Ayn Rand -Faith vs Reason

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Raynd said twice that one is never asked to prove negative.That is untrue,and happens in science all the time.The concept is called 'falsification'. In asserting 'there is no God" Raynd makes a positive claim and attracts the burden of proof. IE She has the obligation to falsify the existence of Gods.

Falsification is not in any way proving a negative, it is declaring events that are incompatible with the model being espoused. If data comes to light that indicates the model is not consistent with reality then you can say the model has been falsified.

For her to 'falsify' the existence of Gods would require that she discover data that is incompatible with the hypothesis - That is never going to happen because God is immensely vague, any data you uncover can be incorporated into the model ad-hoc, just like evolution is evidence of 'how creative' god is.

Rand has the obligation to necessitate the non-existence of God, that is somewhat different to falsifying the claim.

Apart from that I agree

Making a positive claim attracts the burden of proof. By asserting "there is no god" Raynd does indeed have that obligation.That it is impossible makes the claim metaphysical speculation,not an established fact. Something of which she should have been aware.Making the claim the she did, in my opinion, made her disingenuous at best,intellectually dishonest at worst. Bertrand Russell she ain't.


Is there a practical difference? Falsification proves a proposition to be false.IE Not true,proving the negative. EG The proposition that rainwater cures say lung cancer can be disproved empirically.[for all practical purposes]

I think that the proposition "it is not night" can be proved,as indeed can the proposition "it is not raining".

In formal logic,there is a common proposition: IF A NOT B


Is that not proving a negative?

However,negative existence cannot proved:EG the black swan.

I must admit to being confused,I'm not arguing the point,simply looking for clarification.Please keep ii simple lest you confuse me further and my head explodes.