Brian Blais: Bayes vs Apologetics

Graceful Atheist Podcast

My guest this week is Brian Blais, professor at Bryant University and IBNS, Brown University. He is the author of A Measure of Faith – Probability in Religious Thought and Statistical Inference For Everyone. Brian is an expert in Bayes’ Theorem and how it applies to philosophy, theology, and apologetics. In this episode, I take the restraints off myself and express the reasons why I think apologetics is faulty. Brian is the perfect guest for this. We bounce ideas off one another to articulate good epistemology. We discuss how mathematics and Bayes can be abused by injecting unstated information which changes the probabilities and ultimately the conclusions one comes to. We also discuss how beliefs have consequences. The current rash of conspiracy theories has had real-world effects. Brian explains how decision theory can be used to make difficult choices. Links Brian’s website
https://bblais.github.io/ Twitter
https://twitter.com/bblais Statistical Inference For Everyone (Free Version)
https://bblais.github.io/posts/2019/Jan/14/stats-for-everyone/
Amazon Version
https://amzn.to/2O2onzQA Measure of Faith: Probability in Religious Thought
https://amzn.to/37QzEKt Bayes’ Theorem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes%27_theorem The Monty Hall Problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem Interact Full Show Notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2021/02/28/brian-blais-bayes-vs-apologetics/?gaid=gap62 Deconversion How To
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/Critique of Apologetics
https://gracefulatheist.com/critique-of-apologetics/Apologetics Epistemology and Moving On
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/10/02/apologetics-epistemology-and-moving-on/ Previous episodes referred to in this episode
https://gracefulatheist.com/2020/10/04/randal-rauser-conversation-with-my-inner-atheist/
https://gracefulatheist.com/2020/11/01/ian-mills-new-testament-review/
https://gracefulatheist.com/2020/11/15/barrett-evans-the-contemplative-skeptic/ Attribution Transition Music and Dawg Biscuits on the moon
John Monson and the Brothers Galaxy "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/<