RE: Evidence for Believing
September 19, 2019 at 2:06 pm
(This post was last modified: September 19, 2019 at 2:16 pm by Simon Moon.)
(September 19, 2019 at 9:50 am)LadyForCamus Wrote:(September 18, 2019 at 6:37 pm)Lek Wrote: I've been asked a zillion times in this forum to give evidence for why I believe in God and each time the questioner comes back and tells me that's not real evidence. Here's the situation. We have a being who is supernatural. He/She/It can exist without the need to obey any natural laws and therefore, cannot be understood or explained by natural or scientific means.
If God directly illuminates me through supernatural means which cannot be tested by any natural means, how can I give you any other solid evidence other than to relate my experience?
If god is, by definition, untestable and inaccessible to scientific inquiry, then by what method have you determined that the cause of your experience was a god, and not your own mind? You need to justify this to yourself first before you can offer it to others as evidence. And, appealing to the number of people who believe the same thing as you is a fallacy. The number of people who believe a claim is true has no rational bearing on whether or not it’s actually true. At one time, a great number of people believe that the earth was flat, and that the sun revolved around it. Did that collective belief count as good evidence for those claims?
HIs only answer, so far, has been he really, REALLY feels it. And other people (even some smart people) claim to have had similar experiences.
I want to know how he eliminated a super advanced alien civilization, who take delight in fucking with less advanced civilizations, as a possibility.
Wouldn't this actually be a more rational explanation? After all, we have demonstrable evidence, that there are 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone, each with planetary systems, and billions of those planets are in habitable zones. The only evidence LEK provides, is personal experiences.
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.