The issue of being able to know that God exists in terms of it being a logical possibility has drawn a couple of threads off topic. Might as well do it here as there. We can look at other facets of knowing too.
The latest entry point was SteveN's comment about something Dawkins said. He paraphrased it like this:
Maybe surprisingly for those who consider him a rabid atheist, on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being 'Strong theist; 100% probability of God' and 7 being 'Strong atheist, knows there is no God') he classes himself as a 6 (very low probability, but short of zero) tending towards 7.
The implication (and it is assumed for the sake of discussion) is that the illogical position of a person adopting a score of 7 is symmetrical with the position taken by a person adopting a score of 1. That is: 1 is an illogical position too.
The rebuttal of this was given by me in this way
A 7 score is an athiest who says he knows God doesn't exist. This is not a question of whether he is able to prove it or not. He cannot actually know God doesn't exist either. To know that he would have to know everything there is to be known (for if he didn't know everything then God could be in the place he doesn't know about). If he does know everything there is to know then he himself is God (meaning he couldn't know God doesn't exist anymore)
On the other hand a person can know God exists. All that has to happen is a) for God to exist (possible) b) for God to reveal himself to a person (also possible)
1 and 7 are not symmetrical positions thus.
A post which may offset side tracks into the possibility of my being deluded (which has nothing at all to do with the logic presented) can be found here:
http://
EvC Forum: Would you want to know? -->
EvC Forum: Would you want to know?
Edited by iano, : No reason given.
Edited by iano, : Correct link
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