Anyone here a Category 7?

[The Grand Nudger]

My point, exactly, Shell.  There can be a "thor" planet and it still wouldn't make gods existent..just as there can be a "dragon" planet and this wouldn't make dragons existent..

I’m going to stop you there. That’s just wrong. If there’s a planet full of dragons, they exist. I mean, what?

Sure..as I already mentioned, in the same way that komodo dragons already mean that dragons exist.  Content equivalence is far more important than semantic similarity, in the manner that I address what I can or do know.   It's the same example as my initial comments in thread.  If someone is asking about bigfoot, no amount of pointing at a cat is ever going to change my mind about bigfoot.  

That they might think that cats are close enough doesn't affect my own appraisal. It's a puerile objection, imo, not a barrier to the availability of knowledge.

But, since you stopped me there, wouldn't the thor planet mean that the gods you're certain don't exist...actually do exist? At least one, Thor.

Sure, if I were arguing that gods exist, but we just can’t see them, which I’m not. I’m arguing that there could be something that’s a reasonable approximation, but that there’s still no reason to think that there is. In addition, none of the gods any human has ever described to my knowledge exist, and I feel certain of it.

The wispy non god at the other end of the universe called-a-god is also a god described by human beings. It's still a cat, still not bigfoot. I feel the same certainty, for the same reasons..as you...I just don't have a special godbox. No one, in asking the question "do gods exist" is talking about some alien being hiding out in the far reaches of the universe. They're asking about that peculiar fiction endemic to human beings on this planet. If you're certain that those don't exist, your position is content equivalent to my own. There's really no need for caveats and qualifiers - imo.

If, otoh, the dragon planet is compelling to you as a barrier to my knowledge, then shouldn't the thor planet be equally compelling as a barrier to your own? Repeat ad infinitum with a whole planet full of counter-examples for every other thing you feel certain of.