What do you think of the "that many people can't be wrong" defense of theism?

Question

This was inspired by Kaliko's answer to this question
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoazLKh8X8vSORBaoTqQeZjsy6IX?qid=20070831092022AAMO4se
wherein she used the "that many people can't be wrong" defense.

Know of any documented mass hallucinations throughout history?

How many people used to believe Earth was flat? Comets were gods?

Why would the precedent of a social dynamic like mass hallucination have mysteriously disappeared today, and can it ever disappear regardless of the level of knowledge and learning of a society/race/planet?

Answer 1

I think it's quite laughable.

Answer 2

I am a Christian and I would never use that as an answer, because it lacks strength and truth.

Here is why I think there is a God, when one is born, no matter what part of the world you live in, one is born with a heart to worship. Be it God for the Christian, Buddha for the Buddhist, Mohammed for the Islamic, Dali Lama, the sun for the natives, etc... but one is born with that feeling that something greater exists outside of us. In turn there must be something, someone who started the wheel turning, someone who created the movement, the motion of time, the space we stand in. That someone could not have been created, therefore to borrow the term used by Plato, the unmoved mover.
You see even the greatest minds have tackled this conundrum without success, and it would take a lot more than just a few lines on here to show you that there is a God, that comes from faith alone, and if you or anyone else lacks that they will not see that there is something greater.
My two cents and I am sticking by them.
Take care and have a great day.

Answer 3

I remember an old James Burke video (The Day the Universe Changed series, I think), in which he relayed the observation of the philosopher Wittgenstein that it made sense to think that the sun revolved around the earth, because that is what our senses tell us.

Therefore, that many people can be wrong. Misperception doesn't have to be rare.

And anyway, there was a time before Christianity. When that many people were "wrong," did it mean that Christianity's eternal truths were not yet eternal... or true? This should make your head hurt.

Also, Muslims will soon outnumber Christians. I guess that the truth of any religion must (to some people) be attested by the number of followers.

This makes the supernatural world work oddly like science- through consensus!

In that case, I might be for it!

Answer 4

It is said in the bible, let every man be a liar, but God be true

there have been many instances where there was mass followings of people "that couldn't be wrong"
1. Jim Jones
2. David Koresh
3. The people that believed a spaceship was going to ge them to another (higher) life.
4. Hitler
5.Stalin
6.Darwin
7. Satan (actually behind the aformentioned)
list goes on..

anytime we depart from the truth, we are acceptable to false teachings and thereby be led astray.

Answer 5

I am a Bible believing Christian. Your premise is absolutely valid. That is not a good or logical reason for believing. The fact is, for any belief, there are just as many who don't believe. So that argument is not really a valid one. The one that helped me to believe was this: I could have been tempted to believe that of the 11 remaining disciples (after Judas' suiccide) none would have been willing to return home after 3 years of "foolishly" following this carpenter guy around. I'm sure that they would have felt quite humiliated after Jesus' crucifiction. I mean they had left everything to follow this guy and He had promised so much only to be killed by the Gov't. without having fullfilled His promises. I could have believed they would rather live in a collective lie the rest of their lives, after having created an elaborate hoax, than to go home so humiliated. But how many people do you know that would die for something that they know for fact is a lie? I don't know any. I might be willing for something I believe to be true, but never for a lie. All but one of the Apostles died horrible deaths because of their faith in the ressurection of Jesus Christ. This fact can be accounted for outside of scripture. I have much better reasons for believing than that, such as seeing Him at work in my life on a daily basis, but if you're the kind that wants a logical reason for things, here it is. Can there be a logical reason for those men dying in such a way, if not for its Truth?

Answer 6

You keep coming up with this flat earth idea.
A round earth is taught in the most ancient of scrolls from the Hebrew era. The only ones that believed in a flat world were inland dwellers and pagans at that. You know ignorant people like yourself.

Answer 7

Documented mass delusions I( I think the term mass hallucinations is incorrect in your question):

Organized religions.

Nazism

Sovietism

the Witch hunts (under religion)

"Why would the precedent of a social dynamic like mass hallucination have mysteriously disappeared today"

It hasn't. See again: Religion.

Answer 8

The truth never need a vote in favor! But theory do ! And a supporting proof also. So One person can be right and a mass may be wrong. You can't defend anything on the basis of such statements, which are basically false.

Answer 9

It's true, the world must be flat, and have 4 corners too! Oh, and there are dragons and monsters in the sea. Bleeding really DOES balance out the humours to ease the mind. There were WMD in Iraq (everyone beleived it, it must have been true) and Christopher Columbus was not responsible for genocide of the Arawak peoples (no one knows, so they majority must be right).

Answer 10

Is not the logic of 'that many people can't be wrong" exactly the same as "that many scientists can't be wrong"?
I mean, is not the scientific process of 'peer review' exactly the same as saying, scientific fact is subject to a popular vote?

In all actuality, the majority of those proclaiming to be Christian, are wrong in that they continually promote lies about the person of God, and the myths of hellfire and immortal soul.
Yes, the majority of those with faith are wrong, yet they do feel right, because so many share their incorrect beliefs.

Answer 11

I'd say that, when it comes to matters that are essentially unknowable, with many interpretations, EVERYONE can be wrong, and the amount of people holding a certain belief do not legitimize the belief, it merely shows a form of persuasiveness of the belief, and the conformity of the person adopting it.