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Can you give me a solid proof

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
It is only non believers who ask for proof of God

I don't see skeptics asking for proof of God or even evidence of God. They're telling you that they would need that before believing. Sometimes that's worded, "Where's your evidence?," but that should be understood to mean that he knows none will be forthcoming.

The following are arguments against God:

1. The world has too much suffering for a benevolent Creator to exist

2. God by definition can't be virtuous since he can't be tested by courage or acquire value rather he is eternal and can't chose his essence.

3. God would be obvious to everyone and would perform miracles in the open if he existed.

These are three philosophical arguments I'm aware of. I don't believe them myself but they are formidable.

None of those are good arguments against gods. The first one is only an argument against a benevolent deity. Indifferent and malevolent deities are logically possible even with all of the suffering we see. The second assumes that a god must be virtuous, eternal, and unchanging to exist. Many religions teach that, but that doesn't make it a logical requirement. Why can't the creator of a universe be mortal? Maybe the deist god died in the act of universe-birth. And the last assumes that gods must be apparent to exist. It's not hard to imagine a deity that doesn't want to be found, or is unaware of our existence, or is uninterested in man, and simply never manifests.

Skeptics don't need arguments against gods to be unbelievers. They require evidence FOR them before believing.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Anyone if you can
In that case:

- the Problem of Evil disproves the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good God.

- Gods with contradictory attributes (e.g. being perfectly unchanging while also effecting change - e.g. by creating a universe) can be pretty simply disproven.


... but I agree with other posters: you're asking the wrong question. "Does God exist?" (Or "can we be absolutely sure that God does not exist?") is premature; let's answer the question "is there a way for gods in general to be even possible?" first.
 

Link

Veteran Member
Premium Member
None of those are good arguments against gods. The first one is only an argument against a benevolent deity. Indifferent and malevolent deities are logically possible even with all of the suffering we see. The second assumes that a god must be virtuous, eternal, and unchanging to exist. Many religions teach that, but that doesn't make it a logical requirement. Why can't the creator of a universe be mortal? Maybe the deist god died in the act of universe-birth. And the last assumes that gods must be apparent to exist. It's not hard to imagine a deity that doesn't want to be found, or is unaware of our existence, or is uninterested in man, and simply never manifests.

Skeptics don't need arguments against gods to be unbelievers. They require evidence FOR them before believing.

I didn't say skeptics need to. And we are talking about God, not gods, but the God people know as the ultimate greatest possible being.
 

night912

Well-Known Member
Can you give me a solid proof that God does not exist?
Your proof must be possible to repeat multiple times, and evidence for God non existence must be so solid that it cant be disproven by believers in God.

I do not ask for woowoo answer, only serious evidence of non existence will be accepted as proof.

And you must be able to show your proof in more than one way.
Here's the proof.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
I don't know where this nonsense came from but I can prove a negative.
Have a look at the classical proof of square root of two not being a rational number.
Negative proven.
I have said nothing about not being able to prove a negative.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
You prove that by showing what the square root of two IS, not what it ISN'T. You prove that it is in the group of irrational numbers, you don't prove that it is absent from the group of rational numbers.

If you think you can prove that something doesn't exist, please prove that the elephant on your head doesn't exist.
Since you are obviously not familiar with the proof, here it is.
 

Audie

Veteran Member
Can you give me a solid proof that God does not exist?
Your proof must be possible to repeat multiple times, and evidence for God non existence must be so solid that it cant be disproven by believers in God.

I do not ask for woowoo answer, only serious evidence of non existence will be accepted as proof.

And you must be able to show your proof in more than one way.

Ask yourself the question, but make it
" live T. rex" instead.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
I didn't say skeptics need to. And we are talking about God, not gods, but the God people know as the ultimate greatest possible being.
"God" is a god. Gods named "God" are just a subset of the larger category of gods in general.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
Nonbelievers ask for evidence. They do not ask for proof. Please learn the difference.
I'd be fine with either proof or evidence. Since I don't know the nature of god, I accept evidence for any real gods or proof for any conceptual gods.
(And since believers don't know the nature of god either, they don't understand the difference.)
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
I have said nothing about not being able to prove a negative.
You did, just not in those words. "you cannot prove that something does not exist" was your formulation and I say I can prove that a fraction "a/b" with the property "is equal to sqrt(2)" does not exist.
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
I didn't say skeptics need to. And we are talking about God, not gods, but the God people know as the ultimate greatest possible being.
For most believers god is the ultimate greatest impossible being.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
You did, just not in those words. "you cannot prove that something does not exist" was your formulation and I say I can prove that a fraction "a/b" with the property "is equal to sqrt(2)" does not exist.
OK, using that method prove that the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist.

btw I do understand how you prove the square root of two is irrational but I fail to understand how I use it to complete the above proof.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
OK, using that method prove that the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist.

btw I do understand how you prove the square root of two is irrational but I fail to understand how I use it to complete the above proof.
I do believe that was used to demonstrate that one can prove a negative.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I didn't say skeptics need to. And we are talking about God, not gods, but the God people know as the ultimate greatest possible being.

Still one of many. Of the 4200 various gods worshipped around 3800 of them are the ultimate, greatest possible being.

Not sure how that action works but that's how it is, another evidence god or gods dont exist
 

firedragon

Veteran Member
Can you give me a solid proof that God does not exist?
Your proof must be possible to repeat multiple times, and evidence for God non existence must be so solid that it cant be disproven by believers in God.

I do not ask for woowoo answer, only serious evidence of non existence will be accepted as proof.

And you must be able to show your proof in more than one way.

You will mostly get slight snide remarks. And maybe how many gods, which god, kind of responses. And some will ask YOU for evidence instead.
 
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