What The Challenge is About

I keep getting this one comment so many times that I am just making a post about it and will refer people to it when they keep coming back.

The challenge was never about challenging people to disprove man made global warming. I am not the one making the hypothesis. The challenge was for deniers to prove their hypothesis. Deniers claim man made global warming is not real and they can prove it. They are the ones putting forth the hypothesis. I am merely challenging them to do so.

If you wish to believe man made global warming (anthropogenic global warming, or AGW) is not real, that is your business and you have a right to believe that. I am not interested in trying to change you mind because experience has taught me it is a religion to deniers. They believe it on faith with no evidence to support their belief and will continue to believe in the face of massive evidence that shows their belief is wrong.

Fine. I don't care. Like I said, that is your right.

But, there are people out there that are trying to figure this all out and they have a right, too. They have the right to make their decision with all of the facts. Deniers are in the business of deceiving the public with lies, half-truths, deception and false arguments. Certainly one of those false arguments is that man made global warming is not real and they can prove it.

What this challenge is all about is showing the public that deniers are being deceptive when they say this. They are making a claim they cannot substantiate. There is no scientific evidence to support their claims and the proof is coming from the deniers themselves. I am giving them the opportunity to prove their point. I post all challenge submissions along with my response showing why their submission is not scientifically valid. Why is it so many challenges are being submitted with no valid science to support it? The reason is because there is no science to support their claims.

One of the (many!) faults of deniers is the belief that just because they say it it must be true. It is pretty funny how many times deniers make submissions and conclude the submission with something along the line of, "That's the proof. Now, send me my money!" It never occurred to them that they have to be evaluated first. So, it never occurred to them that they might not be scientifically correct. No matter how much science I provide, they will go off claiming they were right and I reneged on the challenge. No, the reason they didn't get the award is because their science was invalid.

If you are not someone making a statement along these lines, then the challenge is not for you. If you are, then you know what your claim is and you know what you have to prove. Don't come to me and complain that I haven't been clear about the challenge. The challenge is perfectly clear. You have made a statement and I would like you to back it up.

Many deniers complain that this challenge is about the wrong thing and should be about something else. Fine. Go make your own challenge. This is the challenge I made and deniers don't get to come and rewrite it.

They also complain that I am the sole judge. There are several denier challenges I know of with that same standard. Do any of these deniers complain about those challenges? Or, is it just my challenge they object to? I suspect they can't answer the challenge, so they are attacking any way they can. And, of course, they still have not been able to prove their claim.
 
Saying that it is impossible to prove a negative is another common complaint by the deniers. This statement is not only a false statement, but it is also a false argument.

Yes, I can prove that I don't have the Sun in my backyard. That is proving a negative. I can give endless other examples. But, the real fallacy here is that I am not asking anyone to prove a negative. I am merely asking them to back up their statements. Deniers are the ones making the statement. They are saying it isn't real and they have the evidence. I am giving them a venue to do that.

A lot of deniers are upset with the challenge. They should be. The purpose of the challenge is to show just how silly deniers are with their claims. If you have not made up your mind about global warming, you should take a good look at what is going on here. You will see how they are actively working to deceive people.

After looking at everything, ask yourself one question, 'Are these the kind of people you would trust to tell you the truth?'