Null Hypothesis My Ass (A Christmas Harangue)
Letter to the editor of Christian Apologetics Ministries (ApologeticsMinistries.com):
You unbelievable wingnuts. You should totally fire your Professor of Apologetics, Jonathon Hold, from his position at your supposed Iowa University of Religion for being a baloneyhead. His article proposing The Null Hypothesis Project is full of vomitous flabergastery.
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He mocks the scientific method, of testing a theory by proving its denial false. But that is actually the most honest way to test a theory: rather than falling into a trap of confirmation bias, a classic error of logic, scientists ask what would be observed if their claim was false, and then look for that. Only when they fail to find it do they have reason to believe their theory is true. And the more they fail to find it, despite exhaustive searching, the more likely their theory is true.
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Hold claims “the null hypothesis in the case of Jesus would be” the declaration “There was no Jesus,” and then claims “the evidence [to] overcome this null hypothesis” is that the Gospel according to Matthew says Jesus existed. Based, Hold incompetently asserts, on the assertion that it contains “first hand written testimony from Joseph,” the father of Jesus. Oh by the Lords of Kobol. What manner of balderdash is this?
Look. First of all, if Matthew wrote down the words of Joseph, that is by definition second hand testimony. I mean, seriously. This is gradeschool grammar shit. Must your professor repeat the third grade? Must he!?
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No, testing the null hypothesis that Jesus didn’t exist means looking for evidence that claims of his existence were fabricated. Only when you fail to find that evidence would you have reason to believe he existed after all. And that’s where the shit hits the fan. And splatters its biowaste all over your freshly made plate of once-delicious rigatoni.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/carrier/archives/6660#more-6660
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