Atheism/National Revelation

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Expert: - 8/25/2004


Question
National Revelation (http://jdstone.org/cr/files/national_revelation.html) is used as an argument for the existance of God, because people say that it is unlikely that the millions of Jews made it up, since it was passed down. I looked on a lot of atheist websites, and I couldn't find any refutations of this argument. Could you explain why this claim of National Revelation is not credible?

Answer
All this "argument" seems to be is "lots of people have believed something over an extended period of time, therefore it must be true." When put like that, though, it's obviously untrue. Lots of people have believed lots of things over extended periods of time - is it all true? It's a combination of two logical fallacies. Appeal to Numbers:

http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalfallacies/a/numbers.htm

And Appeal to Tradition:

http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalfallacies/a/tradition.htm

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Austin Cline

Expertise

I can address questions regarding atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, humanism, religious philosophy & history, and arguments both for and against theism. I am also familiar with many of the skeptical and atheist resources in print and on the internet.

Experience

I have been an atheist and a secular humanist for many years. I actively run a site about agnosticism & atheism and attempt to help people understand more about these topics. I have made extensive study of both philosophy and of a wide vareity of religions.

Organizations
I belong to the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Council for Secular Humanism.

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My writings appear every week on the Agnosticism/Atheism site

Education/Credentials
I have a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from Princeton University. I have also studied in Germany and Switzerland.

Awards and Honors
Phi Beta Kappa and a Fulbright Scholar.

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