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Atheism vs Theism |OT|

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Ravi so far through morals:
-Demonizing with ambiguous poems
-Acting like a handful of historical correlations show causation
-Quoting half of an answer Dawkins gave it dodge the challenge it gave to you
-Acting like the lack of easy answers means a framework has no answers
-Using the Nazis to say atheism will lead to moral bankruptcy
-Quoting a song that ignores history to act like we recently fell from a lack of evil

The whole time raising his voice through his weakest points to try and make them sound more convincing. Typical charlatan. Moving rapidly from point to point on the note of a question each time to make it seem like no one has ever given answers to those questions.

Now he is moving on to meaning of life and I'm getting bored.

BY THE BEARD OF ZEUS he's defending and praising Mother Teresa. After a story spun to glorify her he quoted the title of Christopher Hitchens' book to call it vulgar (as a representation of atheism on the whole) and said that is all Hitchens had to say... Uh, really? All the pages of that book were blank? You are literally judging a book by its cover? Intellectually bankrupt. This is a sermon.

Edit: He has truly gone off the rails. He was always a fan of drawing emotional conclusions from limited data, but I don't remember him having a habit of falsely characterizing people's positions for a few toss-in strawmen, some to beat up and some to stand next to him as allies. I can only conclude that this is because he feels unable to take on their actual positions. Whatever his reasons, it is insulting to the people he references, those listening to him, and the academic institution who brought him on to say something meaningful.

Sounds awful.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Nor would I. You seem to be completely missing the distinction between making a prediction that they won't, and making a claim that it's impossible. One is good common sense, one is irrational.

The issue here is that for day to day life we can ignore these possibilities. When you decide whether to buy a Cadbury's creme egg, I don't expect you to bear in mind that HAMTOMET the great Purple Hamster (may his cheek pouches ever be full) has declared them anathema to all those who post on Gaming Age. I certainly don't plan on living my life by the capricious whims of a hamster deity I just invented. I can't prove one way or the other whether HAMTOMET (may his cheek pouches ever be full) exists. He's carefully constructed to be immune to proof of this nature.

But if I want to be on the side of the rational, then I have to be rational. Can I prove definitively that HAMTOMET (may his cheek pouches ever be full) does not exist? No. It's that simple.

Should I go through my life working on the assumption that he doesn't exist? Well, yes. Should I ignore his teachings on creme eggs and show utter disregard for the fullness of his cheek pouches? Well, yes.

When the question is specifically about whether he exists, should I continue making this approximation and extend it to say that he does not exist? No. For the same reason that while I can say I almost certainly won't win the lottery five times in a row I can't say it's impossible; because I am on the side of the rational and I know that it could happen. I know that the odds (for my local national lottery) are one in 5.35*10^35. I also know that things with those odds do happen. What are the odds that the last five lottery draws gave the numbers they did? Why, they're 5.35*10^35 - the same as the odds of me winning the next five with any arbitrary set of numbers I choose. And the five before that? Equally staggeringly unlikely. And whether I win the next five or not (I can state fairly categorically that I won't, for the simple fact that I'm not going to be buying tickets) whatever set of numbers are drawn will have been exactly as likely as the numbers I would have chosen.

I choose to be a rational person rather than an irrational one. In order to say that I know something to be the case, I would like to actually know that it's the case. In order to lend credence to a hypothesis or a set of beliefs, I would like to have evidence for it. That's why it's stunningly obvious to me that rationality leaves you inherently in a state of agnosticism and weak atheism (with the strength of the atheism depending on the exact nature of the God we're dealing in - where the definition provides no protection from evidence and the evidence doesn't stand up, the atheism can be stronger, but for many forms of the Christian god and HAMTOMET (may his cheek pouches ever be full) it has to be weak).

It also seems stunningly obvious to me that anyone who claims to be on the side of the rational and superior to those credulous faith-mongers and their made-up gods but chooses to make (often knowingly) irrational jumps to support their view is a hypocrite.

As I stated earlier, for all practical purposes, anything is possible, and in reality you cannot be sure of anything you know. Having probabilities be so incredibly low that one cannot fathom how unlikely a scenario is, is grounds for dismissing the scenario. Magic unicorns do not and have never existed. The probabilities are so low that meaningfully speaking, that is an accurate enough statement. If someone were to ask me point blank "Do you believe magical unicorns have ever existed" I would say no, no they have not. If pressed on the matter and my interviewer insists I am being irrational for claiming to have knowledge about

Magical unicorns

or anything else in existence, I would say

"Wow, you got me, yes perhaps the entire universe is a huge fucking lie and in fact we are being over-seen by unicorn overlords, but this is not a scenario even worth thinking about, it is senseless."

Imaginary beings do not exist until proven otherwise. A god is on the level of a magical unicorn. Never existed. Unless the universe is a lie. There's an incredibly low chance that is the case.

If you still insist that this is an irrational answer, then all answers to all questions are irrational.

Iapetus. Are you a bowl of talking icecream? Any answer is irrational as you have no idea whether you are one or not. If you try to answer definitively, remember that a divine being may be pulling the wool over your delicious eye scoops and your corporeal body is a simulation of a human but you are totally a bowl of delicious icecream.

Am I the abrahamic god? Giving any definitive answer would be irrational as I may in fact be the abrahamic god or any number of egyptian gods or maybe all of them together at once? How can I know? What if I decided to be born to a woman, wiped my divine memories and decided to live this life? Who am I to say otherwise?

Now you being a bowl of icecream and me being all gods which ever existed all at once may be by some incredibly unlikely but not technically impossible scenario, but I will have to politely agree to disagree with your assertion that it is irrational to make a definitive claim. We speak in absolutes all the time. I do not believe I am irrational for dismissing unbelievable delusions even if on an absolute technical level one can never be entirely sure.
 

Erigu

Member
I think what you mean is that once one side takes the position that "logic can be ignored where it is inconvenient for me to follow it through to its conclusions" there is no more meaningful discussion to be had.
"Inconvenient", yes, because it makes the whole thing about as productive as Simon the Stubborn Solipsist's interventions at a science summit. "Guys, guys, I know you want to discuss the specifics of this mission to Mars, but aren't you forgetting that the planet may not even exist in the first place?" Of course, you're right, Simon, but for fuck's sake. So much for meaningful discussion.
 

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
So by virtue of taking every single statement ever as literally as you possibly can, you simply never say that anything is definitely nonexistent? Seeing as how you could make up billions of potential deities that could have meta-rules and special-case physics for everything, would you also then never say something is untrue? If the Christian God exists that means a being can be 3 and 1 at the same time. If that is possible then anything could be possible. Are you simply going to answer "Well most-likely no, but I am more convinced of this possibility" for everything in life just to have complete integrity between the most literal interpretation of your words and your absolute knowledge?

It depends on whether you think the laws of logic are important. If you choose to break those laws because they're inconvenient to you, you end up in a broken state. We saw that with the Powerball example, where if we make the incorrect and illogical jump from "there is a very small chance that I will win five times in a row" to "it is impossible that I will win five times in a row" we can then roll back from that position to a proof that it is impossible to predict a single coin toss correctly.

How we address these questions in everyday speech is up to us entirely. Of course we frequently make lazy approximations in everyday conversation. Ask me what time it is, and the level of accuracy you'll get in the response varies depending on how important that is. If I'm eBay sniping, the accuracy will be within a couple of seconds. If I'm vegging, it may be within a day or so. If I'm running an experiment at a particle accelerator, the accuracy will be prodigious.

In the same way, if we're talking about whether to buy a creme egg, I'll probably approximate HAMTOMET (may his cheek pouches ever be full) to non-existent. But if we're specifically discussing epistemology, then that's an invalid and irrational approximation.

I think I've been as clear as I need to a great many times that there's a huge difference between accepting that something is unproven/unprovable and lending it credence on a day to day basis. Every argument against my position seems to stem from an invalid claim that if you accept that the unprovable has not been proven you somehow have to constantly consider a wide range of unprovable things as viable and relevant. You don't. But you do have to accept that they aren't provable. And I haven't seen anyone attack that position while retaining any level of rationality.

"Inconvenient", yes, because it makes the whole thing about as productive as Simon the Stubborn Solipsist's interventions at a science summit. "Guys, guys, I know you want to discuss the specifics of this mission to Mars, but aren't you forgetting that the planet may not even exist in the first place?" Of course, you're right, Simon, but for fuck's sake. So much for meaningful discussion.

Erigu is a particularly good example of this.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I think when people are talking about beliefs, they are talking about issues of trust, not pure reason. According to pure reason, there may always be that tiny possibility, but nobody functions according to this because it would basically be impossible to function when anything is possible all at once every single moment. So we accept certain things and trust in our perceptions of their likelihood. I don't doubt that some out there in the world are making the irrational claim you say, but I think a great many solid thinkers call themselves atheist as a reference to this trust in their best approximation rather than the raw description of the utmost logical answer possible. As you say, no one (at least no one here) seems to challenge it, so I don't quite understand why you are insisting the point so strongly. Is anyone here really taking on the title of atheist with such totality?
 

Erigu

Member
if we're talking about whether to buy a creme egg, I'll probably approximate HAMTOMET (may his cheek pouches ever be full) to non-existent. But if we're specifically discussing epistemology, then that's an invalid and irrational approximation.
Haven't your interlocutors used the word "practical" a whole bunch so far? Seems pretty clear how we're approaching this, here.
And again, I fail to see what's left to discuss, how much of a meaningful discussion there still is to have, if we take your approach.

Erigu is a particularly good example of this.
I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying it's an ultimately unproductive approach, that's all.
 

Onyar

Member
Religions are answers for life. Are the goal, the final point. A solution. "The final true".

Cience is a method to find the solution of life. Atheism is not about believe something that exist or not, is about the method used to live. I can't believe in a god because god is an answer, and I reject all answers because they mean follow some rules and behaviours with only one possiblity.

See that, religions tell us that Schrödinger's cat is death or alive. They may be true, but this is not the point, the point is undestand the possiblities, the need to find a method to go over it and undestand the situacion of the cat, all the possibilities.

So better be agnostic/atheist that follow just a believe, but please atheist, don't fall in the error to believe that god don't exist because you are allready using illogical.

Just say that god doesn't care, just as the probability of passing through a wall is possible because the cience say that but, of course, you wouldn't live thinking that you can pass through all the walls.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
I think I've been as clear as I need to a great many times that there's a huge difference between accepting that something is unproven/unprovable and lending it credence on a day to day basis. Every argument against my position seems to stem from an invalid claim that if you accept that the unprovable has not been proven you somehow have to constantly consider a wide range of unprovable things as viable and relevant. You don't. But you do have to accept that they aren't provable. And I haven't seen anyone attack that position while retaining any level of rationality.

Imaginary concepts formed outside the bounds of reality can be dismissed. There is no need to specially label them "unprovable" when conceptually they are indistinguishable from the impossible.

You being a bowl of icecream is impossible by any and all accepted standards of knowledge.

The abrahamic god is as much an impossibility as you being a bowl of icecream.

I being the abrahamic god is an impossibility.

The only special case where we can make an exception is in the thought experiment that the reality I exist in is a complete fabrication. This is not worth contemplating.
 

V_Arnold

Member
I think when people are talking about beliefs, they are talking about issues of trust, not pure reason. According to pure reason, there may always be that tiny possibility, but nobody functions according to this because it would basically be impossible to function when anything is possible all at once every single moment. So we accept certain things and trust in our perceptions of their likelihood. I don't doubt that some out there in the world are making the irrational claim you say, but I think a great many solid thinkers call themselves atheist as a reference to this trust in their best approximation rather than the raw description of the utmost logical answer possible.

The problem with this approach is simply that for some reason, many posters here think that they cant move on with their lives and have a balanced approach towards all this if they do not rule out the possibility of such beings existing FIRST.

Humans face contradictions and self-delusions on an everyday basis. That does not mean that we cant operate "rationally" throughout the day, but it certainly means that there is no point in trying to "close off" a miriad of things simply because you feel like you have to, for whatever sake you want to. If you take the logical approach, you simply cannot. If you want to maintain the sense of rationality while being irrational regarding all this, that is when hypocrisy comes in, imho.

As you say, no one (at least no one here) seems to challenge it, so I don't quite understand why you are insisting the point so strongly. Is anyone here really taking on the title of atheist with such totality?

What? There are SO MANY of totally irrational examples in this thread that it would take ages to list them all. See, for example:

Imaginary concepts formed outside the bounds of reality can be dismissed. There is no need to specially label them "unprovable" when conceptually they are indistinguishable from the impossible.

You being a bowl of icecream is impossible by any and all accepted standards of knowledge.

The abrahamic god is as much an impossibility as you being a bowl of icecream.

I being the abrahamic god is an impossibility.

The only special case where we can make an exception is in the thought experiment that the reality I exist in is a complete fabrication. This is not worth contemplating.

For you, maybe. For MANY it is worth contemplating. For you, 2,2,3 and 2,2,4 being different vectors might mean jackshit when you only want to operate in the realms of x,y (where 2,2,3 and 2,2,4 seems to be the same vector), but to outright say that just because it is outside our percieved realm of existence, it suddenly does not exist is quite a blind statement to make.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
For you, maybe. For MANY it is worth contemplating. For you, 2,2,3 and 2,2,4 being different vectors might mean jackshit when you only want to operate in the realms of x,y (where 2,2,3 and 2,2,4 seems to be the same vector), but to outright say that just because it is outside our percieved realm of existence, it suddenly does not exist is quite a blind statement to make.

Am I god?
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Perhaps you could become one if you convince someone to believe that you are and they are completely sincere in this belief. I found that when it comes to matters of faith the general public thinks truth is subjective.

I could be one already. Saying for certain would be a blind statement to make, seeing as how a god can do anything. It would be irrational to say for sure. We will have to admit it is simply unproven.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
The problem with this approach is simply that for some reason, many posters here think that they cant move on with their lives and have a balanced approach towards all this if they do not rule out the possibility of such beings existing FIRST.

Humans face contradictions and self-delusions on an everyday basis. That does not mean that we cant operate "rationally" throughout the day, but it certainly means that there is no point in trying to "close off" a miriad of things simply because you feel like you have to, for whatever sake you want to. If you take the logical approach, you simply cannot. If you want to maintain the sense of rationality while being irrational regarding all this, that is when hypocrisy comes in, imho.

What? There are SO MANY of totally irrational examples in this thread that it would take ages to list them all. See, for example:

For you, maybe. For MANY it is worth contemplating. For you, 2,2,3 and 2,2,4 being different vectors might mean jackshit when you only want to operate in the realms of x,y (where 2,2,3 and 2,2,4 seems to be the same vector), but to outright say that just because it is outside our percieved realm of existence, it suddenly does not exist is quite a blind statement to make.
I think when the odds are so unlikely that you will not get the tiniest hint of anything conceivably within the realm of a net benefit of feedback in return for the greatest conceivable effort and input that humanity can invest, it is plenty reasonable to say that it is not worth it. Why would you explore anything so fruitless when there are still so many things which are likely to give you a return of expanded knowledge? I do not think it is hypocritical to say "forget about those, they are as good as naught and a waste to pursue" and take on that which is more assuredly at hand.

And, like Log4Girlz would seem to agree, I don't see how seeking affirmation of those other things brings anything meaningful. We just say "Okay, so anything is possible. Now what?" and then suddenly there is no reason to pursue anything over anything else. Even our perceptions and reasoning by which we determine what the odds of something are is called into question, because maybe there is some god of mischief actively fucking with our proper ability to factor the likelihood of realities and we are unaware. This path of reasoning is directionless, fruitless, without any due reason to even initiate investigation of any concept over another.

So, you can either live by that completely nebulous way of thought, or you can accept that for you to ever believe or think anything in any sort of coherent definition, you have some assumptions that you are treating as fact, and your language will reflect as much because it is an unreasonable burden to put qualifiers of ultimate uncertainty on every single statement and definition ever given. Go ahead and think you are having more integrity, but ultimately your chosen special contexts of when to get this literal and when not to are completely arbitrary. Whatever reasoning you use to draw the line is based on logic you are as uncertain of as any other ultimate truth. You do the exact same thing as we but at a less pragmatic... semantic event horizon... if you will.
 

V_Arnold

Member
"We just say "Okay, so anything is possible. Now what?" and then suddenly there is no reason to pursue anything over anything else. "

Do you know what does that? Reason out what to pursue? Agents. Intelligent agents. Artifical intelligence. They have a reasoning system, they scan the world they have placed in, they assign values to things that are around them, and based on those values, they act according to their own built-in (or later modified, if we are talking about a learning agent) preferences.

Humans do not work that way. Oh, we have some sort of priority reaction systems, and we have tons of stuff that affects us in unseen, unconscious ways. The reason to "pursue" something over anything else is because for SOME REASON (that might even be admittedly unknown to you, the agent), you PREFER that.

It is as simple as that. I do not feel like that you need to have a fear that for some reason, allowing things that you already do not care about to MAYBE exist somewhere, somehow would danger your everyday movements, choices and preferences if "left unchecked".

Edit: Also, on a personal note, I do not care about facts. I care about experiences. If I have a great time sitting in front of a computer, programming, writing an article or simply playing, that all looks the same to many of my relatives. They would say if they see me sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours: "oh, dear, but that is not the REAL life". For them, having the experience that is seemingly the "Real" one is more important than the quality of the experience itself. And if that is not something worth contemplating, I do not know what is.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
"We just say "Okay, so anything is possible. Now what?" and then suddenly there is no reason to pursue anything over anything else. "

Do you know what does that? Reason out what to pursue? Agents. Intelligent agents. Artifical intelligence. They have a reasoning system, they scan the world they have placed in, they assign values to things that are around them, and based on those values, they act according to their own built-in (or later modified, if we are talking about a learning agent) preferences.

Humans do not work that way. Oh, we have some sort of priority reaction systems, and we have tons of stuff that affects us in unseen, unconscious ways. The reason to "pursue" something over anything else is because for SOME REASON (that might even be admittedly unknown to you, the agent), you PREFER that.

It is as simple as that. I do not feel like that you need to have a fear that for some reason, allowing things that you already do not care about to MAYBE exist somewhere, somehow would danger your everyday movements, choices and preferences if "left unchecked".

So I could be god right?
 

V_Arnold

Member
So I could be god right?

According to me, you are god already. You are the creator of your own body, your own interactions, your own experiences. You are god, god is you, as far as I am concerned. And when you decide to be the god of WAFFLES, you become one. Simple as that. But since this is an interactive experience when we talk about our shared reality, it is obvious that you being god means jackshit if you still have to play by the rules that we, collectively, have set up for god-god interactions.

To put this into some historical perspective: it does not matter whether "God" (the Biblical one) is real or not. What matters is that through him, for him, against him, there has been so much done that at a certain point, the question is not whether he is real or not, but what effect does his image, his idol (!) has in our world. And when looked from that point of view, God IS quite real. He had quite an effect. So did many other religious figures.

And following that up with something, let me tell you about a God I fear the most. It is an idol alright, and many inhumane deeds are happening all around us, still up to this very moment. It is called Money. :p
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Now I have lost track of the point you are apparently trying to make. What does this have to do with you calling us hypocrites for having a boundary of plausibility for making definitive claims? How does it demonstrate that I am wrong about you being no different than us, simply marking your boundaries elsewhere for reasons you haven't specified or defended?
 

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
Am I god?

I don't believe you are. I'm going to continue living my life as though you are not, without giving it a second thought. If you want me to change that position, make with the miracles - I've got some perfectly good water you can turn into wine.

Oh look, my position hasn't collapsed as a result of your example.
 

V_Arnold

Member
Now I have lost track of the point you are apparently trying to make. What does this have to do with you calling us hypocrites for having a boundary of plausibility for making definitive claims? How does it demonstrate that I am wrong about you being no different than us, simply marking your boundaries elsewhere for reasons you haven't specified or defended?

My point is that a strong need to put these "beings" down "for good", for all practical purposes, makes one cross the line towards irrationality. If you have no problems with that, fine. I have nothing against irrationality, I think that irrationality can be awesome. But I would not call it rationality.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
I don't believe you are. I'm going to continue living my life as though you are not, without giving it a second thought. If you want me to change that position, make with the miracles - I've got some perfectly good water you can turn into wine.

Oh look, my position hasn't collapsed as a result of your example.

And if I were to say I definitely wasn't god then I would be making an irrational statement according to you.
 

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
And if I were to say I definitely wasn't god then I would be making an irrational statement according to you.

If you want to get deep enough, there are plenty of great thinkers who'd suggest situations in which you might be (some variations on Descarte's cogito allow for that).

I think it would depend on the context. The problem I have is not with taking the position that certain things are sufficiently unsupported that we should treat them as untrue. I do that all the time, probably with a lot of the same things as you do. The problem I have is with taking the irrational jump that because it is unhelpful to treat them as true, we are justified in determining that they are definitively false. I've shown why that's often unhelpful with the Powerball example. You seem to take the position that because the odds of winning 5 times in a row are infinitessimal (and I've already made my position clear on the dangers of trying to extend probability to the existence or other of deities - it's pretty much always based on subjectively allocated probabilities) it's justifiable to treat it as impossible. I take the position that this is dangerous, because once we take that jump, it leads to some bad things logically - working back from the "impossible to predict the Powerball numbers five times" claim, it's possible to prove that therefore it's impossible to successfully predict the result of one toss of a double-headed coin. It's very much the same sort of flaw some arguments by disingenuous theists exploit, which is why it disappoints me to see people who claim to be on the side of rationality and mock those they disagree with for ridiculous beliefs (or beliefs allegedly analogous to ridiculous ones) falling into the same trap.

So personally, while I'd take the position that I'm not god, if questioned more specifically on that point I'd have to admit the possibility but make it clear that without any more evidence either way, I'll stick with my default deity-free position. I just don't have that need that some people here seem to for a final definitive answer on these things, despite the fact that one isn't available - certainly not to the point that I'm willing to selectively disregard basic logical principles just so that I can have my answer.
 

Erigu

Member
The problem I have is not with taking the position that certain things are sufficiently unsupported that we should treat them as untrue. I do that all the time, probably with a lot of the same things as you do. The problem I have is with taking the irrational jump that because it is unhelpful to treat them as true, we are justified in determining that they are definitively false.
But who's arguing that, here?
 
This seems to essentially be a matter of:

"No."

vs.

"I think the possibility is low enough that we should definitely not take it seriously, since we technically can not formally rule out all possibilities, but I suppose that in extremely rare cases, when the stars are all aligned it could technically happen."

I don't think shortcuts are always an inherently bad thing. And if someone may value more straightforward communication, a one word answer that communicates 98% of your position, may be better than a 44 word answer that communicates 100% of your position.

The first allows you to move on more easily to more important things, while the second, while being more technically true, can drag down the flow of a conversation. Sure, if we're specifically having a philosophical discussion on a message board about the limits of induction or something, then yeah, the more verbose answer would be needed, since it is more accurate. And those kinds of conversations can be useful sometimes. But for all practical purposes, I don't find the former shortcut particularly offensive in "normal" conversation. And I don't think the shortcut is "just as bad" or on the same level of irrationality as, say, believing in the literal existence of telepathic invisible superpowered beings.

I suppose we can argue for a removal of the word "impossible" from casual conversation, and limit it only to formal logic proofs, but I guess I just don't place something like that very high on my priority list, especially in "regular" conversation? *shrug*

And even if the "impossible" thing somehow ends up happening, putting egg on my face, I could just say "well shit, I guess I was wrong". I don't think my current "nope, there isn't a god" position significantly changes my mindset towards future occurrences.
 

Ashes

Banned
Interesting. I suppose merely out of curiosity, one could ask the question: If there's little to no difference between the low odds [and arguably no difference), how do you come up with a more likely version of god? or vice versa? What comes after 99.999999..? 99.999999999...? :p
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I do not think being barely within the spectrum of irrationality makes you the same as those who believe in a god. And I certainly do not mock people for believing in "any sort of god-thing in some form of which we have no conception or specifics" as opposed to those who claim the authority of the concept of a specific religion. I also believe that no matter what your claims are regarding the existence of god, simply by making any statement about anything you are implicitly saying no to all concepts which would directly contradict it.

Perhaps the reality is that what we perceive to be true is in fact the absolute truth of reality, whether or not we realize this or believe as much. In this scenario, all uncertainty would be the lies. When you make claims on what is rational and irrational, you draw boundaries that say no to these sort of concepts. I believe you are on the spectrum of unverified belief all the same as those who simply outright state what they say "no" to when evidence is not found. There is no way to be fully pure in your rationality. Definition requires a statement about what is and what is not.
 

Ashes

Banned
I am saying EVERYONE does because it is impossible to even use words otherwise.

oh. okay. Fair enough.

edit: Reminds me of something Kant famously said in his critique of reason. give me a sec, and I'll get the actual wording.

Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer.
 
Here is my view on this

No one can scientifically prove that God exists as a 'thing' No one can disprove God exists. The reason is God is not up 'there'. God is everywhere. Atheisms want to prove if God exists in a physical or natural form. If God is not in a physical or natural form but everywhere and everything, our very existence is the proof of God

The message is to believe in the unseen through the signs shown by God and prayers. It is up to the people to believe in God
 

Ashes

Banned
Here is my view on this

No one can scientifically prove that God exists as a 'thing' No one can disprove God exists. The reason is God is not up 'there'. God is everywhere. Atheisms want to prove if God exists in a physical or natural form. If God is not in a physical or natural form but everywhere and everything, our very existence is the proof of God

The message is to believe in the unseen through the signs shown by God and prayers. It is up to the people to believe in God

huh?

The funny thing is both athiests and thiests are involved in teleological thinking - one denying, the other affirming. Getting people to challenge their positions is more difficult than one assumes. It's like we always have the right answer. :p
 
Here is my view on this

No one can scientifically prove that God exists as a 'thing' No one can disprove God exists. The reason is God is not up 'there'. God is everywhere. Atheisms want to prove if God exists in a physical or natural form. If God is not in a physical or natural form but everywhere and everything, our very existence is the proof of God

The message is to believe in the unseen through the signs shown by God and prayers. It is up to the people to believe in God

I replaced "God" in this post with "the Phoenix Force" and it made just about as much sense
 
That is your choice, if you want it to be a belief, go ahead and try it, it wont work without a push behind it

Yeah, as with most supernatural claims, I just need to somehow convince enough people to believe it so that it gets taken seriously (note: this does not require showing evidence of an actual Phoenix Force...since if there was evidence for it, it would be natural, and not supernatural)
 
Here is my view on this

No one can scientifically prove that God exists as a 'thing' No one can disprove God exists. The reason is God is not up 'there'. God is everywhere. Atheisms want to prove if God exists in a physical or natural form. If God is not in a physical or natural form but everywhere and everything, our very existence is the proof of God

The message is to believe in the unseen through the signs shown by God and prayers. It is up to the people to believe in God

No, but we can scientifically prove that things written in the bible are not true, like the world being 5,000 years old.
 
If .999999999999 = 1

why can't .0000000000001 = 0?

Here is my view on this

No one can scientifically prove that God exists as a 'thing' No one can disprove God exists. The reason is God is not up 'there'. God is everywhere. Atheisms want to prove if God exists in a physical or natural form. If God is not in a physical or natural form but everywhere and everything, our very existence is the proof of God

The message is to believe in the unseen through the signs shown by God and prayers. It is up to the people to believe in God

If god is anything and everything, then it ceases to have any value. And it becomes even more ridiculous that praying to god could have any impact whatsoever.

You could also replace the word "god" in your sentence with anything. Literally anything else. You've made god absolutely devoid of any value or meaning.
 
Here is my view on this

No one can scientifically prove that God exists as a 'thing' No one can disprove God exists. The reason is God is not up 'there'. God is everywhere. Atheisms want to prove if God exists in a physical or natural form. If God is not in a physical or natural form but everywhere and everything, our very existence is the proof of God

The message is to believe in the unseen through the signs shown by God and prayers. It is up to the people to believe in God

Is he in my toilet? Because there have been some unusual stains in there lately.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
I think we all know who.

But there comes a point where it is safe to say none. The chances of your body teleporting to Mars is 0 practically speaking. For instance there is no god. To claim otherwise would be like claiming you will win the powerball lottery 5 times in a row. This is not an impossibility, but it doesn't somehow make it a non ridiculous claim.

I am not the Abrahamic God iapetus. Despite my incomplete knowledge of the nature of reality, I will state that I am not that being. I apologize if this is an irrational answer to you.

I apologize that stating I am not the Abrahamic God with any certainty is lazy thinking to you.

I am quite certain that I am not. Unless the universe is a lie.

See? I always leave the chance of something. But otherwise, it is for all practical purposes the same as just saying it doesn't exist. We speak in absolutes all the time. No one has a problem in any debate or rational conversation in making absolute statement about the existence or nonexistence of all kinds of phenomenon. But God seems to be a regular exception. People take offense in general to putting him in the trash bin and just outright saying he doesn't exist.

In essence what we are saying is very similar to one another except I do not make the jump of judging perfectly reasonable statements as irrational because if the universe was a lie, then any imaginary statement could technically be true.
 

Cyan

Banned
I take the position that this is dangerous, because once we take that jump, it leads to some bad things logically - working back from the "impossible to predict the Powerball numbers five times" claim, it's possible to prove that therefore it's impossible to successfully predict the result of one toss of a double-headed coin.

This is interesting. Would you mind explaining further? Or just link me to something if it's complicated.

No one can scientifically prove that God exists as a 'thing'

Oh I don't know, I can imagine a few ways this could work. :)
 
If God wants to prove his existence all he has to do is kill Courtney Love and resurrect Patrice O'Neal.

I feel like I'm being pretty reasonable here.
 

iapetus

Scary Euro Man
This is interesting. Would you mind explaining further? Or just link me to something if it's complicated.

Well, it's trivial. If the probability of winning the lottery once is X, the probability of winning it 5 times is X^5. Knowing that X^5 = 0 we can calculate X = 0.

I'm assuming you can see where this is going. In order to win the top lottery prize, you have to match n balls (I'm assuming a very basic lottery structure - the same principle works for more complex models). If the probability of matching one ball is Y, the probability of matching n balls is Y^n - this is the same as X, the probability of winning the lottery once. So Y^n = X. But X = 0, so Y^n = 0. This gives us Y = 0.

Given that Y is the probability of matching one ball from b balls, the probability of matching one ball from c balls is (obviously) Y * b / c. Where c = 2 this is analogous to predicting a coin toss. Where c = 1 this is analogous to predicting a double-headed coin toss. But since Y = 0, Y * b / 1 is also 0.

Therefore the probability of predicting the correct outcome of a double-headed coin toss is 0.

Clearly it isn't. But every step in the reasoning is valid, and if we take the actual value of X^5 it all works out to give the right answer - you can predict a double-headed coin toss every time (Yes, I know. We're talking either a theoretical perfect coin or a system with rules for handling cases where the coin falls in such a way that neither head is showing - a retoss, for example...)
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
No, but we can scientifically prove that things written in the bible are not true, like the world being 5,000 years old.

Correct.

We know that God, as literally described in the Bible, does not exist given many events described have been completely disproven.

So we can dismiss Creationists at least.
 
For those theists that claim God is not a physical thing and can't be tested by science, can you please explain the difference between something that doesn't manifest in physical reality (God in the universe) and something that doesn't exist?
 

Cyan

Banned
Is Richard Dawkins Really the World's Leading Intellectual?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi...he-worlds-leading-intellectual_b_3226638.html

What say you gaf?

It's a poll. Which means the most well-known people are going to be near the top. Which is also why you've got Krugman, Nate Silver, Oliver Sacks, Steven Pinker, etc etc. It's not a good list for "world's leading intellectuals."

Edit:
For reference, this is the list that rabbi was ranting on about: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/world-thinkers-2013/
 
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