(July 28, 2017 at 11:27 am)Harry Nevis Wrote:(July 28, 2017 at 6:40 am)SteveII Wrote: If we go with "atheists make no claims" then as to the question of is there a God, we have some evidence that there is and on the other side, we have no evidence there is not (I'll even grant you by definition). My point was and is that if there can only be evidence on one side of the equation, the distinction or need of 'extraordinary evidence' is meaningless. Any evidence is sufficient to increase the probability, because there is no rebuttal evidence to overcome.
For the same reason, I pointed out that strong atheism actually would be the extraordinary claim because it is doing so with no ordinary evidence.
Is the fact that many people have prayed to god and not gotten a response evidence for atheism? Or the fact that many things that were said to be caused by the acts of gods are now shown to be wrong? Looks like there is evidence on both sides.
No. Neither is evidence that there is no God. The first is an argument from silence (a fallacy) and the second is simply a mistake or lack of knowledge on the part of a human.
