I think what confuses people, is that you seem to argue both for and against yourself at the same time, meaning you present some arguments that seem contradictive and will try to elaborate on that based on what you have answered, so will jump a bit around in your reply.
So from this we should be able to agree on the following, that absolutely no amount of evidence will ever result in him being able to proof that his claim is correct about God. Which means that it will natural follow that it is also impossible to establish that he is a messenger of God. And therefore we won't be able to prove it, so it has to be based on faith.
We both agree to this statement being logically correct, based on the claim "That no one can ever prove God".
That is not what I have been saying. Listen carefully. I have been saying that we cannot prove that Baha’u’llah was a Messenger of God as a fact that will be accepted as true by everyone. However, we can
prove to ourselves that He was a Messenger of God which proves that God exists since a ‘Messenger of God’ cannot exist if there is no God.
This is a circular and contradictive statement, based on what we agreed on above.
If no one can prove God, then the Messengers can't provide that proof through any means. Therefore it is contradictory when you then say that we need the messenger to demonstrate God.
Nobody can prove that God exists as a fact that everyone will accept because God can never be located and observed. All we can do is prove to ourselves that God sent a Messenger, which is
proof to us that God exists since a Messenger of God is proof that God exists. Obviously the Messenger is only proof to those who believe he was a Messenger of God.
This will become circular reasoning, because in order to establish the validity of the Messengers claim, we have to demonstrate God first, because this rely on God being real, if God is not real then obviously they can't be Messengers of God, because he wouldn't exist, but in order to demonstrate God, we need the Messengers, and again to do that we need to demonstrate God and we can keep going like this... This is what circular reasoning is.
Even if it is circular reasoning that does not mean it is not logically valid.
Circular reasoning (
Latin:
circulus in probando, "circle in proving"; also known as
circular logic) is a
logical fallacy in which the reasoner begins with what they are trying to end with.
[1] The components of a circular argument are often logically valid because if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning
Are all circular arguments invalid?
No. The circularity does not reduce the validity of these
arguments in any way. That is, there is nothing inherently wrong with
circular argument, although this does not mean that
all circular arguments are valid and/or sound. It should be more clear now that this line of
reasoning is perfectly valid.
If the bible is true God exists, and, if God exists the bible is true.
While both claims still have the same very low probability, it is now a more coherent – albeit circular – line of reasoning. Is there anything wrong with these arguments
because they are circular? No.
The circularity does not reduce the validity of these arguments in any way. That is, there is nothing inherently wrong with circular argument, although this does not mean that
all circular arguments are valid and/or sound.
Circular arguments are perfectly valid - THE SKEPTICAL SCIENTIST Why is circular reasoning bad?
Following the same line of reasoning, as the one above about the bible, here is my perfectly valid circular argument:
If what Baha'u'llah wrote is true, God exists.
If the premise what Baha'u'llah wrote is true, then the conclusion God exists must be true.
Conversely, the conclusion God exists must be true if the premise Baha’u’llah was a Messenger of God is true.
I cannot
prove that my premises are true, so I am not presenting an argument. I was never trying to prove anything to anyone; I just present what “I believe is true.”
So to break this circle, we have to figure out which claim we need to establish first in order to do this. And it makes sense to break it at God, because the messenger rely on him being true.
Therefore we can solve this circular issue, but approaching the claims in the following order:
1. Demonstrate God
2. Demonstrate the claim that these are Messengers of said God.
But we then run into the problem of the statement we agreed on. "That no one can ever prove God". So we can't demonstrate (1.) which means that we won't be able to demonstrate (2.) either.
The problem you immediately run into is that you cannot demonstrate that God exists without the Messenger. However, we can demonstrate that the claims of the Messenger are true.
It is not the atheists fault or us being unreasonable, it is a logical trap or what to say, that all religious claims make use of and why they are based on faith. Or said in another way, why they require people to accept certain things without proof, if they do, then this whole setup will make sense.
I am not saying that atheists are at fault or are unreasonable, why does someone have to be at fault or be unreasonable? Yes, there is some faith involved in accepting that a Messenger is from God because such a claim can never be proven as a fact, but we can prove it to ourselves by looking at the evidence that supports the claim of the Messenger.
Yes, but the keyword in what you write is "The way I see it if He was a Messenger of God..." and that is what we want to verify. But we can't, as I explained above. So its irrelevant of whether everything he said is true or not, IF he was in fact a messenger of God or not, because we can't establish that to begin with, because again, we are going to end up in circular reasoning.
It is not irrelevant because each person can
verify for themselves that He was a Messenger of God and then they know that everything He said was true. It will never be established as a fact that anyone was a Messenger of God and that is unnecessary and illogical to think that would ever be possible. So all we gave is the evidence that indicates that a Messenger was telling the truth and His claim is valid. We can never have anything else.
Trailblazer said: In the sense that nobody can “know” that God exists as a fact some faith is required to believe in God, but it can be an evidence-based faith.
But these evidence are weak ones at best and again requires you to start out by accepting something without proof. And that is basically from what I can see, exactly how you "break" the circular reasoning as I pointed out above, you accept that God exist based on faith.
There can be no universally accepted proof that God exists, we can only prove that to ourselves. I never started out accepting that Baha’u’llah was a Messenger of God without evidence. What is weak evidence to you is strong evidence to me and other Baha’is. As I said above some faith is needed to believe in what cannot be proven as a fact, because God can never be seen in this contingent world. If atheists cannot accept what is so logical then they will just going on being atheists. What is circular is these endless conversations between atheists and believers.
Trailblazer said: Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
This is what faith is, that is what this verse calls for, blind faith in God. Of course you are going to believe in my aliens, if you approach it having faith in it being true. The moment you don't have faith in my claim, you won't find the aliens.
All faith is not blind faith. Only faith devoid of evidence is blind faith.
Its perfectly fine to believe in God and find value in the teachings of Baha'u'llah, but it shouldn't come at the cost of logical reasoning.
Belief in God does not have to come at the cost of logical reasoning, as I pointed out above.
What is illogical is for atheists to ever
expect God to be demonstrated without some link between that God and humanity. The Messengers of God provide that link.