Caller Falls on SOLIPSISM Because He Can't Defend His Belief | Matt Dillahunty & Brady Goodwin

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Jeremiah's calling from Tennessee.

[00:00:01]Jeremiah, pronouns he/him, is a theist who says, "Can you prove anything exists?" How you doing, Jeremiah?

[00:00:08]Pretty good. How are you, Matt?

[00:00:10]Pretty good. I don't have a solution to the problem of hard solipsism.

[00:00:15]If that is what you're talking about with regard to can you prove something exists, then the answer is no.

[00:00:23]Okay.

[00:00:24]Yeah, I mean, that's kind of a core issue when we're about these things, right? It's like what can we even prove at all when you're asking people to prove you that kind of >> is You acknowledge that we can't prove anything.

[00:00:39]>> Can Can you prove that anything exists?

[00:00:44]Uh well, I mean, I do I do believe in certain historical facts that I don't even have direct empirical evidence for.

[00:00:50]Are you Are you like >> Are you so agnostic about knowledge and so >> No, no, no, no.

[00:00:59]No, Jeremiah. No, I believe I believe I I don't have a solution to the problem of hard solipsism, and yet I believe and I know that things exist, and I can demonstrate that things exist to other people who use the same criteria. Like, I have a cell phone in my hand.

[00:01:15]>> you do believe in >> I'm sorry. I'm still talking. I have a cell I'm sorry. I'm still talking. I have a cell phone in my hand. Do you believe that cell phone exists?

[00:01:25]Yeah, I believe a lot of things that cannot be proven.

[00:01:29]Like, >> Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Jeremiah.

[00:01:33]Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Do you think that I have demonstrated to you that my cell phone exists?

[00:01:41]No, and like I said, I don't think there's much demonstration for many historical facts, but I believe them.

[00:01:46]>> Jeremiah, I didn't ask Wow, Jeremiah, this is so difficult. have any >> Jeremiah, why are you even talking?

[00:01:53]Okay, I'm going to mute you. Listen.

[00:01:56]I'm trying to figure out whether or not we can even have a conversation and so far the answer is absolutely not because I'm asking very simple questions to get an understanding and you keep going on about historical facts. I didn't say anything about historical facts. I'm talking about this cell phone.

[00:02:13]I asked you if you believe that this cell phone exist and you said yes. My next question is, do you think that I demonstrated to you that this cell phone exist and you said no, you can't show historical facts. So let's try this again. I'm going to unmute you. I know there's going to be a beep and you're going to miss part of it but it won't be anything important. Jeremiah, I'm holding a cell phone.

[00:02:34]I'm showing it to you.

[00:02:36]Are you convinced that I have demonstrated this cell phone exist? Yes or no?

[00:02:44]Yeah.

[00:02:45]Cool. Then the answer to your question about whether or not I can prove anything exist is that colloquially with a demonstration, yes and I just did.

[00:02:55]Sure. So let's extend that to historical fact.

[00:02:59]I'm certain that you believe in certain historical fact that you don't have empirical proof of, right?

[00:03:09]I I'm sure I believe in many things that I don't have empirical evidence for directly. Right. And you criticize people for believing in something for believing in something for which there's not empirical evidence. Ah, see what you what you've just done I'm sorry, I'm going to mute you because you don't know how to stop. What you've just done is an equivocation fallacy.

[00:03:29]I'm criticizing people for asserting that something is exist and is demonstrable without being able to demonstrate it. I'm not criticizing people for believing things from the past.

[00:03:40]I'm saying there are certain things for which you do not have sufficient evidence to conclude they are true.

[00:03:47]You and I can agree on this cell phone.

[00:03:50]You and I can agree that George Washington was the first president of the United States.

[00:03:56]You and I can agree that we started this call, which is also in the past, by me saying Jeremiah is calling from Tennessee, pronouns are he/him, wants to know if we can prove anything exists.

[00:04:06]Jeremiah, are you talking about the problem parts autism? We can both agree, because there's a recording, that that is a paraphrasing of that.

[00:04:15]However, not all claims, not all historical claims, are supported by the same surrounding evidence. If you say you got a pet dog, I have a pet dog behind me. It's getting a little restless.

[00:04:31]If you say you got a pet dog, I believe you, because I already have sufficient evidence that dogs exist, that people keep them as pets, that people can have pet dogs. I have one.

[00:04:42]If you say you have you got a pet invisible fire-breathing dragon, you're going to need to provide more evidence for that, because there's not evidence in the world already for that.

[00:04:53]It's not extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

[00:04:57]It is all claims require sufficient evidence, but some claims are already so sufficiently supported by facts from the world that the mere say-so is sufficient to risk accepting it.

[00:05:10]When people are saying a god exists, all I'm asking is, what is your reason? And if all they can say is, I got a book and I believe it, that's not good enough.

[00:05:23]Let's try again.

[00:05:25]Jeremiah, can you prove that a god exists in the same way I can prove a cell phone exists?

[00:05:31]In the same sense that you can prove, like you said, that George Washington exists or any other historical fact that we agree upon, you can demonstrate the validity of different religious facts. Specifically, the Bible is well-supported historically from >> No, Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Jeremiah.

[00:05:52]Jeremiah. Jeremiah.

[00:05:55]Jeremiah. Jeremiah, are you saying that the that the claims in the Bible are as historically reliable as the claim that George Washington was the first president of the United States?

[00:06:06]On the spectrum of things that are provable historically and unprovable, I would put the Bible and the claims in the Bible much closer to the George Washington was the first president line than I would do like the Muhammad was God or the prophet of God, right? I mean, >> Oh, I'm sorry. So, so you're cherry-picking So, you're cherry-picking the Bible. So, when the Bible says when the Bible says when the Bible says when the Bible says that the entire Earth was covered in a flood, that is that is almost as historically reliable as the claim that George Washington was the first president.

[00:06:44]I guess I When it comes to historical reliability and the certainty we can have about those claims, there's certainly a spectrum, you would agree, right? You think George Washington was the first >> not Okay. I'm not going to play your [ __ ] game, Jeremiah. I'm asking you a very specific question that is designed to expose the absurdity in what you're saying because you called in to do an equivocation to suggest that I'm mocking people for believing well-established facts. The fact of the matter is the claim that George Washington was the first president of the United States is not only an entirely mundane claim, but it is one that is supported both by people in the United States and people outside the United States and countless documents and is not remotely inconsistent with the facts of reality.

[00:07:27]The claim that the entire Earth was covered in a flood violates science, has no evidential support, and is merely a claim in your storybook.

[00:07:39]It is patently absurd to believe that the global flood that Noah's global flood is as historically reliable as George Washington being the first president.

[00:07:55]Do you have some way to There are a large number of stories throughout history about what Jeremiah, when I bring you back after schooling you like this, I need you to comment on the specific story I'm talking about, the one you were asked about. I don't need you to start talking about a spectrum.

[00:08:16]I don't need you to start talking about all these other stories. I'm talking about the Noah's flood.

[00:08:23]Is Noah's flood as scientifically verifiable and as historically reliable as the claim that George Washington was the first president? Yes or no?

[00:08:40]I'm sorry, what was that, Matt? I was speaking. Apparently, you weren't listening.

[00:08:45]Uh you were muted and and you were muted because you were speaking and not listening.

[00:08:49]>> I muted? I've answered literally every question that You're muted cuz you won't shut up. You're muted again. Right now, nobody can hear you. I'm going to ask you the question, then I'm going to unmute you. You'll hear a beep. And then the answer that needs to come out of your mouth is yes or no.

[00:09:04]Is the claim in the Bible of a global flood as historically reliable as the claim that George Washington was the first president of the United States?

[00:09:18]Yes or no?

[00:09:21]No, there's certainly not a consensus on all So, Jeremiah, we're done because you don't want to play fair.

[00:09:31]That was a yes or no, but you couldn't stop yourself.

[00:09:34]See, the reality is you and many other Bible believers, which by the way, Brady and I used to be, believe things without good reason.

[00:09:46]Yeah. And you'd like to pretend that your lack of good reason is just It's It's just about like my belief, you know, I never met George Washington.

[00:09:58]So, I'm exercising faith. And if I'm exercising faith, then it's okay for you to exercise faith. But, faith is the excuse people give when they don't have a good [ __ ] reason. Mhm. If you believe something for a good [ __ ] reason, you just say the good reason.

[00:10:13]You don't talk about the spectrum and the historical And this is like this and this is closer to George Washington.

[00:10:20]This is Yeah, this is what the consensus is. Uh I'm sorry, but there's never been a verified miracle.

[00:10:28]I'm sorry, but there's no way to confirm supernatural causation. I'm sorry, but the stories in your storybook are not historically verifiable.

[00:10:37]You can't point to a single individual in the Bible that we can completely be confident actually existed. We can be strongly confident that there were people who wrote those things.

[00:10:53]What we know about them?

[00:10:56]Who knows whether the stories are telling you truth?

[00:10:59]Who knows? But, when we go and investigate, when we investigate things like the order of creation events, the order of creation events in Genesis do not match up with scientific findings, and so they're not scientifically supported, and they're certainly not historically verifiable.

[00:11:15]The story of Noah's flood, not scientifically possible, not scientifically supported, no empirical evidence for it, and it that doesn't stop theists from constantly going out and trying to find Noah's ark.

[00:11:28]Definitely not as historically reliable.

[00:11:30]As a matter of fact, the further back in time you get, the less historically reliable something almost certainly is, merely because there were times prehistory, and there were times where we did not have writing.

[00:11:43]And there were times where people weren't as literate.

[00:11:47]Please stop pretending that skeptics are somehow being dishonest by saying, "I'm sorry, but your claim of a global flood is not on the same footing as my claim that George Washington was president of the United States." I will, though, give you the last word.

[00:12:07]Well, Matt, I didn't claim that you were being dishonest. I've directly answered all of your questions despite being muted for 99% of this call.

[00:12:18]Um so, I am just curious what historical facts you do believe in. Do you think history provides any sort of guidance for us for how we should behave or how we can succeed in the human endeavor.

[00:12:34]I believe many historical facts from history. Um they're all all from history. Um I don't have time to list them because we're the show's almost over. I'm not here to do book reports for you, but I don't believe that anything supernatural has ever occurred. I don't believe there's sufficient justification to believe anything supernatural has ever occurred.

[00:12:52]I have no reason to think there's a god.

[00:12:53]I do think we can learn lessons from history um because we are prone to making the same mistakes again, but I don't think there are any net lessons that on your view just like we can't trust anything anyone said. I'm sorry. Goodbye.

[00:13:07]I tried to [ __ ] humor you and answer your question, and you just couldn't not try to jump back in. Hey, if you liked that clip, you'd love the whole thing.

[00:13:18]Hit like, subscribe, leave a comment, patreon.com/calltheline.

[00:13:25]That one sucked.

[00:13:27]Use it.