(March 3, 2016 at 7:48 pm)AJW333 Wrote:

(March 3, 2016 at 8:05 am)pocaracas Wrote: The claim that something doesn't exist is almost impossible to maintain, in the absolute sense.

That would appear to make the whole atheist belief system somewhat tenuous. It would also mean that the declaration,  "God doesn't exist" cannot be made with any certainty.

Bingo!
That's why you'll find it difficult to find an atheist here that claims that.
I go as far as I don't believe your claim that God exists.
I don't accept it as valid, as there is nothing trustworthy to back it up.

(March 3, 2016 at 7:48 pm)AJW333 Wrote:

(March 3, 2016 at 8:05 am)pocaracas Wrote: You seem to want to posit scientific ignorance - the ignorance of some mechanism by scientists - as a form of supernatural event. That is incorrect.

It's more technical than that. It is one thing to observe something in nature and say that we don't understand how that works, but it is a different situation when something goes completely against the observable laws of nature. 

Observable means that it can be observed, but need not be, or have been, observed yet.
You should not confuse the unexplained with the unexplainable.
Unexplained is that which hasn't been explained yet.
Unexplainable is that which cannot be explained, no matter how we try. You seem to think that abiogenesis falls in this category when it doesn't seem to, at all!

(March 3, 2016 at 7:48 pm)AJW333 Wrote:

(March 3, 2016 at 8:05 am)pocaracas Wrote: Supernatural events have never been observed.... Why posit them as possible? (tales of old mean little, remember)

Thats a big call. History is full of reports of supernatural activity. Are all these people liars or deluded? I've seen more than one person tell the future and nail it. What happened there?

yes... history is full of stories.
And sometimes people guess correctly at what will happen. Sometimes, the guesses are vague enough to fit many things in there. Most times, however, the guesses are wrong and, as such, are cast away into oblivion. The good guesses, however, get recorded. Can you spot the problem with this mechanism?

I don't call that supernatural... I call that luck or well honed observational skills. If you know a person, or a group of persons, well enough, you can predict, with a considerable amount of certainty, how they will behave in a particular situation.
Mobs are even easier to predict.
Thus far, not many have had the fortitude to see next week's lottery numbers. (that's not how it works!!... right, right...)

(March 3, 2016 at 7:48 pm)AJW333 Wrote: Thats a big call. History is full of reports of supernatural activity. Are all these people liars or deluded? I've seen more than one person tell the future and nail it. What happened there?

I seem to have overread that one.

So you think a caveman looking up at the sky and calling the sun and moon supernatural and gods, is credible evidence for them being supernatural and gods?

How about a peasant in the year 1349? Is his report of a witch bringing the plague credible evidence for it being so? How about the 17th century and the witch trials? Do you subscribe to the testimonies there being the truth and nothing but the truth?

(March 3, 2016 at 8:03 pm)AJW333 Wrote: Abaris, I'm confused. I've seen so many atheists declare with absolute certainty that the God of the Bible is a myth, a fable and total make-believe. Surely this qualifies as a belief.

I'm confused. I've seen so many people declare with absolute certainty that the Unicorn is a myth, a fable and total make-believe. Surely this qualifies as a belief.

One more thing, AJW333, concerning old witness testimony pointing to the supernatural.

Have you ever played Telephone when you were little?

Also called chinese whispers.

The complete inability (for many) to mind their their own fucking business. 

Stay in your goddamned lane. 
The rules of living according to your god? I give not a single, solitary fuck.

None of it means anything to me. Understand that.

(March 3, 2016 at 8:36 pm)pocaracas Wrote:

(March 3, 2016 at 7:48 pm)AJW333 Wrote: That would appear to make the whole atheist belief system somewhat tenuous. It would also mean that the declaration,  "God doesn't exist" cannot be made with any certainty.

Bingo!
That's why you'll find it difficult to find an atheist here that claims that.

I would say that every atheist here who says that there is no such thing as the supernatural is automatically ruling out the possibility of there being a God, since God is synonymous with the supernatural.

(March 3, 2016 at 8:36 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Observable means that it can be observed, but need not be, or have been, observed yet.
You should not confuse the unexplained with the unexplainable.
Unexplained is that which hasn't been explained yet.
Unexplainable is that which cannot be explained, no matter how we try. You seem to think that abiogenesis falls in this category when it doesn't seem to, at all!

So do we have an explanation of abiogenesis yet?

(March 3, 2016 at 8:36 pm)pocaracas Wrote: yes... history is full of stories.
And sometimes people guess correctly at what will happen. Sometimes, the guesses are vague enough to fit many things in there. Most times, however, the guesses are wrong and, as such, are cast away into oblivion. The good guesses, however, get recorded. Can you spot the problem with this mechanism?

Vagaries aside, there are certain instances that are quite precise. My wife had a prophetic dream of her grandfathers heart attack in the backyard of her parents house three weeks before it happened. It just so happens that her sister had the same dream, exactly.

(March 3, 2016 at 11:38 pm)AJW333 Wrote:

(March 3, 2016 at 8:36 pm)pocaracas Wrote: yes... history is full of stories.
And sometimes people guess correctly at what will happen. Sometimes, the guesses are vague enough to fit many things in there. Most times, however, the guesses are wrong and, as such, are cast away into oblivion. The good guesses, however, get recorded. Can you spot the problem with this mechanism?

Vagaries aside, there are certain instances that are quite precise. My wife had a prophetic dream of her grandfathers heart attack in the backyard of her parents house three weeks before it happened. It just so happens that her sister had the same dream, exactly.

... you funny. Read what Pocaracas said to answer that. Bold added by me. 
I had a dream once that I would meet a dude in a trench coat, then I did. I also had a dream that I fell off a rhino. Never happened. That was precise, though. Grandfather had heart problems? Spent a lot of time in his yard? Was he sick? Very old? Recent talk about it? etc, etc, etc.

(March 3, 2016 at 11:38 pm)AJW333 Wrote: I would say that every atheist here who says that there is no such thing as the supernatural is automatically ruling out the possibility of there being a God, since God is synonymous with the supernatural.

I am not most atheists. I have no qualms in stating with an authority of certainty that god does not exist.

(March 3, 2016 at 11:38 pm)AJW333 Wrote: Vagaries aside, there are certain instances that are quite precise. My wife had a prophetic dream of her grandfathers heart attack in the backyard of her parents house three weeks before it happened. It just so happens that her sister had the same dream, exactly.

Dreams are just that, dreams. The fact that the man just happened to suffer from what was dreamed is still nothing but mere coincidence.

(March 4, 2016 at 1:06 am)Mamacita Wrote:

(March 3, 2016 at 11:38 pm)AJW333 Wrote: Vagaries aside, there are certain instances that are quite precise. My wife had a prophetic dream of her grandfathers heart attack in the backyard of her parents house three weeks before it happened. It just so happens that her sister had the same dream, exactly.

... you funny. Read what Pocaracas said to answer that. Bold added by me. 
I had a dream once that I would meet a dude in a trench coat, then I did. I also had a dream that I fell off a rhino. Never happened. That was precise, though. Grandfather had heart problems? Spent a lot of time in his yard? Was he sick? Very old? Recent talk about it? etc, etc, etc.

You think two people having the identical dream about a precise event in a specific location that actually happened is guessing or mere coincidence? I would look at the probabilities against that happening as being mind-mindbogglingly high.