In which Wolf opens day 2's door... Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/7fQSm7Pe5hc
Welcome to the Beware of Wolf Advent Calendar of Bad Thinking. To celebrate the holidays, I'm counting down the days until Christmas with a common type of bad thinking each day, described in 60 seconds. This holiday season, give the gift of good thinking by sharing these videos with your friends!
Today is Day 2: "Shifting the Burden of Proof"
Imagine that a family member of yours tells you that that a certain medicinal herb can cure cancer, and you ask them to provide evidence to support this claim. In response, they tell you that you're just being closed-minded. Now you're on the back foot and feel like you need to justify your skepticism.
When concrete and convincing evidence is hard to come by, people often resort to attempting to shift the burden of proof back onto anyone who might be skeptical of their claims.
But skepticism isn't disbelief, it's actually "open-minded non-belief," and since skepticism is the proper default position with regard to any new claim (especially big or surprising ones) it never needs to be justified. On the other hand, it is claims and beliefs that need the support of strong evidence and valid reason.
Between Earth and Mars, suggested philosopher Bertrand Russell, there is a china teapot orbiting the sun, too small to be seen by even the most powerful telescopes. He pointed out that his suggestion could not be disproved, but also that not being able to disprove an idea isn't good enough reason for believing it. Not even if, he said, a bunch of ancient sacred writings claimed the existence of the orbiting teapot.
If someone tries to unfairly shift the burden of proof onto you, remind them that they are the one making the claim, and that they are responsible for providing the evidence.
Happy Holidays!