Script for "Intellectually Bankrupt"

One of the most frustrating feelings is arguing with someone about religion, and then immediately recognizing that you're being put through the presuppositional script, and even after you tell them that you recognize it for what it is, they stick to the script like a robot. This video takes their script and removes it from the context of religion, so hopefully, they can recognize how bad it is. Currently animating this one.

Applying Presuppositionalism to the Stock Market:

Investor - I’m thinking this stock is about to go to the damn moon. Think I’ll buy 100 shares.

Apologist - What?! You have no basis for that.

Investor - Sure I do. This sector is poised for a bull market. It’s got a great price to earnings ratio. Revenue looks good. I think it’s pretty undervalued. Even the technicals show classic patterns of…

Apologist - Do you believe in a transcendent investor, beyond time and space, who created the stock market including all the laws that govern it?

Investor - Ummm….no.

Apologist - Then how could you possibly know for certain that the stock will go up?

Investor - Well, I don’t know for sure.

Apologist - Ah ha! So you can’t even rely on your own thoughts.

Investor - Well, no, not 100%, but neither can you.

Apologist - Yes I can.

Investor - You saying so doesn’t make it so. You’re wrong all the time.

Apologist - I know the stock will go down because I have an objective basis for knowing the stock will go down in the supernatural transcendent stock market creator.

Investor - How do you know this stock market creator even says so?

Apologist - Because the stock market creator communicated it to me in such a way that I can know.

*the stock skyrockets*

Investor - Wow I’m really glad I bought this stock. It’s done really well.

Apologist - What?! You have no objective basis for that.

Investor - What do you mean? Of course I can judge whether the stock did well.

Apologist - But you don’t believe in a transcendent investor, beyond time and space, who created the stock market.

Investor - Of course not. That’s ridiculous.

Apologist - Then how can you possibly tell the difference between a good stock and a bad stock?

Investor - Um...the good stock goes up and the bad one goes down.

Apologist - Why is going down even bad according to your worldview? If the stock goes down, you have no basis to call it bad without the transcendent stock market creator to make the law that says it’s bad.

Investor - I know it’s bad because if I bought the stock it would mean I have less money and less money means I have less ability to obtain resources that I need or want.

Apologist - Who’s to say that it’s bad for you to have less?

Investor - I am.

Apologist - Well who are you to judge?

Investor - I’m the one being affected, so of course I can judge.

Apologist - So it’s fine for others to have less?

Investor - No, that’s bad too.

Apologist - But who are you to say?

Investor - Well, I care about other people; that’s why I’m able to say. Why do you need some nebulous allegedly objective creator to inform you of what’s good or bad? Why couldn’t you come to that determination on your own?

Apologist - I didn’t for the same reason you didn’t. You may SAY you don’t believe in the transcendent investor, but you behave like you do, because the transcendent investor wrote his values on your heart.

Investor - But of the two of us, I can justify my values with logic and reason, whereas all you do is appeal to some supposed authority. You see, I look at actual consequences of actions and use those to guide my behavior, whereas all you seem to be doing is appealing to some alleged supernatural creator who supposedly made these laws...for what reason? Because of the consequences that would come about for not following them? If that’s the case, then it was the consequences that shaped the law more than this supposed creator, but if that’s not the case, then what the hell are these laws even for? They’d be totally arbitrary.

*40 years later, Investor pulls up in a new Ferrari. Apologist is downtrodden*

Investor - Oh, hey, long time no see. How’s it going?

Apologist - Excellent. Any day now the transcendent stock market investor is going to put my portfolio into the green. And you?

Investor - Oh, my portfolio has been in the green for 40 years. Did a lot of great research based on reason, logic, and evidence.

Apologist - But you have no objective basis for…

*Interrupted by loud engine as car drives away*