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How do you explain the principal of "you cannot prove a negative" to someone that is very weak at abstractions like this? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by j4k3@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] MrKurtz@lemm.ee 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot, too small to be seen by telescopes, orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong.

I love that one of the arguments against this analogy, shown in the Wikipedia, article is the following:

the only way a teapot could have gotten into orbit around the sun would be if some country with sufficiently developed space-shot capabilities had shot this pot into orbit. No country with such capabilities is sufficiently frivolous to waste its resources by trying to send a teapot into orbit.

... what a time to be alive!

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago

Dude...imagine if we could convince Trump/Musk and Space Force/Space X to do this. It's like philosophy's version of the Torment Nexus!

[–] Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

A teapot, no. A racecar, sure, did it a while back and then basically stopped talking about it.