I've done a fair bit of research into the arguments for and against Christianity. My aim has been to try and see if I could actually proof Christianity wrong. Immediately I can hear all the atheist voices calling in unison "the burden of proof falls on THEM so we don't need to prove it wrong!". I think it's good thing though if we actually try...We'll be arguing from a slightly different angle. If we can't prove it wrong, it might just get me wondering if they might actually have a point... (I've heard some very good arguments/apologetics for Christianity.)

Mentioned about the bible a lot are the inconsistancies, contradictions and miracles. The bible was written by many various authors so of course there are going to be contradictions so I don't think that we could use the first two examples as evidence against. Miracles could be seen as metaphors.

So here is the quesion again: Can we actually proof Christianity wrong? (And how?)

I challenge you...

I don't think we can. But I welcome you to try.

Two kinds of proof:
Logically, the philosophy types rightly point out that you can't totally, 100% disprove the existence of a God.
But there again, the chances are so minimal that in practice you can ignore the possibility, as with Russel's teapot and the FSM (sorry, folks!). There might indeed be a headless horseman in the graveyard of the next village to us, but in my everyday life I don't take the possibility into account when walking to the pub.

Only because your pub is near a bridge though right? The threat of The Headless Horsemen is ever-present!

Rhizo

(December 2, 2009 at 1:58 pm)Rhizomorph13 Wrote: Only because your pub is near a bridge though right? The threat of The Headless Horsemen is ever-present!
Rhizo

Uncanny! How did you know there's a bridge? Ooo-er....

(December 2, 2009 at 1:52 pm)Pope Alfred Wrote: Two kinds of proof:
Logically, the philosophy types rightly point out that you can't totally, 100% disprove the existence of a God.

Maybe it might make it easier if we narrow it down to the bible and Jesus. Christianity claims that Jesus, God and the holy spirit are one. If we can prove the bible wrong and that Jesus wasn't the son of God, then the trinity can't work either.

What do you think?

I'm sure we could prove it wrong in a court of law..

Circumstantial evidence only, violates the laws of nature and all the witnesses are dead.

(December 2, 2009 at 3:03 pm)Darwinian Wrote: I'm sure we could prove it wrong in a court of law..

Circumstantial evidence only, violates the laws of nature and all the witnesses are dead.

Well... all physical evidence is 'circumstantial'... but does that necessarily mean it is right or wrong?

Violating the laws of nature is a much stronger point imo

Depends on the type of proof you want. Scientific investigation needs falsifiable statements, most christian statements however are not formulated falsifiable. There is no test we can do that unambigiously falsifies statements about the christian god, for instance that he is all good. Because of the missing falsifiability characteristic of theistic statements, it is always possible for the theist to devise a posterori arguments, i.e. arguments that after the experiment has been done explains away the result. With truly falsifiable statements this is not possible. Such a statement can either be falsified or verified by the right experiment.

For example take the theistic statements that prayer helps. Through a double blind experiment on patients recovering from operation it was found that patients that were prayed for had a slightly worse recovering history. This is probably due to added stress in the case of patients that knew they were prayed for. Does the average theist register this as proof that prayer is bull, well of course not, because god can't be tested or some other excuse that was thought up afterwards. With unfalsifiable statements this will always be possible. It is always possible to concoct some explanation afterwards. Try it yourself. With a posteriori arguments it is easy to claim that kobolds exist in your backyard, even if you have no backyard at all.

(December 2, 2009 at 3:03 pm)Craveman Wrote: Maybe it might make it easier if we narrow it down to the bible and Jesus. Christianity claims that Jesus, God and the holy spirit are one. If we can prove the bible wrong and that Jesus wasn't the son of God, then the trinity can't work either. What do you think?

Seems to me that might one of the less promising points of attack. Saerules mentioned the violation of physical laws; IMO that's number one. Then it's been clearly shown that prayers aren't answered, contrary to many clear biblical promises. My favourite is to go for the fundamental basic differences between the various christian sects; it's easy to show that very few christians have much idea of what they actually believe in.