Taken from The Outlaw (C) 2005 by Peter Pike, pp. 247-251, used by permission:

The ocean waves crashed loudly in the distance as Sam sat down on his usual spot on the beach. He felt the warm sun on his face and relaxed in the salty sea breeze. After a moment, the familiar sounds of Larry’s footfalls reached his ears.“How are you doin’, Lar?” Sam asked casually. His nonchalance hid his real intentions for that conversation.

“Not bad, Sam.” The man sat beside him and exhaled sarcastically: “I love the smell of sea weed in the morning.”

“Yeah. And this is a good spot for it, since the tides come in to within just a few feet of us.”

“Yup. The tides are very beneficial to us.”

“So, Lar, why do you suppose the tides are they way they are?”

Larry snorted. “You’re not going to start with the moon fairy-tale are you?”

“It’s not a fairy-tale,” Sam responded. “The existence of the moon perfectly explains why tides exist.”

“There is no reason to assume that the moon exists,” Larry nearly shouted. “You only have that stupid Braille Book that tells you so! Well, if the moon exists why can’t I feel it, or hear it, or smell it, or taste it? Huh? I reach up as high as I can, but I don’t feel the moon! How convenient that it’s located so far away, huh?”

“The moon is beyond our senses, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

“If I can’t experience it, then I have no reason to believe it exists.”

“How do you explain the tides then?”

“The tides exist because it is the nature of the ocean to cause tides.”

“What?” Sam was flabbergasted. “You’re just asserting that with no proof! Demonstrate how the ocean causes the tides!”

“Go to any ocean and put a boat out just off the shore with a rope tied to the beach. You will notice that the boat does not move, but it will be in water during high tide and on dry land during low tide. The ocean causes the tides.”

“How?”

“It doesn’t matter how. We can’t go and assume the existence of some magical moon that we cannot experience!”

“So you’re just an empiricist, trusting only in your own four senses. How do you know that they give you all the necessary information pertaining to reality?”

“Because I have no reason not to accept it!”

“You have the tides!” Sam exclaimed. “You can’t explain them outside of just asserting that it must be the nature of the ocean.”

“What is more reasonable?” Larry asked. “A belief in a moon that we have no empirical evidence for, or the belief that the ocean is inherently given to tides?”

“What is more reasonable?” Sam countered. “A belief in something that transcends our experience, but which is able to actually explain the tides, or the belief that the ocean just spontaneously, for no reason, gives rise to tides?”

“Bah,” Larry said. “It’s not like belief in the moon is necessary for anything! We can cross the ocean and predict the tides, all without resorting to some silly notion that the moon exists.”

“But if the moon exists, would it not give rise to the nature of the tides the way they are? You are therefore reading into your conclusion the impossibility of the moon’s existence without considering the important issues! What if, as the Braille Book says, there is such a thing as vision?”

“Vision!” Larry nearly spat in disgust. “I don’t hear vision. I don’t smell vision. I don’t taste vision. I don’t even feel vision! Why should I accept that vision exists? There is no empirical reason to accept vision!”

“There is no empirical reason to accept that it cannot exist either. You are assuming since you don’t experience it that such a thing is impossible, but that is the most naïve statement one could make! How do you know that your four senses experience the sum total of all reality? What if there’s something beyond it?”

“I have no reason to accept any thing else.”

“That’s because the only thing you’ll accept as ‘reason’ is that which doesn’t go beyond what you already assume to be true! If you can’t taste it, or hear it, or feel it, or smell it, then it’s not real, period! But what if your entire worldview is wrong?”

“I have no reason to think it is.”

“But only because you already assume it’s correct! If you take my worldview, that the Braille Book is accurate and such things as vision and the moon exist, then reality is still explained perfectly by it—in fact, even more fully explained! Your worldview cannot explain anything beyond what you experience. Tell me, Lar, how do you know that the tides are universal?”

“Because they’re everywhere the ocean is.”

“But you only know that which you have personally experienced. You do not know that tides exist in places you’re not at, or haven’t been. You just assume that it will be so because it has been wherever you tested it before.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“That makes it all relative! Your argument for it is that you experienced it—a relativistic notion—therefore, it must be so everywhere. My argument is that the moon exists objectively, even though we can’t hear it, smell it, taste it, or feel it; and therefore no matter where you go, the tides will be there! My view is objective—the tides do not depend on what I experience, they depend on whether or not the moon exists. The fact that it does guarantees that wherever I go on the ocean, the tides will be. Your view has no such guarantee. Who has more certainty in his position?”

“I have certainty! The ocean causes the tides, therefore wherever there is the ocean, the tides will be too!”

“But you have no ‘reason’ to assert that the ocean causes the tides,” Sam countered wryly. “You cannot hear the ocean causing the tides. You cannot smell the ocean causing tides. You can’t feel it, or taste it causing tides. You only say that the ocean causes the tides because you need something to explain why the tides exist, so you manufacture the evidence for it! You have no empirical reason to accept that the oceans cause the tides, and therefore you refute your own position! You have to accept it using more faith that I have to in my position!”

“Well, obviously not you since you believe in a fairy-tale!” Larry shouted before walking off and clicking his tongue at the lunatic believer on the beach…