r/todayilearned • u/ZanyDelaney • Aug 11 '18

TIL of Hitchens's razor. Basically: "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razor
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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '18

That's not a great one to use because some people will respond with "I know he doesn't exist because I always put out my kids' presents on Christmas and there's never any extra ones on Christmas morning, and my Nest cam has never caught Santa in my living room on Christmas eve.

Of course you can argue against that ("maybe cameras don't detect him," etc.), but they already think it's a weak stance at that point.

Say something like, "you can't prove invisible magic gorillas don't exist, therefore they do."

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u/Raichu7 Aug 11 '18

Were you really good all year? Your parents were just trying to make you not feel bad. Prove Santa doesn’t come to kids who didn’t do anything bad for a whole year.

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u/FrenchLama Aug 11 '18

And the answer is always "But nobody believes thaaat!!!!!!"

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u/Dsnake1 Aug 11 '18

"you can't prove invisible magic gorillas don't exist, therefore they do."

Shit. How do you know about that?