tackattack Wrote:To be able to demonstrate something spiritual to you, you'd have to allow the possibility that it exists.
Anything is possible.
Quote: I think scientifically religion is approached with skepticism which defeats the possibility of demonstratability.
Approaching something skeptically simply means that you are not going to believe a claim on face value, you demand a level of verification before accepting the claim - This does not in any way defeat the possibility of demonstrability, in fact it makes it an absolute requirement for the claim to be taken seriously. It is the job of the person making the claim to provide the evidence for it and a falsifiable methodology that can be verified as logically sound to allow independent scientists to repeatably test the claim.
The reason this hasn't been done has nothing to do with scientists not being interesting in the topic, it has to do with the fact that no such falsifiable methodology has ever been presented that has met any of the requirements for being called demonstrably true.
Quote: To clarify I define skepticism as disbelief.
You don't get to define a word to suit your argument:
Skep-ti-cism:
A methodology based on an assumption of doubt with the aim of acquiring approximate or relative certainty.
Quote: Therefore if belief is required to acknowledge the spirit and allow it to demonstrate "God's truth" (I just made that phrase up) I don't think it's possible to identify it scientifically.
You could demonstrably infer many of these claims by measuring their effect on observable reality, such as demonstrating the effects of prayer in a situation. Again, you are the ones who need to define the specific claim you are making and what you would predict to observe in reality if that claim is true.
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