You Can't Disprove a Miracle

[robvalue]

Thanks for your reply steve, I appreciate the honesty you displayed there.

You are wrong when you say being an atheist limits my possibilities. I am open to absolutely any possibility. Anything at all. All I require is that a coherent claim is put forward, with sufficient accompanying evidence. If someone can do that, regarding any subject whatsoever, then I will change my position on that subject. What I will not do is believe what people tell me based on no evidence, or improper evidence. What exactly is sufficient evidence depends on the claim, but it should demonstrate repeatability and verifiability, where appropriate. This is being open minded without being gullible. I care about the truth. My wife claims ghosts are real. I believe she believes this, but I don't yet believe she is correct. She has presented me with no evidence to examine, so I can't come to a conclusion about it.

However, your methods are still highly flawed. I'm not going to continue to argue with you, but I'll state it again for those watching at home:

Either "the supernatural" (whatever that is) is possible as an explanation (because it's a real thing) or it's impossible as an explanation (because it's not a real thing).

The default position is that we don't know which. We don't know if it's possible, and we don't know if it's impossible. This is the starting point for any claim. We have no opinion either way.

Then we examine the evidence. In this case, there is none. So we're still at the position of not knowing whether it's possible or impossible.

To make a positive case that it is possible because it hasn't yet been shown to be impossible, is the argument from ignorance. It's creating a false dichotomy, by failing to account for the following further scenarios:

1) The supernatural is impossible, but the evidence for this has not been discovered yet
2) The supernatural is impossible, but demonstrating this to be true is actually impossible

Neither of these have been excluded, and so they remain. The best conclusion is that it "might be possible"; which is the default position anyway. Nothing has been demonstrated.

Making up numbers regarding magical stories from random books establishes nothing outside of the person's imagination. Science is about repeatability and testability.