Truth, strike two

[ciphergoth]

Thanks for some interesting and surprising responses to the JFK question. At the risk of creating more heat than light, let me try another example, one that I think might be a little less comfortable to be neutral about.

It seems that many people believe that on the morning of September 11, 2001, four thousand or more Israelis who were working at the World Trade Center did not show up for work.

Are those people wrong?

(Update: amended as per ajva's caveat)

Comments

[henry_the_cow]

You can only get stuck in if the people you disagree with believe that a disagreement can have substance at all.

I think I'm beginning to see the problem. Is the following right? Alice believes (i) something Bob believes is wrong and (ii) it is acceptable or desirable to tell him so. Bob believes (iii) there are no grounds on which Bob's belief can be proven wrong and (iv) it is unacceptable to try to convince someone that their belief in this matter is wrong. How can Alice justify telling Bob that he is wrong?

Presumably an extreme po-mo version of Bob would contend that (iii) and (iv) hold for any beliefs. A religious version of Bob might apply (iii) and (iv) to a more limited set of beliefs (depending on the degree that Bob is religious).

Or am I missing the point wildly?