Epistemology

[Pete]

Evidence is anything material that can be observed or tested under scientific conditions.

What would be considered archaeological evidence and what would such evidence serve to teach us? For example; how do we know about life in ancient Egypt. What kind of evidence has helped us come to that understanding? Could a document or ancient writing tell us anything other than how long ago it was written?

Any knowledge gained by scientific research using appropriate methods, supported by evidence.

Does that rule out ancient scrolls? If so then how can we learn about the past?

Science is the study of what is true and how it works. Science doesn't prove things, the natural world does the proving.

Excellant response. But I'm curious as to why so many atheist keep saying There is no proof that God exists. Any ideas?

There are things that science will never be able to explain. One of the mysteries of science that exists today is why the universe seems to be just right for the existance of life. There is a model which attempts to explain this called the multiuniverse model. Have you ever heard of it? There are articles about it at
http://aca.mq.edu.au/PaulDavies/publications/papers.htm

See Multiverse cosmological models,' Mod. Phys. Lett. A 19, 727 (2004).

The autor is pretty sharp. He does some very interesting research. I recommend reading his stuff. Being an atheist you might like to read about things like he writes about. The multiuniverse model is one of them since it addresses the reason why life is possible in this universe.

Note: The author is a theist though.

Instead of considering only the hard sciences lets consider other sciences. Archaeological should be of prime importance to anyone involved in discussions about God. Wouldn't you agree?

Pete

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However, if there are countless possibilities for anything (regardless of what it is) I go for the one that is falsifyable because that means research can be done in order to dismiss or confirm it.

Virtual particles are theoretical particles which have been hypothesized to exist in order to explain certain things in quantum field theory. However, by their very nature, virtual particles can never be observed. In that respect their existance is not falsifiable. But the idea of them has proved very useful.

Pete