How do I know the things I know?

[Akincana Krishna dasa]

I want to talk epistemology before talking about why I think it's reasonable to think there is a God.

The question I want to get to is: Where's the evidence for God? How does someone know He exists?

Before going there, I want to ask: What does anyone know about anything? How do they know it? What kinds of knowledge are there, if there is any?

Can anyone help me with these questions?

[Minimalist]

Where's the evidence for God?

Apparently there is none. At least, none of his alleged followers has ever presented anything worth more than a fart in a hurricane.

[Darkstar]

The question I want to get to is: Where's the evidence for God? How does someone know He exists?

Nowhere and have enough blind faith, respectively.

Before going there, I want to ask: What does anyone know about anything? How do they know it? What kinds of knowledge are there, if there is any?

Can anyone help me with these questions?

We know what we can observe. Sometimes what we observe can be misleading, and a single person's experiences cannot be used as knowledge to anyone more than them unless it can be demonstrated that their experience was real rather than, say, a hallucination. Science has come a long way since the biblical era. If you try hard enough, you can create a set of fictional rules that govern a situation to make it look as if those rules are real. However, when the rules apply without fail in other situations as well, we can label that knowledge as genuine. An example of this would be to say that 1+1=2 because all addition problems=2. This works for 1+1 and 2+0, and some others, but quickly falls apart. The fact that the laws of physics, such as gravity, for example, apply in predictable and calculateable ways regardless of the situation shows that we can indeed know this.

Another question sometimes asked is how we can know anything, how can we know our senses do not decieve us always? This quickly falls apart, as we could not even speculate to know anything, especially not god, if this were true.

Then there is theoretical knowledge. I am not refering to,say, the theory of gravity or evolution, these belong to a different type of theory, one that nearly translates into scientific fact. By theoretical I mean that which we cannot, or at least have not observed. We have theoretical knowledge of the big bang, for instance, even though it may be calssified as a theory in the same sense as evolution or gravity by some, its details are somewhat less certain. We did not witness the big bang, but by applying what we know from what we can observe, we can infer what may be in what we have yet to observe. A good example of this would be the predictability of the elements in the periodic table. Even before many of the elements were discovered we predicted what they might be like, with impressive accuracy.

The final point is one of absolute knowledge. If we do not accept something unless we have absolute knowledge of it, then we cannot hardly accept anything as true, becasue it might someday be disproven or modified. However, in most cases our knowledge of something is great enough that we can claim to know something even if we do not have absolute knowledge of it. The instances in which we are a bit less certain, we can only say that it is our best understanding.

That was a bit wordy, but I hope I was able to answer your question somewhere in there.

[Akincana Krishna dasa]

Where's the evidence for God?

Apparently there is none. At least, none of his alleged followers has ever presented anything worth more than a fart in a hurricane.

I don't know, I think a fart in hurricane might prove that God exists. Lets say it smelled really bad. Wouldn't that convince you?

You skipped to the second part of my question. First is: How do you know anything?

[Minimalist]

That's because as a general rule I despise philosophy.

Nothing personal....my areas of interest run to history/archaeology.

[Shell B]

That's because as a general rule I despise philosophy.

Nothing personal....my areas of interest run to history/archaeology.

This is philosophy?

[Zevaeros]

Sounds like you might be trying to deal with some presuppositionalism on the side. KnownNoMore on YouTube has an excellent runthough, including how we ascertain basic knowledge:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL515BB2B62E8AAAE3

[Shell B]

What does anyone know about anything?

That is a very strange question. I'm going to have to arbitrarily define "anyone" and "anything" here in order to answer it. Since you didn't say everyone, I'm going to choose a hypothetical person. Let's say his name is Johnny. He is five. He does not like peas. He knows because they make him nauseous and nausea is unpleasant. He knows his mom puts band-aids on his wounds when he gets hurt. Why? Well, because she does. From that, we can assume that he knows peas, his mom, wounds and band-aids exist. He also knows that peas are eaten, wounds are tended and band-aids go over wounds. In short, we know things from experience and from shared knowledge. I can go on and on, but clearly you get the point.

How do they know it?

Experience, trustworthy sources and the like.

What kinds of knowledge are there, if there is any?

Why must we behave as if we do not have Google?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descriptive..._knowledge

The question I want to get to is: Where's the evidence for God? How does someone know He exists?

Nowhere, as far as anyone knows for certain. "Feelings," as I know all too well, are no indication of reality. For someone to know God exists, someone must see God or know a reliable source that is trustworthy and has seen God. Seen, witnessed, experienced. Now, that also has to stand up to scrutiny. The "feeling" of God could be the same thing one feels when one has to shit for all we know. You have to prove that it is something exclusive to God to prove it is God. Well, in short, if God exists, the proof is with him until he decides to show himself. Until then, there is no proof. Therefore, the logical path to take is disbelief in a claim you and other believers make. If I tell you I feel a gorgonhoppingooseflak, I suspect you would leave the proof part to me. I will do the same. Bring me God.

[Akincana Krishna dasa]

I know reliable sources that know God and have seen Him. They are teaching me how to see Him too. It takes a while, God's not cheap.

That's how I know God exists.

[Shell B]

What makes them reliable? They have seen him with their eyes? They have to pay him? Remember, it has to stand up to scrutiny too.

I thought you really wanted to have an intellectual discussion about it.