(May 20, 2016 at 11:52 am)robvalue Wrote: Such a statement [the OP] could be prefaced by, "It appears reasonable to conclude that..."…Science isn't about absolute certainty, it's about obtaining models and information which are as accurate as possible, beyond reasonable doubt.
I would agree. Here are some things from common experience of nature that I find completely evident:
Some things change and only things that actually exist can make changes happen.
People can observe things in nature that could possibly be or not be since those things can be appear, change, and then cease to be.
Under specific circumstances, unthinking things that cause change regularly produce a limited range of effects.
All of the above propositions rely on common observations. Because they are evident then by definition they count as evidence. As evidence they can serve as starting points to make reasonable conclusions about the world in which we all live. And yet this is the very evidence that some atheists, like RobValue, expect everyone to ignore. It is not that knowledge of God does not follow from empirical data; but rather, some people FEAR the conclusions that could be reasonably drawn from that data.
