Math Unites Atheists and Believers

[RJT]

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Can be I be pedantic for a moment (clearly I can [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img])

100% certain is a a grammatical tautology

99% certain is an oxymoron

chez

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Touché

100% certain is redundant, that is for sure.

99% certain - oxymoron? Technically , yes you are correct. Definitely more clear to say 99% confident.

The reason it might not be grammatically incorrect is that there are words that are omitted that are understood. Such omission of words is a common and accepted part of the English language. Like when we say the glass is 99 % full. We are actually saying: the amount of liquid in the glass as a percentage of it being full is 99%

I still can’t get commas correct, so I am not the best one to correct grammar.

I am still 99% confident in what I said though - perhaps not the best way to say it.

p.s Sorry for the temporary hijacking of the thread.

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The amazing thing about this thread is that I would have laid 100-1 that the disputer would be someone who said the probability was exactly one in his mind rather than exactly zero.

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Mr.Sklansky is exactly right. I intended the post to be answered by believers not atheists. I figured atheists would say "who cares?". I could have said that I'm not 100% certain that I'm not a torso hooked up to a bunch of machines and computers and my life has been one big dream or virtual reality. I have no evidence to support if this is true or false, but of course I'm going to question it and say that it isn't likely and has about a 10^(-10^6) chance of being true. With such a low probability I can understand why someone wouldn't believe it to be true and I can't see why anyone would care enough to debate it.
Now, what I really don't understand is the people who claim to be 100% certain that they ARE a limbless torso hooked up to computers and machines with no evidence to support such a claim.

[chezlaw]

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I could have said that I'm not 100% certain that I'm not a torso hooked up to a bunch of machines and computers and my life has been one big dream or virtual reality. I have no evidence to support if this is true or false, but of course I'm going to question it and say that it isn't likely and has about a 10^(-10^6) chance of being true . With such a low probability I can understand why someone wouldn't believe it to be true and I can't see why anyone would care enough to debate it.

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Why the probability? As (I assume) you have no evidence to deny or support the scenario it seems arbitrary.

The reason I don't believe anything about it, is that any belief I have is independent of the truth of the matter. Hence there's no use in debating it.

chez