"The Shifting Sands of Evidence & Argument" (Why Religious Arguments Fail to Persuade)--Part 1

As anyone who has participated in or even just watched various religious arguments being presented and debated knows, religious arguments tend to be persuasively inert and, usually, are found compelling only by those who already accept the conclusion of such arguments. This two-part video attempts to get at some of the reasons for this.

Back in late March 2010, my friend Myintellectualjourny asked me to respond to some questions about, inter alia, things theists and nontheists have in common. I had been thinking a lot and writing a bit about persuasion, particularly (though not exclusively) in the context of religious arguments. Eventually, I came to suspect that I had identified some of the common ground MIJ had asked me to talk about. I'm no longer so sure, but I'm offering this video both as an answer--a long overdue one at that--to MIJ's request AND, more generally, as a basis for discussion about the roles and effectiveness (or ineffectiveness, as the case seems to be) of religious arguments.

Links:

1. Jennifer Faust's article "Can Religious Arguments Persuade?"

http://books.google.com/books?id=KO6C...

2. "Belief in God Without Arguments?" video from the AlwaysMuslim channel here on YouTube (quoted in part one):

   • Belief in God Without Arguments?  

3. Myintellectualjourny's video "The Peace Talks":

   • Видео  

4. Part 2 of this video:

   • "The Shifting Sands of Evidence & Argument...  

5. Lorne L. Dawson's article "When Prophecy Fails and Faith Persists: A Theoretical Overview" (which provides an excellent account of the role of cognitive dissonance in religious belief):

http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdf/10...

6. Gary Gutting, professor of philosophy at Notre Dame University, on philosphy and faith

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...


Music: (part 2) "Credo" Giovanni Palestrina