RE: When Atheists Can't Think Episode 1: No Evidence for God?
December 15, 2015 at 8:30 pm
(This post was last modified: December 15, 2015 at 8:31 pm by Simon Moon.)
(December 15, 2015 at 7:22 pm)Stimbo Wrote: The claim "there is no evidence" is not a typical one outside of theist strawmen. The claim, such as it is, that person x has not yet seen credible, compelling evidence, however, is.
Exactly!
I never say, "there is no evidence for the existence of a god". So, right off the bat, the OP is a straw man.
I always phrase it, "there is insufficient demonstrable evidence to support the existence of a god".
Anecdotal, personal revelation, ancient texts, philosophical arguments (Kalam, Ontological, teleological, TAG) could all be called 'evidence'. Just really, REALLY bad evidence for the type of claim they are meant to support.
You have to be an Olympian class 'special pleader' to consider those types of evidence sufficient for the existential claim for a god.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
