(January 3, 2013 at 9:47 am)Tiberius Wrote: In terms of theism, this means that anyone who makes the claim "God exists" must show their proof; they cannot simply say "prove that God doesn't exist", as it does nothing to demonstrate the validity of their claim (being incapable of proving something doesn't exist, does not necessarily mean it exists).
And not only that, it doesn't even slightly improve the odds that the proposed thing might exist. Only positive evidence can do that, granting that the proposed entity isn't self-contradictory in the first place and thus can't possibly exist. The burden of proof isn't arbitrary, the inability to prove that something doesn't exist is irrelevant to the proposition that it exists.
