You cannot dis-prove God's existence
You can prove the nonexistence of God by the same means you can prove the nonexistence of anything
else that doesn't exist, once it's been established what we mean when we say "God".
There are still plenty of things yet to be discovered, and they all exist.
How do
you know? Maybe the ones you think exist, don't. Maybe the undiscovered things you think don't exist - like the proof of evolution that would instantly convince every creationist - actually do exist. Until there's
evidence for those things, speculation or assumption about their properties or existence is going to be necessarily and inherently erroneous.
I would have no way of detecting that god, since we cannot detect things that do not exist in our dimension
How do you propose to
detect, as opposed to just
assuming, that gods are extradimensional?
He would always leave room open for further interpretation. At best he would be agnostic.
But agnostics
are atheists, and atheists are not always people who insist that they are 100% certain that there is absolutely nothing that could be called a "god." Many atheists are simply people who believe that the evidence supports the
provisional conclusion, subject to modification in the face of future evidence (like any scientific conclusion).
Why couldn't someone who lives as if there is no God, says that in all likelihood there is no God, and really believes the evidence as it is understood at this moment really supports the nonexistence of God, call themselves an "atheist"? Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Even Mother Theresa wasn't 100% sure of the existence of God but she got to call herself a "Christian." If we're suddenly restricting membership only to the 100% convinced let's apply that across the board, ok? No double standards, please.
No one is actually going around telling adults that Santa Claus does indeed exist.
Except of course the editors of the New York Sun:
quote:
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
Funny, I think I heard Francis Collins say the same thing, once, only instead of "Santa Claus" he said "Jesus Christ." It's funny how the arguments are completely applicable either way.
I am sick and tired of people using them as examples.
Then learn to refute it, Rat. Both Santa Claus and Jesus Christ are myths taught to children. The only difference is that people are expected to grow out of Santa Claus. They
should be expected to grow out of Jesus Christ.
Because of that, and the way atheist come across, atheist seem like nothing more than pissed off believers, who actually know God exists in their hearts, and they just want to deny Him so they can live by their own rules.
That's never made any sense, especially given than Christianity doesn't prevent you from living by your own rules. I mean, look at Ted Haggard or the Republican caucus. Christianity is absolutely no obstacle to using drugs, cheating on your wife, self-dealing, robbery, corruption, or any other vice. Indeed, most Christians simply convince themselves "it's what God wants me to do" and off they go, cheating and robbing people.
The notion that somehow Christianity is able to restrain people's immoral impulses should have evaporated during the
first Catholic sexual abuse scandal, but here we are, learning about
decades of sex abuse by Christianity's most organized cabal of so-called holy men. Surely if Christianity is able to cockblock anybody it would be the people most steeped in it? The men whose every waking hour is supposed to be given over to service of the Lord? Funny how the vaunted power of Christianity to prevent people from "living by their own rules" couldn't protect hundreds of Irish orphans from being raped.
I agree with you - it's just people being people. Since Christianity can't stop people from being people, it's absurd to suggest that atheists deny God so they can do whatever they want. Belief in God has
never been able to stop people from doing what they want, so why go to all the trouble of being an atheist? The very existence of atheists, once again, proves you wrong.
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