: 24:43
You Asked for It: 25:44
Minimize Distractions: 27:04
Building Trust: 27:32
An Unexpected Pause: 28:15
Rewording For Clarity: 28:50
More Commendation: 29:26
Educational Opportunity: 29:33
I Dropped the Ball: 30:28
Testing Capability: 30:51
Math Comparison: 31:28
It All Makes Sense to Me: 32:47
Head Nodding: 33:17
Explore Their Limits: 33:41
Getting Antsy: 34:36
Not Jumping In: 35:21
Watched SE Vids? 36:26
Shaky Footage: 37:40
Wrap-Up: 38:28
--
Note: Add 35 seconds to these timestamps if listening to the podcast version of this talk.
Audio Only: / ep-372-breakdown-antho...
Audio correction provided by Philipp Grzemba.
Thumbnail assistance provided by Bell.
Intro Music 'Finally The Sun' by Audio Hertz, provided by RUclips.
Outro Music 'Podcast Intro Funki’ provided by Jim Rhodes.
** Add foreign language captions w/RUclips's community contributions tools **
Mistakes: Please let me know if you spot any. Even after audio correction, the exact announcement is admittedly unclear. I'm quoting this as "Alright, friends! Please stop by the Jesus Exhibit! We have all these panels of life without question.", but I could be mistaken, especially on the last sentence.
Recorded w/Go-Pro. Edited w/PowerDirector.
The views addressed here are mine and mine alone, and are not necessarily shared by members of my family and friends.
#StreetEpistemology #Magnabosco #StreetEpistemologyBreakdown #Christianity #JesusChrist #Upbringing #AnthonyMagnabosco
Skip ahead to a desired point in my breakdown (you may have to scroll back a tad as these links begin at the start of my commentary):
--
Anthony's Intro: 00:16
Wide Shot Cam Notes: 00:38
Talk Without Commentary: 01:03
What's With the First Guy? 01:49
Something Bugged Me: 02:21
He Came Back for More: 03:51
What Did He Tell Her: 04:33
Two Interlocutors?! 04:53
A Serendipitous Moment: 05:30
Rules of Engagement: 06:47
Establish Confidence Level: 07:25
Confirm Scale Adherence: 08:12
Commending Your Partner: 08:54
My Ques...Oops: 10:40
Stay Focused: 12:03
Repeating Questions: 13:13
Encourage Clarity: 13:46
Quick Reassurances: 14:12
Active Listening: 14:54
Brief, Wonderful Pause: 15:36
Whiteboard Usages: 16:16
Revisit Consent: 17:29
What Should I Ask Next? 17:49
Outsider Test: 18:38
Intentional Head Scratch: 19:13
Are They Both Theists? 19:48
Not Entirely Confident: 20:41
I Love This Line: 21:19
Commend Your Partner: 21:58
Parting Gifts: 22:37
Revealing Your View: 23:35
Whiteboard Redux: 24:10
Sharing Narratives: 24:43
You Asked for It: 25:44
Minimize Distractions: 27:04
Building Trust: 27:32
An Unexpected Pause: 28:15
Rewording For Clarity: 28:50
More Commendation: 29:26
Educational Opportunity: 29:33
I Dropped the Ball: 30:28
Testing Capability: 30:51
Math Comparison: 31:28
It All Makes Sense to Me: 32:47
Head Nodding: 33:17
Explore Their Limits: 33:41
Getting Antsy: 34:36
Not Jumping In: 35:21
Watched SE Vids? 36:26
Shaky Footage: 37:40
Wrap-Up: 38:28
--
Note: Add 35 seconds to these timestamps if listening to the podcast version of this talk.
Love these chats, I have 2 questions though and a claim.
What would you say to someone who has hospital records of Bone breakdown in their back and one day it was just no longer there? As well as the aging from the bones themselves. The Aging is no longer there as well.
My claim is that miracles are real. And that the timing of the prayer and the healings were seconds apart meaning the location of the prayer and the healing werw the same as well as the time. There is also confirmation from a doctor saying there was no way for it to have healed.
Would your 0% belief in God change if you saw these things?
Anthony Magnabosco can you please stop the god damn music? way too loud, much louder than the talking, very annoying to have to constantly ride the volume. really poor production quality. you are probably listening on a poor quality sound system, and don't realize just how overpowering the bass is. not everyone listens on shitty headphones or phone speakers. you don't need the music at all, your content is plenty good without it.
Renyck Beattie having an unexplained experience does not get you to the source of that experience. also, spontaneous healings happen to people who don't pray, and miracle claims happen with all the other gods. now, are you saying that god healed you because of a prayer of a bone condition, yet the same god lets children sufder horribly from cancer, genetic deformities, horrible diseases, starving, abuse, and they suffer and die, god doesn't care about them at all? it is also not a testable claim, as you can not possibly know if the same thing would not have happened if you didn't pray. was it the very first time that you prayed or were prayed for? did you receive no medical care despite of the diagnosis being made? one doctor saying it couldn't have healed doesn't mean other doctors would say that. was this doctor a christian? i am assuming you are a christian. can you define what a miracle is? iss the location of the prayer important? god can't hear it from far away? if you ever prayed at another time or were prayed for at another time, which i am guessing is likely, how do you know which prayer was being answered?
louis cyfer Sorry about that. I spent a considerable amount of time and expense getting the audio adjusted. The music overlay was all me though, and I did listen to it on a variety of different devices before making it public. It’s a tricky art that I’m still working to perfect.
Anthony Magnabosco sorry about being hard on you. i am an audio engineer by education, although i don't work in the field anymore, i did work as a sound engineer in post production in television. the apple ear pieces you use for example have no low end whatsoever. it is easy to boost the bass a lot to try to compensate. you have to look at the waveforms and total energy as well, going just by ear can be deceiving. you are doing something called ducking, having the music go louder when there is no talking, and duck under the dialog when there is talking. for background music, just leave it at the same level, because the compression algorithm youtube applies when you upload can mess it up royally. just leave the background audio at the same level, and pull the midrange out to leave room for the speech in the spectrum. the speech will just come in on top of it and you still get the effect of filling the empty space, which is what you were going for i am guessing. the audio for the speech is fine, good levels, low noise, nothing wrong with it. the interlocutors are sometimes a little low, depending on their movement, but nothing major. a little compression can solve that. when doing the commentary, get the mic just a little farther, so you get less proximity effect, so the sound is more consistent with the live audio from the conversation.
Anthony! For the 0-100 scale, I think you should explain to people more often that 100% means that they're as confident in their belief as they are that you are standing there in front of them. People seem to give a reactive 100% when they don't consider they're certainty relative to something they actually know they are certain on.
Great observation! It also gives a more tangible point of reference which can be circled back to later.
Anthony, this was amazing. Long time lurker of your channel. I've inferred a lot of your techniques from watching, but this commentary clarifies a ton of invaluable methods that you utilize. Just from this video alone, I feel like I've learned more about SE than the past ten videos I've watched, simply because of the additional commentary. You have my enthusiastic vote to continue putting out more content like this. Cheers Mate, you're doing a wonderful service to the people.
I love how you added the clip 32:00 of the other woman saying "she's researched other religions and none of them made sense to her"
I'd like to see a whole video like this where you splice in video of people of different beliefs answering the same questions and are giving the same reasons yet for a completely different God/religion
I think it's a great way to demonstrate how no matter what religion or God you believe in, all believers use the same unreliable reasons for coming to their conclusions.
It can be very powerful to see it in the way you showed it
Crazy prayingmantis See if this fits the bill :) ruclips.net/video/vOgb1XjAzfE/видео.html
@@magnabosco210 ah, yes. I think this is awesome. Definitely saving this for future reference & reminders. Thanks so much for sharing your insights. Enjoyed this video with your side comments for clarification.
Anthony Magnabosco I thought I had watched every one of your videos but I have never seen this one. Love it. Thank you...for all you do.
@@magnabosco210
That's pretty much it, thanks
I don't know if you intend to keep adding those little split screen cuts in future videos but I hope you do, they work really well to show how unreliable their methods are
What do you believe and what are your reliable reasons for believing it?
Are you throwing stones while living in a glass house?
My confidence that this is the best video you've posted is high, but how can I test that belief?
I don't think you should (or I want you to) add this sort of commentary to every video, because it's sometimes nice to bask in the unadulterated conversation, but I loved the video and I love even more that you posted it on a day I directed two of my coworkers to your channel. (They were complaining about how unsatisfying it is to listen to our participate in political discussions given their tendency to devolve into arguments. I presented SE as a great alternative.) This is an easy to digest education on SE with real-world examples.
On a related note, I wouldn't mind more arrows in your videos highlighting changes in posture, etc. Those arrows are what got me to be on the lookout for similar subtle clues.
Thanks for what you do!!
Anthony bumping up the production values *and* getting a discord, welcome to the 2020s 😎
Bernie Sanders
I think more like welcome to late 2010s.
At 28:16, your concern about the pause... I can almost see her very sharp brain processing what you just said about "believing that it's true." As I watched her face and her eyes I thought, "Pebble in her shoe!" And the proof of that is that wonderful question she asked next about YOUR suggestions for finding good reasons. She is not only listening, she's recognizing that there is an alternative and she is asking for an opinion from someone whose opinion she may actually value! And that is based on less than 30 minutes of respectful conversation! I really liked this vid, Anthony. Your skills are impressive and this video helps me understand why I think that!
Hello, Anthony. After watching just about all your videos, I think I've been able to tease out a subtle stumbling block that your partners might be running up against. Specifically when questions come up about, how being taught that something is true doesn't always mean that it is actually true. The who, when and how its introduced and taught is the key. They get it from their parents, grand parents, extended family and their community. So when you ask them to question these beliefs, you are in a subtle way, pulling their dead relatives or heroes from their graves, shaking them off, holding them up and asking them to question everything they ever taught them. There are many who can not or will not concede to this line of doubt.
Great point!
Amazing talk. They seemed genuinely reflective, and appeared interested in learning how to better evaluate the validity of their beliefs. I think your openness in the latter half of the talk paid off, and I believe you've planted a seed.
Bernie Sanders
Planted a seed? Is this epistemology or proselytisation? You notice he only goes to colleges and speaks to young people who are still forming their beliefs. It's good to challenge your beliefs, but it's not helpful to set out to destroy them.
My kids believe, mostly because they trust me. When life causes them to question, they can turn to my counsel, knowing I've dealt with the same questions, to help them decide.
Yes, it cuts both ways. Belief in a person will always lead to disillusionment, I've taught them this as well.
Know what you believe and why you believe it.
What do you believe, and why?
@@jon__doe reality has a fingerprint. Things Supernatural do not. The psyche is a challenging thing to behold. Ask thyself when I want something, what is it that wants.?
@@jon__doe The "seed" I was referring to is that which bears the fruit of critical thinking and proper assessment of evidence. I was not advocating for Anthony to persuade them to discard of their beliefs, but rather to help equip them with the tools to find good reasons to believe things. The goal is to challenge the method for concluding a belief is true, not necessarily to destroy the belief.
If you look through Anthony's videos, you'll see that he has many conversations outside of college campuses with people of varying ages. With that being said, college students who are actively learning tend to be more willing to openly and honestly evaluate their beliefs, which probably plays a hand in why he frequents campuses. This is simply to make for more productive conversations.
If you are asking if I believe in a higher power, I don't. Not anymore at least. I've spent the majority of my life in Christianity, and long story short, I no longer believe because my reasons for believing did not hold up to scrutiny. How could I justify my belief with faith and personal unexplained experiences when someone of another religion could use those same reasons to come to completely different conclusions? That is just my personal story though. If one could use good reasons to conclude their god is real and true, I'm all for it. In fact, I'd love to know those reasons because I want to believe what is true.
@@KeyJOSH8 While I agree completely that epistemology is important, I find that Anthony probes in ways that turn uncertainty into self-doubt. It appears he's suggesting "if you can't justify it to me then you can't justify it to yourself so why believe it?". Often what we believe is a matter of life experiences beyond mere critical review. Not to underplay the value of critical review, but that takes time and effort. There are justifications for faith in God, but for many they aren't scientific.
I agree with you, if you can't justify a belief then you shouldn't believe it. Faith isn't a tool to find truth, it's evidence of the truth we find.
Philosophically (logically) the existence of God is consistent with the natural world we observe. An all-wise, all-knowing God wouldn't poof things into existence willy-nilly, there would be order and consistency. We observe order in the natural world. A creative God would allow for creativity in creation, a degree of chaos if you will. We observe a degree of chaos in nature. A just God would establish a moral standard, as it happens we instinctively recognize a moral standard and it's remarkably consistent across all humanity (it's also of note that failure to observe morality would have negative impact on both the person and all connected people - we observe immoral acts doing harm to others and society). The principle of causality implies infinite regression which is logically untennible, the existence of God resolves this.
While each of these justifications has been attacked and argued, the preponderance of justifications has weight.
Scientifically speaking, there is the origin of life. Perhaps life will one day be created in a lab using other than organic materials, but the outlook isn't good. Even if it ever happens, all that would mean is life can be intelligently designed.
Evolutionary theory's explanatory power fails in spectacular ways in many places.
Science is not equipped to observe the metaphysical therefore lack of scientific evidence for the metaphysical is consistent with the nature of metaphysics. That said, there is evidence that the mind is seperate from the brain.
qz.com/866352/scientists-say-your-mind-isnt-confined-to-your-brain-or-even-your-body/ (just the top search result)
Laws of matter cannot explain consciousness. Love, fear, desires, beliefs, and free choice are not something we would expect from matter. Matter would provide for a deterministic based behavior like we would expect from a program. No matter how advanced the AI, it's still deterministic.
Faith is what we have after we recognize a truth. If you recognize materialism as truth, you adopt a faith in that worldview. That allows you to overlook the failures in evolution, overlook the justifications I mentioned, and lets you say "I don't know" yet maintain trust in mechanisms that hold no explanatory power. Once we recognize something as truth it's very difficult to recognize a superseding truth. If you've adopted materialism as your worldview, then it becomes exceedingly difficult to perceive dualism. This is why ideologues fight for the minds of children, get there first and you've got them for life.
I've only given justification for dualism and perhaps theism, not any particular doctrine or religion. This is where critical thinking can be applied, not only looking for flaws, but consistencies. I find Christianity is wholly consistent with both itself and with the natural world. I make no claims on the mechanisms nor time of creation, I make no apologies for the brutality recorded in the Bible. I'm merely saying that when I study it out, Christianity offers the best revelation of God and is consistent with the world I observe.
Finally, there's the personal experience. I can't offer anything more than my testimony regarding my relationship with God. There have been times, particular moments, when God has made undeniable his actions on my behalf. Jesus said to Thomas "you see and believe and it's good, but even more blessed are those who don't see and yet believe".
Like you, I felt the need to justify my belief. To be sure I wasn't consumed with confirmation bias. I took the time to ask what criteria I should base my belief on, what would be conclusive or just convincing? I didn't look for a reason to abandon my belief (as many do), but I did question everything (and It led me to be uncommitted to doctrines like a young earth for example). I simply looked for the best explanation for all I see and all I am. The God of the Bible is a far more parsimonious explanation than the serendipity of evolution.
So there you have an extremely condensed review of what I believe and why I believe it.
A big part of what religion offers is a PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE. So when someone ask them to question their God, it simultaneously asking them to question their philosophy of life and leave it vacant, somehow. This is awful for some people. So when people who began to be skeptical of their god belief ask books we can suggest outside of religion, they're basically asking books which OFFERS a philosophy of life without the god belief.
Do you have recommendations?
I've often thought of this.
@@VincentVonDudler A Guide To A Good Life by William B. Irvine, comes to mind. It teaches stoic principles. I'm sure there are plenty more and I hope Anthony makes a video addressing this.
When she asks "how can i test my beliefs" i think most people already _do_ know how to, they just have never thought of applying that same level of scrutiny to their faith based belief. So i think maybe hitting her with examples she has already been through might help. Like you hear a politician make a claim that, if true, means critical things in America need to change. Do you just accept what they said, or would you look into the claim yourself? Would you just listen to other politicians or would you maybe look for the statistics, the studies, and the hard facts on your own so you can come to your own conclusion independent of what someone is simply telling you to take as fact?
Excellent^
I can imagine a class without tests, without exams, without much teaching. Just you, Anthony, picking a topic of discussion for the day and letting the students use SE to lightly challenge each other for an hour. And of course you'd probably lead the questioning. I think this video really demonstrates that ability and how quickly those can sort of pick up on how to do it.
I think such a class might be of the most value to any persons education. Have you received any offers to do just that?
"Life without question" Interesting. This video was GREAT. I loved this. Thank you.
The question I kept waiting to hear was "If you, and that Hindu lady both made the same statements to me, and I was trying to determine which one of you, if any were correct. What approach should I take?"
Agreed. It was the one i was waiting for as well.
That is perhaps something he was hoping she would ask herself in her own time.
@ 28:15 Just less than 3 years ago when I was a christian, if I had asked you if you thought it was all a fabrication, and your response included that just because people believed it doesnt mean it is true, what would have gone through my mind at the time would have been, that the scriptures say that many witnessed the miracles that I believed could only be explained by supernatural explanation, like walking on water, giving sight to the blind, other healing miracles, the transfiguration, and the 7 , miracles that followed the death of Jesus while on the cross. I would have questioned your rationality because I would be fixed on the claims in the bible of "st hand witnesses" of these claimed miracles. I would have had a similar look on my face, but those would have very likely been my thoughts in that scenario.
At the time I wasn't aware that mythology can be created or a character become a legend when a historical character has their life story written down by folks well after the character has left the scene, especially after death,and how attributes can be attached to a character that never belonged to the character or the original true events that unfolded during the lifetime. I had heard of the telephone game when I was in elementary school back in the early to mid 1980's, but had no concept of that game in my mind as an adult, let alone be aware of how this game is an example of what happens when even just a little bit of time passes after an event has taken place, and is told via story from persons to persons, going from first hand wtinesses, to far from 1st hand witness. I never even thought about how unreliable 1st hand accounts really were until I heard this problem be brought up by others in debates, then I thought back of how rumors about myself have been spread before that I knew were so far from the truth, and found that rumors were even told by my own friends who I assume accidently distorted a detail about something we experienced together, and how after the story had been circulated between just a few other individuals that by the time it got back around to me, it was either very very different than what really happened, or just 1 or 2 details were changed that were so farfetched and extraordinary that it blew my mind.
Given the fact that both, the accounts in the gospels, as well as all other aqcounts of stories in the old testament that are supernatural in nature were written via cultural oral traditions and anywhere from decades, to millenia after the supposed characters existed or events had happened, I now do not have any reason to believe that the supernatural and divine claims about anyone or any god depicted in ancient stories that were written from oral traditions, in any holybook are anymore legit or illegit than any other ancient holybook. There is no way to distingfuish between which holybook is anymore correct in these extraordinary claims which cannot be investigated, than the other holybooks. They all were written well after the claimed events, and never once does a deity that favors one culture, ever bother to show up to any other culture that is unaware of it and reveal things to the folks in other places around the world to verify what is true. And imo worst of all, I find that the only time a deity, angel,, or spirit ever show itself to someone in these stories is only when a person is sleeping and dreaming, or has subjected themselves in various ways and conditions that, we know today would produce hallucinations, and that is a concept that ancient folks were nowhere near being aware of yet. So there never ever having been a contemporary account given by any culture around the world, let alone all cultures at once of a god manifesting itself in reality for many to see raises my suspicions that every god I have heard proposed, epsecially the one I was indoctrinated to believe in most of my life, was and is a fabrication of ancient cultures who didnt know any better how to explain the world around them.
I would simply ask, "can something be recorded and not be true? If we read the miracles of some other religious text would that mean we have to accept those as true? What is a way that we can test if these claims are true? "
@@whatwecalllife7034 well the only answer I can currently come up with based on what I have learned so far, is that some of the historicity of characters, places, and some events have been recorded in some contemporary records, both some ancient records that have been preserved by cultures to this day, as well as aclaimed records dug up or found by archaeologists and do collaborate with certain elements in holy books. Other than that, I havent come across any record written or etched in stone by any culture that claimed to have collective witnesses to supernatural events, and by that I mean, that many folks witnessed what we today might perceive as intervention by the unnatural, like a entity actually showing up in front of many and performing an action that effected reality that cannot be explained today by natural causes. No contemporary records that I know of contain such an event, only holybooks and other literature written by folks who wrote oral traditions kept by their particular culture of things that happened well before these contents were written.
So, one cannot honestly use their bias towards one particular belief system to accept the claims written by their preferred authors and reject claims of a similiar nature belonging to a different belief system, just because it contradicts theirs. The honest answer is, I dont know, because up to this point as far as I know, noone has been able to, or are capable of investigating mot of the supernatural elements and claims within these holybooks, but there are a few that comes to my mind that have been debunked including but not limited to, that the prophet of Islam breaking the moon in half. We have been to the moon, and have probes around it and there is absolutely no evidence that it was cleaved into 2 peices. I read that passage/claimin the Q'uran and there was no mention of the prophet fiing the moon after, only that he broke it in 2. There's evidence also that suggest some of the claims concerning the god yahweh, having flooded the earth, sinking the island/city of Tyre, god creating the earth and it taking the shape of a clay under a seal(flat and circular), and others. But as for miracles, I dont know of any evidence that such things exist.Much more to cover on this subject, but that would be how I would answer this briefly.
@@brucecook502 that was a brief answer? lol
@@whatwecalllife7034 What I had in mind when I wrote that, was that if I presented it verbally in person to someone, it would indeed seem brief compared to the sizef or number of paragraphns I create for others to read. Verbally spoken, indeed it would be brief.
@@brucecook502 ok that makes sense
I like this style of video Anthony 😁😁
You do it very well 😎👌🏻
This new format is absolutely brilliant. It really does add to my experience of watching these conversations, the observations were absolutely on point. Can't wait for more conversations and breakdowns!
I've learned so much about how to question people by watching these videos by Anthony. I, sadly, told my sister-in-law that I thought "God" was an asshole. She doesn't go to Church, doesn't practice any religion in any form and we've never talked about it in the 30 or so years I've known her. She said "I'm offended by what you just said" and proceeded to get up and move away from me for the rest of the evening. At the time she was going on and on about Christmas and it's importance and how we need to celebrate Jesus' life. I found the conversation to be super awkward. Suffice it to say, she and I haven't talked for months now...which is too bad. I'd like to find out what/who she thinks I've offended. I'm an atheist and don't believe in any religion, but she surprised me by her answer. Thank you, Anthony, for giving me some tools to dig a bit deeper to learn the root and truth from my relatives.
So if you had said "I think Donald Trump is an asshole", would she be similarly offended?
It's not like you insulted HER, so I find it weird that SHE got offended.
Anyway, have you tried frequently contacting her?
Been itching for a new video for a while, happy to see this pop up! The conversations are always on point
I enjoyed this "street epistemology" video more than any other because of the commentary. I like to watch over & over, stopping to think about what you should/might say/ask next. I'm trying to learn to talk/interview so I might enlighten/provoke introspection in others. You help with this.
Recently, I took a course called "Candles in the Dark" with Amanda & Larken Rose, in which they teach how to ask political questions to induce/expose hidden premises that people use without knowing it. How can we ever question a premise we don't identify? We can't! And it may hamper, even cripple our thought process, leading to an endless dead-end effort to resolve inner conflict.
But if we carefully question to bring out motives, previously unknown assumptions, that contradict morals, we can help people correct mistakes by clarifying their thought process. As the thought process is made more manifest, more conscious, more openly public, communication is better, clearer.
I love💗 the commentary with the video. It helps in understanding both sides.😊👍🏾
Love what you do and how you do it. Your approach is so sophisticated and respectful and illicit much greater interaction with believers than many more confrontational atheists.
They were great!! Interested, thoughtful and curious. Nice job, Anthony!!
Kasia and Justin, good discussion. Thank you for being so willing to chat about your beliefs with Anthony. I'd like to address your question about how to "test" or evaluate a claim for anything, including god. If you can't think of a way to test it, the answer is "I don't know". The time to believe something is real or true is when the objective evidence (testable) makes its existence more probable than any other explanation, including non-existence...not a moment before. Belief is the highest attribute you can bestow on reality and experience, use it wisely and sparingly. Humans have a long and sordid history of getting it wrong.
I had situations over the internet where I could really use Street Epistemology in the past, I wish I had known about them earlier because I always ended up arguing over the wrong things and in the end achieved pretty much nothing. Your videos are extremely helpful and a solution to a problem that I had after my past experiences with people like that where I started to believe that there isn't really anything one can do to disprove someone's religion if it makes sense on the inside, I'm extremely glad that I was wrong about this being a situation without exit and I'm looking forward to being able to try it out in practise
I love it when you get people like Kasia and Justin who actually hear your questions and think and honestly evaluate and respond to them. I'm glad you get to talk with people like them!
How effective do you think a line of questioning would be along the lines of asking people if they accept the existence of something that they'll never be able to examine on their own directly? Something like Pluto, or atoms. We are taught that they exist, but very few of us have a direct means of observing them, yet we believe they exist due what we're taught. If pressed, what would we do to prove their existence? It might illustrate that we can find ways to prove the existence of something we can't see.
I like the meta analysis format. Would like to have more.
Absolutely loved this one Anthony! I would definitely be interested in seeing more of these!
Really helpful and it helps to break down each part of the talk and how you are thinking about the talk.
I also checked the iPhone app you contributed to a while ago, it’s a nice tool.
Take you for you work, it’s such an inspiration.
This format is immensely helpful.
As a former believer I can say that we really partition our brain when it comes to logic and reasoning, and then faith. Logic and reasoning is the part of your "C" drive as a computer analogy. But we have partitioned our brain with an "F" drive that is formatted for Faith. It isn't until we realize that "Faith" is not a reliable way of getting to the truth that we can get reformat that F drive.
I am on Unix system, we don’t use drive letters.
Faith is your operating system, not a storage drive. You can change your OS, but it means changing all your programs. Some programs can work cross platform, but you'll still lose all your project files. And no matter which OS you choose, it's still faith driven.
I take exception to your claim that faith is antithetical to logic and reason. Thats a very immature understanding of faith. Faith has never been defined as a means of discovering truth, it's the evidence that truth has been found. We find truth using logic and reason, then we place our faith in that truth.
This was really cool and a great idea. I really enjoyed it. Please release one of these at least once a month. Fascinating. I love your work.
This is like my 10th video now, but each time it blows my mind more. I LOVE these conversations.
Cool. Thanks for watching. It's a pretty amazing technique.
I like the format, it gives a clear teaching tool.😁
This style of video was the most helpful to me, because it’s live in action, even though I’ve enjoyed you talks too (on SSA). This is from someone that could have found this technique in the beginning of my deconversion, it would have saved some relationships, but hey, better late than never.
Unfortunately, I can’t suggest a different video because I’ve only started following you about a year ago. But I’m sure a lot of other have great suggestions. Keep it up, and thank you for what you do!
I think it's good that Anthony was so open and forthright about his own lack of belief, rather than sidestepping the question in the interest of remaining "neutral." I think directly addressing the question could serve to fill in some gaps in the interlocutor's mind that may have been created as a result of deeper reflection. I could be wrong, but when I hear Kasia ask "Do you believe in God?" after having been challenged herself, I get the impression that she's in some sense deferring to Anthony's "expertise" as someone who seems to have a lot of experience probing the subject. I think that's an opportunity to provide even more insight into the critical thinking process.
No matter what, he's always respectful. I appreciate that.
Nothing cuts through bias like the outsider test for faith. It forces you to face the fact that your method is flawed. It amazes me when people dismiss the obvious conclusion. Bias is a resilient thing.
This was very helpful. Thank you to everyone involved.
Interesting to note his T shirt has an image of the issue you were dealing with.
God works in mysterious ways.
@@seanjones2456 😂😂😂
I've seen a lot of your videos (if not all of them) and i really appreciate that new format. it brings a more analitical point of view on the SE methodology!
Since i've started watching your videos and some of Mr.Sam's i've started using SE in my personnal life as a way to avoid debate (which tend to end up with both me and my interlocuter shouting at each other...) it's been quite effective and a lot more useful!
Excellent!
I thought they gave a great opportunity to get into "Epistemology" and they might have gone off to research it if you gave them some background (Plato, Locke, etc.) Great Job Anthony--Great Job--E
Being first and early is cool, but I have nothing to say :-) edit: now that I’ve watched it - phenomenal job Anthony!
Hi Anthony, I'm a long time watcher of yours, and I get a lot of value out of watching these videos. While I have never been a believer of any religion, the method you are using has helped me re-evaluate other beliefs of mine. Sometimes it helps me change my mind, other times it helps me solidify my beliefs. I have fallen for many things, such as "spirituality", healing crystals, chakras, MLMs, and even alternative medicine. In society we hear things like "ancient healing practice" or "used for centuries" and that sounds like these things are tried & true. But when we actually look for confirmation that these claims have any truth, we realize why they are no longer things we use in modern day - because we have found things that have actually been confirmed to be true.
And I really appreciate the new format. I love listening to your side of the conversation while it is happening. That is very helpful. But there are also sometimes I would prefer to sit & listen to a conversation uninterrupted, so I hope that you can continue uploading the unedited version along side these.
Love your graphics and format. Funny.
Love this format. Very educational to see your in-depth thought process. Bravo.
Great channel, I'm looking forward to watching more of your content not only as to apply these questions to my religious beliefs, but also start getting deeper into philosophy in understanding what epistemology is and how to apply that to a irl discussion on faith and when doing research on my faith
Her face on 24:33 after being told those reasons, poor girl, i feel for her, it's not that they believe it's true, it's that they've wasted a lot of time, please do the most you can so your experience in this life is the best
28.15 for me is definitely the point where the light bulb turned on.
I really enjoy this format. Especially for those of us who are not seeking out conversations and don't do this frequently. Good way to remind us of the possible pitfalls.
@Anthony Magnabosco
Very good, once again.
Some feedback:
• When Kasia asked for tools on finding good reasons, it would have been good to point out that there is no need to make a choice when you do not know whether something is true or not.
• When you brought back the truth scale, your wording came across to me as confrontational, maybe even judgmental (“And yet you’re 80 percent sure” (31:55) , “Why would anyone...” (32:10), “admit” (32:14)). This might have been what caused her to go on the defensive and look for other reasons for her position.
• The side-by-side view of the cameras works really well. Picture-in-picture works too, but I would chose one effect and stick with it.
• The voice-over against a black-and-white background is a nice effect. However, you sliding in and out of view looks cheesy.
• Nice juxtaposition with the “Please stop by the Jesus exhibit! We have all panels of life without question!”
I really enjoy you popping in post-recording to add in more comment. I get more clarity on whats going on
The new commentary seems useful, but it was a little awkward that you were trying to teach the one guy and practice SE on the girl at the same time. Just made it harder to follow and she seemed less comfortable as a result
Daniel Maybe. What do you suggest I do with bystanders?
Personally I think it's better than just leaving the guy standing there for 40 whole minutes as he fidgets on his phone. Plus she might have felt pressured to wrap things up and cut the conversation short if she saw him desperate to leave.
I really like the breakdown I hope there is more to come
That was SUCH a neat discussion! Thank you Anthony for sharing your SE videos. I overcame my God belief five years ago and your videos helped me to feel much more comfortable in my own skin after the transition from christian to atheist.
Anthony you have become so amazingly good at this. Congrats. I only wish I had the time like you do. Our community is so incredibly fortunate to have you doing what you do. Thank You! I hope to meet you once again some day.
Loved the commentary!
I think the outsider's test was quite effective here!
Another fantastic talk, I love having the curtain pulled back a little too with the interjections. I never released just how much your body language is consciously employed-is this really the case or has is now become instinctive?
Perhaps a video on body language alone might be interesting? As a one on one music teacher I rarely consider my own body language or that of my students when we are talking, I think it must happen subconsciously though.
Teachers in general have much to learn from your techniques-we often get a little stuck on transmit due to the constant pressure to impart knowledge as fast as possible.
Anthony, I do enjoy watching interactions uninterrupted. But I also learn faster when you explain your thinking overtly and at the precise time when it is relevant - which is why this video excelled. So I like both formats, but having been already sold on SE am interested now in this new style.
Perhaps it was accidental, but in this video I could read more of what you were writing on your whiteboard. This helped me better understand your focus. Is it possible to do this more often?
It's hilarious how your battery was close to dying and the guy is wearing a shirt that says "Uh Oh..." with an almost dead battery image 🤣
I really enjoy your commentary on these videos, it has been very useful at understanding your methodology on a deeper level.
You are not at all wrong about being worried students are not being taught how to evaluate truth claims. I'm from Canada and I assume the US is similar, and we are taught very little about logic, the philosophy of science, and how we we know something is true until the university level. I think it might be because science is pretty popular and scientific people design the curriculum for schools, and we kinda just think logic is common sense, so we don't formally teach it to kids. It would be so beneficial to make sure people understand that scientific reasoning is the best way we have right now to understand what is true.
I really enjoyed this, Anthony. Thanks :)
I like that she stares right at you and trusts you.
Anthony, I found this exchange and all of your explanations offered to be an entertaining and enlightening teaching tool. Excellent effort. Thank you so much. 10/10
I love this format. It’s really interesting to hear what you’re thinking when asking these questions. It provides great insight.
I’m crying for someone to choose the vaccine option. Is there a talk in the channel where someone chooses it?
On the discord we talked to Anthony about the idea of bringing up alternative medicine, and he seemt to like it. I'm guessing there might be future videos with those topics at some point.
Here you go. It's not Anthony, but it is using the SE method to discuss vaccines.
ruclips.net/video/ej85maiVFdU/видео.html
People who value reason should only believe something if they are convinced it is true. If they're not convinced it is true then that's only gonna be for one of two reasons:
1) they don't have enough information to make a decision yet
2) they have enough information that shows it is not true.
Most of the time when you tell people you don't believe in a God they assume its for the second reason. So it is worth mentioning to them clearly why you don't hold a belief just so every one is one the same page. Also, it is helpful to mention if there is something that could potentially increase your confidence in the God belief.
Also, I think when she asked what you suggest methods for finding good reasons to hold a belief, one helpful analogy could be the decision she makes before crossing the street. Assuming she values her life and health she would make her decisions such that she is always safe. if she looks on the street, she should find:
1)evidence that it is safe to cross
2)evidence that it is not safe to cross
but if she can't see the street properly(insufficient evidence) maybe because of poor vision then she can't make a decision yet and would have to stay safe by waiting until she can improve her vision somehow and properly assess the road.
Great video !
When you ask what makes a great way to test a reason to believe, it makes me think of Mr Sam, a youtuber from belgium that does a great work inspired by yours (it's in french but you should check it out if you can, I discovered your channel because he takes you for example a lot).
In many of his videos, he tries this thought experiment : if you use a sentence to support a claim, and that same sentence can be used by someone to support a claim YOU KNOW IS FALSE, then your sentence is not a good support.
Like, if you say "I belive in healing myself with plants works, because when I do it it works", and you know healing yourself with a magic rock is not possible, but someone says when he does, it works (and he is of course honest, doesn't lie), then you know that "it works on me" is not a good reason to say something works.
About the video itself : I found it very instructive, and I'd really like to see more of those "analysed" videos ! Thank you very much for your great work, it helps me a lot to understand how my mind works, and how I can be more kind with believers to understand how and why we believe.
Great video, Anthony. I liked to hear how you think and strategise as you had this talk. Also, i felt that you don't need to keep appearing at the bottom of the screen. It's enough to have the narration, or "voice of god", if you will. ;) Keep up the great work.
I think that giving your own views is a positive thing. I don't think they've ever heard a critique before.
Not much to add. I think these nice people are really searching. They were well-mannered. Not only to you, but also to each other. If there were more people like them, we could have different opinions and still could live together without fight or war. My respect for all three in this video. It could be the way Anthony shows respect in his questioning, it influenced them?
The evangelists are on to you man. They are ramping up their efforts to counter and undo your work. The power of street epistemology has them frantic.
Useful indeed, Anthony! Thanks for all the work put into this and resources you provide.
Gotta study this up a bit more myself before I feel confident to take a more active approach to it here in Portugal, but since learning about SE from you and reading Dr. Boghossian, I've definitely been applying a lot of tools you approach.
when I was 4 yo I figured out Santa Claus wasn't real, at 5 yo I asked to be baptized, at 10 yo I wasn't sure anymore but all my friends were in the first communion so I went through that, at 12 yo I found absurd everything that I was taught about religion, finally at 14 yo I read the bible and I felt disgust, I come from a small city in a 3rd world country with 12 years of mandatory religion class, I didn't have internet and only basic TV channels (3 national channels, 2 of them own by the church), I was the first atheist I meet, and like you and a lot of people, we were the ones that asked the questions that no other did, and didn't just sit there conform with the answer that were given, SE is so important because make the people ask themselves instead of just getting answer from everywhere, maybe one question won't change anything by itself, but just thinking about it could lead a person into a wonderful path of self discovering and a new way to face the world.
At 10, the brain is ill equipped for critical thinking. 14 isn't much better and even more prone to rebellion. To feel disgust at the bible requires confirmation bias, you had to want to be disgusted. You were looking for reasons to reject it, not evaluating its merits.
Self-discovery isn't a "wonderful path". If you're honest, it's a horror show of greed, selfishness, envy, failure, resentment, and ultimately self-loathing. Don't believe me? Why is depravity so often the result of "self-discovery"? If you're dishonest, you'll look through your life and assign blame for each of your failures, absolving yourself and proclaiming yourself righteous. Perhaps even living a good and generous life to justify your self-image.
You might need to re-discover yourself. Your comment drips with resentment and anger at the church and God.
Very educational video as always. Your exposure of this method has reshaped the way I think of claims and improved my conversations with theist around my work place/campus. I'm glad you do what you do Mr. Magnabosco! Thank you!
This method improved my conversations as well, I'm a fan of Street Epistemology now.
This format is excellent. I recently discovered your channel, and I must say, the amount of pro-Christian adds before and during the videos is crazy.
ye they are really desperate like that.
that they apparently target videos with particular tags.
and in the end you get more religious ad videos on atheist channels than religious ones.
but its clear that they are not doing that to convert people.
they are doing it stop people from deconverting
Hi Anthony, yes, I really enjoyed the way you broke down this video, and I’d like to see more of it.
Anthony, I love the voice overlay. I often listen to these videos while driving (phone face down so I'm not distracted) but when I've had the opportunity to actually WATCH one of your videos I've noticed that there is often a text overlay that I was unaware of. Can't help but think this new voice interjection thing will provide a helpful insight.
Mac Foster Glad to hear it. I won’t do voice interjections on every talk, just on breakdown videos. Keep in mind that we also have a podcast version if you primarily listen to SE content rather than watch it.
Thank you Anthony, I loved it, format is pgud
Very interesting and useful, I’d like to see more of this kind.
his shirt is too perfect for this LOL
Thumbs up for the breakdown format.
At 33:59, you ask about why they are making an exception for this particular claim (the god claim). In a similar convo I've had recently with a friend, my friend (when presented with essentially the same question), is saying that holding the belief is very useful to him, and brings little, if any, harm. i.e. he gets answers to his "big" questions and he believes it provides a healthy framework for his life and family (teaches healthy principles, etc.). So it appears for him that an exception is being made because of the utility of the belief in their life. Have you ever encountered this type of response, and if so, how have you handled it? Or where do you go next with your questions and exploration?
Great videos! Thanks for making them!
Zac D Thanks. Yes, check out my first talk with Maritza for some ideas.
Excellent idea, @Anthony Magnabosco, I think this format of annalizing past videos is a great way to teach people how to use SE when engaging with truth claims. Keep them coming!! (maybe make a separate playlist so they'll be easy to differentiate.)
Pablo Alvestegui Thanks. There is now a Playlist for the new series of breakdown videos.
I like this format, I get more things out of it, but I think it would get boring very quickly if you did it every video.
Maybe limit it to 1 in 5 or so, and mention it in the title: "[with commentary]"
[edit] Does the "
Street Epistemology Breakdown
" prefix in the title specifically refer to the on-screen commentary added to an existing video?
Kris M I won’t do this for every video. When I do, however, the title will contain the same prefix that you mentioned.
The way the guy is fiddling with the puzzle pieces in his hand so damn relatable. Whenever my mind is occupied my hands just do whatever they want ^^
"Life with out question" amazing timing.
Really like this commentary-video format!
FWIW, my unsolicited feedback follows. 5min in, narrator pop-ins might be seen as visually cheesy (maybe other transition effects/styles could come across as smoother?), but, so far, interrupts have been welcome and interesting
17m in; I'm already used to the visual pop-in effect
Paul Capestany Phew. Good. I’m also anticipating making several more of these, so hopefully people will become used to it over time.
I loved hearing your feedback during this video.
I love the commentary on your videos. Adds more depth and understanding on how to SE.
This is one of your best videos.
I lev this format! Really enlightening and I encourage you to do more of the same! It's really helpful!
This is an interesting evolution of your content. Nice.
That last bit: _"All right friends! Please stop by the Jesus _*_exhibit!_*_ We have all these panels of life without question!"_ - That's kind of says it all, kind of the point, isn't it..?
I enjoyed the integration of the "none of the other religions made sense to me" excerpt from another video
Bro, digging this format!
Some memories of me growing up as a nonreligious kid. Somehow I was never religious. My parents never taught me about religion, just never said a word about it, not about it being real nor it not being real. but my grandma was ultra religious and she took care of us often when we were kids, somehow I automatically knew that I must not tell her that I didn't really believe it. I remember when we were visiting our relatives and some mormons or something came by and gave a pamphlet, I asked what it was about and my relatives told me it talked about god. I said "but god doesn't really exist." and they countered with "but if god doesn't exist then that means heaven doesn't exist, don't you believe that?" I didn't know that heaven had something to do with religion so since that day on I stopped believing that heaven exist too. When I told my best friend at the first grade that I didn't believe in god she got angry, she said she didn't want to play with me if I didn't believe and went home. The next day we continued playing like nothing happened. Kids. Years went by, I didn't really think about my nonbelief and never talked it with anyone, when I was 15, one of my teachers said they didn't believe in evolution and god created everything. I was mind blown, I thought only very old ladies and some weird people in america believed that. I didn't have any good questions for her because I had never really explored my view. I started researching religion scepticism, and got a stronger footing on my beliefs and atheism. I asked my parents of what did they believe in exactly. Both of them told me that they never really think about religion, but deep down like the idea of god, kinda believe it, but don't think about it. I was surprised, I thought neither of them believed. How was I so convinced god wasn't real since I was very young when no one apparently told me so? I still wonder that. I explained my mum why I didn't believe in god and she apparently lost the little faith she had. One day she came back from her work from kindergarden and told her she never paid attention of how much religious teachings they had there and now can not unsee it. She said she felt uncomfortable by it. Theres no lesson to these stories, just wanted to share and tell how interesting it is to look at these videos as someone who has never believed in anything supernatural.
white space please.
@@jon__doe sorry
Anthony, I would love to see more of these videos. Really great content!
Dude! I love the additional commentary!
I'm literally doing the same thing for my videos with green-screen (so obviously I think it's a good idea haha)
Taking extra time to edit though, and also can snap people out of the convo, so I'm trying to keep it to mostly an "intermission" or 2 for summarizing, or for some tangent illustrating a point with a different context.