Faith Vs Knowledge

[orangebox21]

So the argument is:
Premise 1. Faith is believing that God will do what He has said.
Premise 2. Belief in God is not a matter of faith.
Premise 3. Belief in God is a matter of God revealing himself to people directly and physically.
Premise 4. If God has revealed himself to people directly and physically for thousands of years then He is able to do the same now.
Conclusion. If God does not reveal himself to people directly and physically now then He does not exist.


Is this a fair and accurate representation of your argument?

Yes, I think that sums it up well. And yes, "belief" is more accurate than "faith" in my last sentence.

Sounds good.


Your conclusion would follow if you changed 'then He does not exist' to 'belief in Him does not exist.' If God does not reveal himself to people directly and physically now then people's belief in Him does not exist. This would logically follow.


Here's why you cannot logically infer that God does not exist from your premises.Your premises are all propositions involving the concept of 'belief' and your conclusion changes concept to 'existence'. You have not argued for existence but rather belief in existence. It's comparable to the fallacy of equivocation. Secondly you have already established that God does exist in premise 4 (a valid argument must have true premises). You state that God has revealed Himself to people for thousands of years (therefore exists) and this revelation has led to belief, but then concluded that God does not exist. This is a violation of the law of non-contradiction (God cannot both exist and not exist).


I'll speculate that a lot of people who derive their knowledge soley from empiricism share in your thoughts. i.e. If God doesn't show himself to me then he doesn't exist. But what should be added to the end of the sentence to make your argument valid is 'to me', 'he doesn't exist to me.' It's doubting Thomas. You can certainly from your premises logically conclude that God does not exist to you (or anyone He doesn't directly and physically show Himself to), however to conclude that God does not exist would be illogical.