(May 5, 2025 at 4:28 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote:Pretty much, it strikes me as an unfalsifiable premise. I can't believe unfalsifiable claims without closed minded bias, and I can't believe both the claim and its negation, without violating the law of noncontradiction, but I can rationally disbelieve all unfalsifiable claims and their negation, and remain both agnostic and open minded.(May 3, 2025 at 8:42 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: Sure, I lied. Now, where do you stand in terms of possibility then? Surely, you can grant that it's not impossible, right?
I think Sheldon's position, and he is welcome to correct me if I am wrong, is that they don't know if a god or God, as usually defined, is possible. Therefore he doesn't believe it is possible; that is, he does not hold the proposition that it IS possible to be true. They also do not hold the opposite position, that it is impossible.
As an aside, it is certainly possible that somewhere in the universe a creature that looks like a unicorn could exist. A horselike or goatlike animal with a single horn coming out of its forehead. That's possible. We can make a creature like that now, if we want. But one that can only be captured by a virgin whose horn can purify water and has supernatural healing powers? I don't believe that kind of unicorn is possible.
Not all god claims, or religious claims are unfalsifiable of course. Indeed, some have been falsified, either by rational inference, or by objective evidence. For example the creation myth in the bible and koran are both falsified by objective scientific fact. Even making the weak claim that a deity with limitless power and knowledge could only manage allegory, doesn't work, as Genesis can't even get the most basic chronological facts about the formation of the universe and solar system correct.
