Henke 2022cg

Lundahl (2022m) Fails to Recognize that Skepticism Must be the Default Position for Any Unsubstantiated Claim

Kevin R. Henke

September 15, 2022

In Henke (2022b), I stated the following:

“Rather than recognizing the virgin birth of Romulus as nothing more than a made-up story, Lundahl (2022a) again suggests that it might have happened and that a demon could have been responsible. Lundahl (2022a) again shows his inability to separate out real history from likely mythology that involves angels, demons and other supernatural beings. This is part of a superstitious mindset that sees demons almost everywhere instead of recognizing that fertile human imaginations are more than capable of making up stories and that these stories can become popular with gullible audiences.” [my emphasis]

Lundahl (2022m) comments on the bolded section of Henke (2022b) without realizing that skepticism needs to be the default position for any unsubstantiated claim:

“Henke speaks of "inability" when in fact it is a refusal to use his criterium, for reasons stated. I do not have the atheistic world view, ergo, I do not have any rational ground for excluding full historicity of these occurrences, with the inaccuracy of taking demonic activity for the "divine" one of false gods.”

Skepticism is the rational and default position for any unsubstantiated claim (Henke 2022dv). This approach is not just for atheists. Everyone should be immediately skeptical whenever they encounter an unsubstantiated story. Everyone should demand good evidence before accepting a story as fact. Otherwise, clever con-artists are likely to take advantage of your gullibility.

Lundahl (2022m) is simply believing in these groundless stories for no good reason. In these stories, he simply substitutes demons for gods without demonstrating that demons even exist or that any part of these stories ever happened. The gullible and superstitious people in Mr. Lundahl’s “earliest known audience” also had a critical lack of skepticism and this is how fraudulent scriptures and religions start.