Blog post 4: Clifford

In Standard Form, Clifford believed that actions were always influencing people in some form. These actions based on no factual claims or evidence caused harm to others and therefore he believed that it was wrong to believe in unjustifiable beliefs. Clifford believed that actions people create based on beliefs that weren’t supported by evidence would either harm others directly or cause social issues. I personally would not agree with his statement due to the fact that I know people who don’t feel the need to provide evidence and because of their actions, no harm has come to me. It is of the own persons will to believe in what they want to believe, evidence or not. His thesis was significant because many people of a religious group were falsely accused over crimes they didn’t commit but because there was lack of evidence they were convicted guilty. He believed that people needed more solid proof in order to believe in God and the fact that they were believing in God without evidence was “ taking the easy way out”. Clifford also believed that actions based on beliefs that were not backed up by evidence would either harm others directly or cause social issues. He also believed that everyone’s beliefs influence others in one way or another. The examples he used to claim that his arguments were true were his depictions of the shipowner being unsure whether or not his ship was going to be able to sail. Because of this, the ship owner was the influencer of his beliefs and thus led to others being influenced despite it being so negative (they died). Despite it being out of the ship owners control, I do believe Clifford has some logical reasoning behind his thesis. There is in fact a common issue found in today’s age relating to religion. Despite Christianity and Catholicism being two of the most prevalent religions in the United States, there are still other religions that seek to “recruit” others. Usually these forms of religion that form recruitments are often not fundamentally safe. Isis, one of the world’s most dangerous extremist terrorist groups, recruits people every day. The main issue with this group is that the foundation on which their religion is found is under a different sect of Islam. This sect is not proven by anyone and yet has recruited thousands and thousands of members. No one in the Islam community fully believes anything in which Isis has claimed to be true. Because of these lies, millions and millions of people are affected negatively.  It is because of Clifford but I fully agree that it is wrong to believe anything without sufficient evidence. I think Clifford’s reasoning shows signs of being an Ad Hoc Rescue fallacy because there is no way to argue his assumption if it partially involves his past when he was on the shipwreck.