(January 19, 2012 at 2:23 am)Perhaps Wrote: An example of modus ponens is as follows ...[snip example]... This aspect of logic is used to both explain the existence of God, and to disprove the existence of God by means of evidence of absence.
Please provide a modus ponens argument that disproves the existence of God by means of evidence of absence.
(January 19, 2012 at 2:23 am)Perhaps Wrote: We can scientifically verify ...
No, we cannot. Science is not in the verification business. (Consider the problem of confirmation bias.) With regard to the criterion of demarcation, a proposition or hypothesis is a matter of ordinary science to the extent that it is falsifiable in the main and at least in principle. As Kuhn might say, this is the currently accepted paradigm of the scientific community.
Moreover, the existence of some x is a matter of metaphysics, specifically ontology, not a matter of science. And some things exist which are not, and cannot be, a matter of scientific inquiry; for example, the law of noncontradiction, which is normative and a priori knowledge.
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)
