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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 8, 2016 at 2:43 am
(June 25, 2015 at 11:22 am)Psychonaut Wrote: I know the question seems nonsensical, but hear me out.
I've often encountered my fellow atheists say that there's no evidence for God's existence. This seems true, but I think that the answer may be fairly loaded.
Does it come across to anyone that people sometimes assume we can get evidence to begin with? or is it just me?
I know a fair portion of atheists would disagree, and that everyone knows that you're really saying
"no, and there really is no way to get evidence for such nonsense".
If we can't get evidence, because evidence (at least by scientific standards) is by it's very nature falsifiable,
(something which the god claim can't provide [currently]) then what would anyone constitute as evidence? Are those who use the "we don't have evidence yet" claim literally, deceived?
Seeing it with our own eyes? How would we know it's not a hallucination?
If by some chance we are provided falsifiability, how would we know we aren't deceived by an alien hallucination inducing device?
(Pardon the bong logic format)
If evidence can't point us toward or away from answers to this kind of question, are they even reasonable to ask?
How could anyone who is honestly seeking an answer be expected to come up with one in the face of such obstacles?
Given what is said, does anyone think that there is evidence that would convince them that God exists?
If reality was really more like dungeons and dragons vs mathematics, I figure that would be about the only thing that would convince me.
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 11, 2016 at 11:50 pm
(April 1, 2016 at 12:28 am)robvalue Wrote: This is why we have the scientific method, to check the accuracy of our results. Evidence is collected at the end of the process, not at the beginning.
We start with observations, then we form a hypothesis, then we find a way to test the hypothesis in a falsifiable way, then we carry out the test.
Scientific Method yielded the following -
The universe's expansion rate has been balanced at just the right rate to make advanced life possible. if the expansion rate were to rapid, stars and planets would not form since gravity wouldn't have adequate time to pull together the gases and dust that make up these bodies. If the expansion rate weren't rapid enough, the stars formed would rapidly collapse and become black holes or neutron stars. What determines this expansion rate is gravity and dark energy (a property that stretches the universe's space/time surface. In the book 'The Grand Design' by Hawking, Modinow, of which I have in eBook form, in chapter 7 this statement is made. "the laws of nature form a system that is extremely fine-tuned, and very little in physical law can be altered without the possibility of the development of life as we know it". Goes on to say that the Cosmological Constant (the energy density that causes the universe's expansion, referred to as dark energy) has a value 10^120” (as a comparison, the est. atoms in the observable universe is 10^80) ---
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how...e+universe --- Continuing "the one thing that is certain is that if the value of the Cosmological Constant were much larger than it is, our universe would have blown itself apart before galaxies could form--once again--life as we know it would impossible".
The sample size is one (scientific); the multiverse is hypothetical set of finite and infinite possible universes. So there it is, the scientific method rules out chance.
Atheist Credo: A universe by chance that also just happened to admit the observer by chance.
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 11, 2016 at 11:54 pm
The scientific method does not rule out chance. It merely makes the mention of that chance being highly improbable. Yet, here we are, so it was clearly probable.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 12, 2016 at 12:00 am
(April 11, 2016 at 11:54 pm)Maelstrom Wrote: The scientific method does not rule out chance. It merely makes the mention of that chance being highly improbable. Yet, here we are, so it was clearly probable.
How convenient.
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 12, 2016 at 12:01 am
(April 11, 2016 at 11:50 pm)snowtracks Wrote: (April 1, 2016 at 12:28 am)robvalue Wrote: This is why we have the scientific method, to check the accuracy of our results. Evidence is collected at the end of the process, not at the beginning.
We start with observations, then we form a hypothesis, then we find a way to test the hypothesis in a falsifiable way, then we carry out the test.
Scientific Method yielded the following -
The universe's expansion rate has been balanced at just the right rate to make advanced life possible. if the expansion rate were to rapid, stars and planets would not form since gravity wouldn't have adequate time to pull together the gases and dust that make up these bodies. If the expansion rate weren't rapid enough, the stars formed would rapidly collapse and become black holes or neutron stars. What determines this expansion rate is gravity and dark energy (a property that stretches the universe's space/time surface.
In the book 'The Grand Design' by Hawking, Modinow, of which I have in eBook form, in chapter 7 this statement is made.
"the laws of nature form a system that is extremely fine-tuned, and very little in physical law can be altered without the possibility of the development of life as we know it".
Goes on to say that the Cosmological Constant (the energy density that causes the universe's expansion, referred to as dark energy) has a value 10^120” (as a comparison, the est. atoms in the observable universe is 10^80)
--- http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how...e+universe ---
Continuing "the one thing that is certain is that if the value of the Cosmological Constant were much larger than it is, our universe would have blown itself apart before galaxies could form--once again--life as we know it would impossible".
The sample size is one (scientific); the multiverse is hypothetical set of finite and infinite possible universes. So there it is, the scientific method rules out chance.
*** emphasis mine ***
I put in some line breaks in the above quote to make it a little more legible. Just in case anybody that want's to know why I said what I'm about to say wants to read it.
In bold above you say: "So there it is, the scientific method rules out chance."
Just to be clear, No it didn't. And nothing you posted does either.
"I'm thick." - Me
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 12, 2016 at 12:04 am
(April 12, 2016 at 12:00 am)ChadWooters Wrote: How convenient.
Convenient enough for you to have been born in order to state that, and with no god involved.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 12, 2016 at 2:48 pm
(March 31, 2016 at 8:28 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: (March 31, 2016 at 1:52 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: The following evidence only counts if one already believes in both an intelligibly ordered universe and the efficacy of human reason. Someone that doubts either of these will not accept the evidence offered. However if both are accepted then the existence of God logically follows from the following observations:
Some causal sequences are essentially ordered.
Effects follow regularly from specific causes.
Some beings better exemplify their kind than other beings of the same kind.
There is something rather than nothing.
Some things gain their existence, preserve it, then cease to exist.
Great!
Then universe creating pixies do exist! I always suspected...
On a serious note, could you please define "intelligibly ordered universe" as you are using it?
Without reading too much into that phrase, I am detecting some possible flaws.
My youngest daughter recently asked me: "If something created the Universe, why would it have to be God?"
Magic Universe Creating Pixies is just as good of an explanation. Maybe some of them decided to fuck around with people, and created religion. Fucking Magic universe creating pixies. Or at least some of them.
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 12, 2016 at 3:23 pm
(April 12, 2016 at 2:48 pm)Divinity Wrote: My youngest daughter recently asked me: "If something created the Universe, why would it have to be God?"... Clearly you were not equipped to provide a reasonable answer.
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 12, 2016 at 3:26 pm
Wanker.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 12, 2016 at 3:36 pm
(April 12, 2016 at 3:23 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: (April 12, 2016 at 2:48 pm)Divinity Wrote: My youngest daughter recently asked me: "If something created the Universe, why would it have to be God?"... Clearly you were not equipped to provide a reasonable answer.
Clearly, you aren't either.
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