Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Argument from Twinkies

Compare the two statements:

1) "you can't explain how the universe came into being, therefore it must have been created by god"
2) "you can't explain how the universe came into being, therefore it must have been created by Twinkies"

Which has greater truth value?

Statement 1) asserts that because A can't be explained, that B must be true. This is a false dichotomy, among other things. Nothing limits the range of possible answers - it may be true that the person who "can't explain A" is not knowledgeable about A, or that the topic A is in the midst of being researched and there is no universally agreed upon theory, or that the question can't be answered. Statement 1) also has the problem of introducing an imaginary concept in the "therefore" clause.

Statement 2) suffers from all of Statement 1)'s problems, except that it does not introduce an imaginary concept. Twinkies are real. They can be observed.

I submit that it is more likely that the universe was created by Twinkies than by god, because the existence of Twinkies can be proven, thus getting me closer to making a true statement in 2) than Statement 1).

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