(July 18, 2017 at 1:11 am)Godscreated Wrote:(July 17, 2017 at 10:37 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: Clearly there is no reason for the statement 'God doesn't exist' except as a response to the claim 'God does exist'. 'God doesn't exist' is the null hypothesis that needs to be disproven before acceptance of the hypothesis 'God does exist' can be rationally justified.
Same with Shiva, Yetis, ghosts, deep lake monsters, alien abductions, and so on. The null hypothesis must be disproven before it becomes reasonable to believe the hypothesis that they are real. Anecdotes are not sufficient support for things that can't be otherwise observed to exist. If you say ghosts are real and we say 'nuh uh, prove it!' the ball is in your court. We are perfectly justified in rejecting your claim until you adequately support it. You wouldn't buy 'I know it in my heart' for Krishna as proof that Krishna is real, (else you would believe that Krishna is real and who Krishna is claimed to be, because Krishna believers offer that exact same support for Krishna), so why would you expect it to carry water for us? It only works on people who already agree with you. It's a useless apologetic that Jesus was never recorded as using. I mean seriously, how would Jesus have acted online? According to the Gospels he would demonstrate his love and trustworthiness and not worry about those of us who don't decide to follow him. But evangelists never follow the advice of Jesus on how to win converts. They go with 'indoctrinate kids as young as you can get 'em' and 'preach at people into you're blue in the face'.
You are so wrong in several ways. First he didn't say what I've bold above. He made the positive statement that God doesn't exist and never said anything about me proving God does exist. I can say Krishna doesn't exist because I know God does exist, (even if I can't prove it to your satisfaction) God says there are no other gods but Me. Since I know Him and I know Him not to lie I know there's no other gods. I've never tried to pressure anyone into believing, that would defeat what I believe and what Christ taught, I've known Christians who did and that just doesn't cut it. Your indoctrination statement is a slap in the face to all those great Sunday school teachers that present the Bible to children in a simple way to teach them what it says. I know many who never pressure children and do you know why, because they believe as I do, forcing a decision is not a decision for Christ thus no salvation and it could eventually end up causing them to reject the Bible and the God who gave it. I was never pressured by anyone to believe and I grew up in a old time Southern Baptist church.
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If I ever made the positive statement that god does not exist, then I am sorry. I should have worded it more clearly. I don't believe god exists because I have not seen evidence of his existence. In the same way I don't believe unicorns exist because I have not seen evidence of their existence. Until I receive this evidence, I simply can't believe it. If you have the evidence present it. Otherwise, you do not know god exists, you simply believe god exists.
Being careful is for people who can't handle surprises.