(January 24, 2013 at 5:09 am)genkaus Wrote:(January 23, 2013 at 9:31 pm)Ryantology Wrote: The phraseology is the same. The likelihood of either statement being true is certainly not the same.
Like I said in some other thread, certain belief and certain unbelief are both leaps of faith, but one of those leaps is light-years longer than the other.
I didn't know atheism was measured by the probability you assigned to god's existence?
Anyway, it is not just the phraseology that is same, it is the meaning as well. We are not measuring the probability of god's existence but the belief state of the person making the statement. I'd say that if the person does not believe that a god exists, then the probability of both statements being true is exactly the same - 1.
Do you think the meaning of "I don't believe your mother is alive' is the same as 'I believe your mother is dead'? Because I don't believe your mother is alive AND I don't believe she is dead. I don't know anything about your mother, so why would I believe she's alive or dead? But I can't honestly say I believe your mother is dead AND I believe your mother is alive, because the two are mutually exclusive. If I believe your mother is dead, I can't believe she's alive.
