What's the magic number?

Question

How many people have to believe something for it to become "fact"?

I just saw that "everyone" believes in Satan so that makes Satan real. But I know at least 3 people personally that honestly believe they are pod people. Does that make pod people a fact? How many people need to believe they are pod people for it to become truth?

Answer 1

doesn't matter how many people BELIEVE something to be a fact.  How many people are christians and yet christianity is not a FACT.  There is a difference between truth and fact.  Fact is objective.  If its a FACT, its a fact no matter what.  Truth is subjective.  What is true to one person is not true to another.

To a christian, Jesus is the way, is a truth.  To me, its not.  But saying that the ozone layer is what protects us from UV radiation, along with the earth's magnetic field, well, those are facts.

Answer 2

There are thousands of rolling pods on the road today, I definately believe in the pod people. The Smart Car dealership for all of Oregon is just down the street.

Answer 3

69

Answer 4

Just one.

Answer 5

108 The distance from the earth to the sun is 108 times the sun's diameter.

Answer 6

the square root of minus 1.

Pi.

1.618.  

Answer 7

42 is the magic number.  It's the answer, but what is the question?

Edit: by the way, I've converted two people today to Pastababbianism, so I have only 39 to go if I count myself as a believer.

Answer 8

3! It's the magic number!

And yeah, just because a bunch of people believe something, doesn't mean it's true.

Answer 9

93? 69? Bah. Everybody knows the magic number is 42.

Answer 10

I believe that 6 is a holy number.

Answer 11

93 is the magick number.

:P

Um...I believe Satan is a myth with no basis in reality and so do all my friends. We win.

Answer 12

that shounds like it would make for a funny church

Answer 13

3

Answer 14

I'm with SugarBab. 69 is a nice round number.

Answer 15

I find pi can be compared to belief in magic, as both are irrational.

=P

Unfortunately many "believers" think that the fact that they DO believe something is true means that WHAT they believe is true also.

"I believe satan is real"

The "I believe" part may in fact be true, but the reality of satan's existence as an objective entity is where one runs into problems as there is no empirical grounds for making such claims thus it would be irrational to insist that it is true.

It requires knowledge of satan that is repeatable, empirical, and objective to make a claim that satan exists and that this is a reasonable conclusion.

Without such evidence the claim is irrational and exists only as a subjective belief and not as an objective reality.