Question

I'm engaged in a debate where someone argues, Most religions believe all other religions are wrong, and their religion is right. Therefore, the consensus is that all religions are wrong. I believe this is flawed logic. In my understanding, since most believe one is right and the rest are wrong, the consensus would be that one is right—though which one is not agreed upon. Am I interpreting consensus correctly? Specifically, is it faulty reasoning to conclude, the consensus is that all religions are wrong, given that most religions believe all others are wrong except themselves?

Thank you to those who responded to my original question. Your answers greatly assisted me in thinking through the issue. I'd like to rephrase the question, if I may, removing religion from the topic and being more precise about the definition of consensus.

Consider the following thought experiment on the consequences of using consensus to form your own opinions. By consensus, we mean general agreement and not necessarily universal agreement. Suppose we have 10 experts, each holding mutually exclusive positions, with each believing the positions of the other experts to be false and their own position (and only their position) to be true.

When examining each position individually, 9 out of the 10 experts believe it is false. To heed general consensus, we would need to conclude that the individual position is false. If we repeat this for each position, each would be false, and hence all are false. However, when considering the 10 positions as a set, each expert would affirm that the set of positions contains one and only one correct position (though there would be no consensus as to which one).

This leads to an apparent contradiction: if we follow general consensus as a guide to our own opinions, we would need to conclude that a) all the positions are false, and b) that one, and only one, is true.

Is the above reasoning valid? Use the word consensus to refer to a statement that most people (in the group under consideration) would agree with.

Answer 1

The individual's interpretation of consensus is correct. While most religions believe all other religions are wrong, the consensus is that one religion is right, although there is no agreement on which religion that is. The logic that concludes the consensus is that all religions are wrong is flawed.

Step-by-step explanation:

The individual's interpretation of consensus is correct. While it is true that most religions believe all other religions are wrong and their own religion is right, this does not mean that the consensus is that all religions are wrong. Consensus refers to general agreement, and in this case, the general agreement is that one religion is right, although there is no agreement on which religion that is. So, the logic that concludes the consensus is that all religions are wrong is flawed.

To further illustrate this point, consider a thought experiment with 10 experts holding mutually exclusive positions. While individually, 9 out of the 10 experts believe their own position is false, collectively, there is a consensus that the set of positions contains one correct position, although there is no consensus on which one. This demonstrates that the consensus is not that all positions are false, but rather that one position is correct.