The Carl Sagan quote, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” is the biggest load of bull I’ve ever heard. It is almost always given by atheists to the religious with a smug grin as if proves something. However, they never define “extraordinary evidence.”
Atheists will often say they can’t accept a miracle because it can be reproduced as in a science experiment. But if it could be reproduced it wouldn’t be a miracle, it would be a law of nature. To require that kind of “extraordinary evidence” is like saying, “I will not accept that the battle of Waterloo happened until I see a battle of Waterloo occur.” They even refuse to accept numerous witnesses reporting the event, even if the witnesses accept death over recanting their testimony. To them miracles couldn’t have happened, no matter what evidence is given. They won’t even accept Christ second coming or God speaking directly to them as proof. They would only think it a hallucination. To them there is no evidence no matter how extraordinary which they will accept.
Using such a weaselly unspecific term as “extraordinary evidence” is bad enough, but they don’t even live by their own credo. In fact, they have done far worse. They have made an extraordinary claim with no evidence. They claim the universe must be packed with life, and surely on some planet that life has evolved into an intelligent species that we merely need to make contact. There is no evidence that outside of the Earth, there is life anywhere in the universe. These proponents will say, “But there is an abondance the chemicals of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus. The basic building blocks of DNA. Additionally, amino acids have been found in meteors. Therefore, with all the trillion of planets in the universe, there must be life out there.” Their statements would be like me saying, “We have the gospels that documents Jesus’s life. Archaeological evidence is constantly being found that shows the Gospel’s historic accuracy, and several historians outside of the Bible mention Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, Jesus must be the Son of God and raised from the dead.” They would tell me that the truth of my proceeding statements does not lead to the validation of my conclusion. And to some extent, I have to agree with them. But they need to realize the same applies to their statements and conclusions as well.
In my previous post I looked at the odds of finding another planet able to support life. Looking at these odds I’ve become an anomaly among Americas, especially those with a STEM background. I believe that except for Earth, this is a sterile universe. We’ve spent billions of dollars searching for life on the moon, Mars, and everywhere. We have yet to find it anywhere, except here. I can’t prove my thesis that we are alone in the universe. To do so would require visiting every star, planet, and asteroid in the universe, and that is impossible. However, I am open minded. If NASA’s probes ever found life on Mars, or Europa, or irrefutable evidence of past life (not just a few amino acids), then the odds of intelligent life outside of Earth would be slightly less than fifty percent. And I’m in favor of the continual search for extraterrestrial life, as long as it is fiscally feasible. After all I could be wrong, and we won’t know until we look. But I have given my definition of “extraordinary evidence” required for me to believe in extraterrestrial intelligence. I’ll believe when I meet an ET face to face.
All I demand is that atheists define what is extraordinary evidence, and make sure their own statements of belief follow these requirements before they smugly dismiss my affirmations of faith.
#Carl Sagan, #Extraordinary claims, #Extraordinary evidence