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circumstantial evidence to Gods existence

VingThor

New Member
Hi,

As many times the strongest argument for theism is:

Don't expect to measure God as it is immeasurable.

On another post, a fellow debater suggested I'l discuss God's existence while being open to accept circumstantial evidence as a valid proof for a God.



So I find this advice very useful and would love to hear about a different kind of evidence.

I apologize in advance, as i assume it will be hard for me to understand at times, so i will probably "nag" with questions.

Cheers :)
This is my 1st post on the site:::
Greetings everyone. A few years ago , I was an exterminator & was servicing a Christian orthodox property. While there , ( i went once a month) , I became friends with a member there , named Fr. Simeon. We would often talk & occasionally I would buy a book from their store. Well , the last one I bought there , really blew my mind. It was about the Holy Light in Jerusalem.....
Every year on the orthodox Easter , a light/fire comes out of no where in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre! It is a potable fire/light that can actually be handed from 1 person to another , with no burning to whoever touches/carries it.
There is a story where ( I think) , a Catholic Priest once tried to summon it & it flew away from His hands & out of the Church & went right through a marble pillar! The damaged pillar still sits right outside of the Church to be seen. Even if the pillar story was made up , the fact that an annual Holy Fire ball appears in front of everyone in there , that can be handed from person to person kinda seems like PROOF of something greater than ourselves going on...Don't you think?
I am curious if anyone else has heard of this or knows more about because I would love to hear more about it!! When I first read the book & heard the stories , all i could think of is... "WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE ON THE PLANET KNOW ABOUT THIS"?? So , is there a "catch" to this? Am I missing something?
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
... the Holy Light in Jerusalem.....the Church of the Holy Sepulchre! ... "WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE ON THE PLANET KNOW ABOUT THIS"?? So , is there a "catch" to this? Am I missing something?
In 1238, Pope Gregory IX denounced the Holy Fire as a fraud and it has been shown to be fraudulent repeatedly ever since.
 

BilliardsBall

Veteran Member
No evidence so far.
Bad analogy as usual, Now ... twins don't talk, but if they did ... there's all sorts of evidence for Mom: Nutrition, oxygenation, heart beat, clearly there's something outside I can hear the sounds, feel the rub and the touch, etc.

What do you mean, "no evidence so far"? Why do you trump when billions disagree and say there is ample, even overwhelming evidence for God?

I mean, I would have accepted "scant evidence so far" but saying there is NO evidence for God so far in this world assumes the following:

* You have proved a negative

* You have examined all of human history and sifted every piece of evidence

* Etc. requiring specialized knowledge that would imply your omniscience, and therefore, your divinity, and therefore, you are God and God exists.

Be consistent. Agnosticism is your refuge, not atheism, unless absolute negatives exist.
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
What do you mean, "no evidence so far"? Why do you trump when billions disagree and say there is ample, even overwhelming evidence for God?

I mean, I would have accepted "scant evidence so far" but saying there is NO evidence for God so far in this world assumes the following:

* You have proved a negative

* You have examined all of human history and sifted every piece of evidence

* Etc. requiring specialized knowledge that would imply your omniscience, and therefore, your divinity, and therefore, you are God and God exists.

Be consistent. Agnosticism is your refuge, not atheism, unless absolute negatives exist.
Okay, then present this evidence. And please only present real evidence that is observable and measurable and would be accepted by a disinterested 3rd party. Reproducibility and falsifiability would be good too.

That is the type and quality of evidence which you would accept as proof of Shiva, or something along those lines.
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
No whenever evidences are used in culmination for establishing a result.
Can we have evidence and infer theory? Inna sense, isn't much of science at a theoreticAl base level inference?. Its easy to ignore that aspect. We can have evidence and inside science discussions there will be an ongoing tension or dialog of competing views due to inference. Aren't the "competing" views actually symbiotic not distinctly separatable?
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Can we have evidence and infer theory? Inna sense, isn't much of science at a theoreticAl base level inference?. Its easy to ignore that aspect. We can have evidence and inside science discussions there will be an ongoing tension or dialog of competing views due to inference. Aren't the "competing" views actually symbiotic not distinctly separatable?

Dosent mean a givin theory itself is factual as it's proposed. I don't see how symbiosis fits in either, as there is no mutual benefit between fact and theory that I can think of. Facts override theory every time, or at least they should, for which revisions come about whenever new information is determined to be true and go on from there or, if chance the theory proves correct, it's no longer theoritical.

If it's not the case, then you have belief, and sometimes people have difficulty when facts clash with beliefs.

Science theories remember are based on fact. Not a stand alone ideology that can be further built upon through logical means confined within the parameters of the ideology. I think it's where people get confused into thinking it's somehow the same thing and cannot differentiate.
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Dosent mean a givin theory itself is factual as it's proposed. I don't see how symbiosis fits in either, as there is no mutual benefit between fact and theory that I can think of. Facts override theory every time, or at least they should, for which revisions come about whenever new information is determined to be true and go on from there or, if chance the theory proves correct, it's no longer theoritical.

If it's not the case, then you have belief, and sometimes people have difficulty when facts clash with beliefs.

Science theories remember are based on fact. Not a stand alone ideology that can be further built upon through logical means confined within the parameters of the ideology. I think it's where people get confused into thinking it's somehow the same thing and cannot differentiate.
I think Richard feynman gave a really terrific talk on this . Science theories are never correct, they only falsify what was previously understood. Scientific theory is never proven correct, it will always most likely eventually proven to be false. Now because of that, you cannot point to that and claim your nonsense is justifiable. But it's also not justifiable to ignore that either. In religious/science debates both pivot around right there either in interjecting their nonsense into discussions with intelligent design as a good example or "facts" on the other extreme which time after time has proven to not be true. Feynman points this out. I am big on science but it seems to take on disturbing qualitities in secular drag of my own major in college, theology, which is total nonsense.
 

Thumper

Thank the gods I'm an atheist
Dosent mean a givin theory itself is factual as it's proposed. I don't see how symbiosis fits in either, as there is no mutual benefit between fact and theory that I can think of. Facts override theory every time, or at least they should, for which revisions come about whenever new information is determined to be true and go on from there or, if chance the theory proves correct, it's no longer theoritical.

If it's not the case, then you have belief, and sometimes people have difficulty when facts clash with beliefs.

Science theories remember are based on fact. Not a stand alone ideology that can be further built upon through logical means confined within the parameters of the ideology. I think it's where people get confused into thinking it's somehow the same thing and cannot differentiate.
In science the terms "facts" and "theories" have specific meanings.

Facts are what is observed and measured. Gravity is a fact, as is biological evolution, etc.

Scientific theories are not the same as 'whodunit' theories in a suspense novel.

Theories are our explanations for the mechanisms of nature to explain these observed realities. So we have gravitational theory and the theory of evolution, etc.

Theories are developed via "bottom up" analysis of evidence and are therefore inductive and are always subject to revision as new evidence is collected.

When you speak of "beliefs," should I assume you are talking about "confidence based on evidence" or the more common "belief on faith" which would be belief in the absence of evidence? I try to stay away from this word due to its dual meaning and potential for miscommunication of an idea.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
In science the terms "facts" and "theories" have specific meanings.

Facts are what is observed and measured. Gravity is a fact, as is biological evolution, etc.

Scientific theories are not the same as 'whodunit' theories in a suspense novel.

Theories are our explanations for the mechanisms of nature to explain these observed realities. So we have gravitational theory and the theory of evolution, etc.

Theories are developed via "bottom up" analysis of evidence and are therefore inductive and are always subject to revision as new evidence is collected.

When you speak of "beliefs," should I assume you are talking about "confidence based on evidence" or the more common "belief on faith" which would be belief in the absence of evidence? I try to stay away from this word due to its dual meaning and potential for miscommunication of an idea.

I agree.

I'm talking about belief on faith in context of a person concluding or alluding that something is factually true in absence of any established supporting facts.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I think Richard feynman gave a really terrific talk on this . Science theories are never correct, they only falsify what was previously understood. Scientific theory is never proven correct, it will always most likely eventually proven to be false. Now because of that, you cannot point to that and claim your nonsense is justifiable. But it's also not justifiable to ignore that either. In religious/science debates both pivot around right there either in interjecting their nonsense into discussions with intelligent design as a good example or "facts" on the other extreme which time after time has proven to not be true. Feynman points this out. I am big on science but it seems to take on disturbing qualitities in secular drag of my own major in college, theology, which is total nonsense.


To put in simplest terms, by way we establish the facts regarding our Sun by which debate and conjecture has for the greater part been settled, this type consensus is clearly not true in cases pertaining to debate over the existance of God and/or the supernatural.

I wanted to point this out, and question why this is so with seemingly intelligent and sensible people who otherwise cannot make distinctions by way conclusions and determinations are made between science and ideology respectively.
 

Sapiens

Polymathematician
What do you mean, "no evidence so far"? Why do you trump when billions disagree and say there is ample, even overwhelming evidence for God?

I mean, I would have accepted "scant evidence so far" but saying there is NO evidence for God so far in this world assumes the following:

* You have proved a negative

* You have examined all of human history and sifted every piece of evidence

* Etc. requiring specialized knowledge that would imply your omniscience, and therefore, your divinity, and therefore, you are God and God exists.

Be consistent. Agnosticism is your refuge, not atheism, unless absolute negatives exist.
I stand by my original claim, there is no evidence for the existence of a god.

You are making several mistakes:

I am not claiming "proof" of no god.

In the sciences, the burden of proof falls to the one proposing a hypothesis.

It doesn’t matter what the hypothesis is:
  • If you want to propose that god exists, the burden of proof falls to you.
  • If I want to propose that god does not exist, the burden falls to me.
Either way, the person proposing a hypothesis needs to provide evidence for it by using the scientific method (i.e., making a prediction based on the hypothesis and then seeing whether the prediction is fulfilled when a test is run).

You are proposing the existence of a god, I am simply requesting evidence for your claim.

Since you are claiming that the existence of God is provable, then you need to formulate a testable prediction based on the hypothesis that God exists and then run the test and see if the prediction is fulfilled. In the same way, if I were claiming that the non-existence of God is scientifically provable then I would need to formulate the same kind of testable prediction, run the test, and see if the prediction is fulfilled. Either way, the test would need to be well-designed, replicable, etc., etc., for the matter to be considered scientifically proved.

But I am not claiming that there are no gods ... I am simply stating there is no evidence of any god(s) ... all you need do to falsify my statement is to stack your evidence up ... which you have failed to do.
 
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Sapiens

Polymathematician
Can we have evidence and infer theory? Inna sense, isn't much of science at a theoreticAl base level inference?. Its easy to ignore that aspect. We can have evidence and inside science discussions there will be an ongoing tension or dialog of competing views due to inference. Aren't the "competing" views actually symbiotic not distinctly separatable?
Science often infers. Inference is the act of passing from one proposition, statement, or judgment considered as true to another whose truth is believed to follow from that of the former. Since this is not possible with respect to the existence of god(s) rather than holding a valid inference the theist is left holding an argument from ignorance.
 
I have made the following argument in another as to why materialism is unlikely to be the final word and why the Hindu idea of Brahman may be promising,
As we uncover the workings of the natural world certain things become clear:-

2) The laws of nature themselves are mathematical. Mathematics is a domain of abstract and extraordinarily rich non-empirical reality that is "somehow" glued into "stuff" through these laws and accessible to knowledge through rationality. Why should there be such a realm of abstract rational world of mathematics and why they intermingle with stuff via the laws of physics is also not known.


And just like biology has provided us with senses to see physical entities and rationality to see mathematics..it has also provided us with inner capabilities, which when honed through meditation or other proper spiritual practices, can help us grasp this fundamental entity undergirding all these domains of knowledge...at least to some extent.
When I notice some bird species Always lays 3 eggs and I call this a 'law' this doesn't mean that the law "bird X lays 3 eggs" exists as a real entity. Mathematics don't exist as something real, it's just a language that helps us understand reality.

We have 'inner capabilities' that help us understand a 'fundamental entity'? Which fundamental entity? You haven't proven that such a thing exists! So you want to 'prove' a thing unknown to exist with capabilities unknown to exist. Quite an undertaking..
 

rrosskopf

LDS High Priest
Then it either means nothing (if no new growth of limb) or there is a mysterious growth of limb. Do you know of any such cases? Is it unreasonable to assume that a fair amount of time has been wasted in such prayer with no cases of regrowth?
There are laws that even God must abide by. I suppose that if someone did something like regrow an arm, you would still pass it off as due to science, or call it an unsubstantiated fable. Our lack of knowledge concerning the attributes of God does not prove anything, except our own ignorance.
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Science often infers. Inference is the act of passing from one proposition, statement, or judgment considered as true to another whose truth is believed to follow from that of the former. Since this is not possible with respect to the existence of god(s) rather than holding a valid inference the theist is left holding an argument from ignorance.
Religion Can based on that, science can easily arrive at that and does reductively. So reduction and theism curiously seem to be the identical thing!!!
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
To put in simplest terms, by way we establish the facts regarding our Sun by which debate and conjecture has for the greater part been settled, this type consensus is clearly not true in cases pertaining to debate over the existance of God and/or the supernatural.

I wanted to point this out, and question why this is so with seemingly intelligent and sensible people who otherwise cannot make distinctions by way conclusions and determinations are made between science and ideology respectively.
I speculate it LaYs in neurology, and more fundamentally even, the relationship to experiences and the intellect, how we are raised choices school social public private perceptions. And on and on the list goes. Its like asking how does a heratic get executed, a religion forms around that execution, and then the followers of that religion execute peole as heratics? So the issue and or the question isn't new it's fundemental and old. I am like john Muir for sure and I ask " why aren't the trees as dumb as us? They don't have a brain.
 

viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
Hi,

As many times the strongest argument for theism is:

Don't expect to measure God as it is immeasurable.

On another post, a fellow debater suggested I'l discuss God's existence while being open to accept circumstantial evidence as a valid proof for a God.



So I find this advice very useful and would love to hear about a different kind of evidence.

I apologize in advance, as i assume it will be hard for me to understand at times, so i will probably "nag" with questions.

Cheers :)

Ask him, or her, to give you an example of circumstantial and immeasurable evidence that can be used to prove anything else.

Ciao

- viole
 

Sapiens

Polymathematician
There are laws that even God must abide by. I suppose that if someone did something like regrow an arm, you would still pass it off as due to science, or call it an unsubstantiated fable. Our lack of knowledge concerning the attributes of God does not prove anything, except our own ignorance.
One part massive cop-put with two parts argument from ignorance ... good job!
 

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
When you speak of "beliefs," should I assume you are talking about "confidence based on evidence" or the more common "belief on faith" which would be belief in the absence of evidence? I try to stay away from this word due to its dual meaning and potential for miscommunication of an idea.
I talk about this occasionally.
I try to use one of two words, instead of belief. Knowledge and Faith. There is not always a clear bright line between them, but generally I use knowledge for evidence based beliefs and faith for beliefs people hold out of preference in the absence of evidence.
I use delusion for beliefs held despite evidence to the contrary.
But all of them, Knowledge and Faith and Delusion, are all subsets of Belief.
To me anyway.
Tom
 

Sapiens

Polymathematician
Let

Let me just say it has been here long enough for humans to have caused it to be well on it's way to being uninhabitable. It may be a long way off but it sure is heading in that direction.
It would not be the first time. Plants poisoned the planet with their waste product: oxygen. This is what allowed animals to evolve.
Even Hawkins the scientist admits that the Big Bang theory had to have something already in existence for a Big Bang to occur. ( if it ever did occur at all). No getting around it. Nothingness cannot ever produce something.
Well then, according to logic and your theology ... where did your god come from. "Always was" is not a vaild answer unless you are willing to accept "always was" with respect to the mass and energy that make up the universe.
H
He knew that there was a point which eluded him. The point that the Big Bang theory could not have come from nothingness. The name God is the name given to what is yet the unknown 'something' to which all in existence owe their existence. The 'something' replied I AM. Tell them I AM sent you when Pharoah asks who sent you. Moses was told this.
Much like god(s) there is a complete absence of evidence when it comes to Moses and the Exodus.
As yet not one person has come up with proof either way. Is there or isn't there a Creator? You sound so positive for someone who possesses no absolute proof of what you are saying.
I don't need absolute proof, all I need is to point to the complete absence of any evidence. The burden of proof is yours.
T
he facts speak for themselves when it comes to the question of there being a Creator of all that exists.i

I do not have any proof. My question then being: why is humanity left in a state of not knowing? Why is there no absolute proof either way? Instead of asking is or isn't there a God, the bigger question to be asking is: why there is no proof? We are left with beliefs ( religious and otherwise), theories, conjecture etc. but no absolute proof either way. WHY???? That is my stance.
Face it, you are, in the main, an atheist too ... I just extend my atheism to one more god than you do.
I think you should apply your mind to the question of why there is no proof either way.
I have. What I discovered is that it is highly improbable that there is a god since there is no evidence of one that stands up to critical examination. As far as absolute proof is concerned ... that is impossible. In a construct that is akine to Zeno's paradox (you can never get to a wall since you appoach it in halves and there is always a distance remaining that can be further halved) there is always one more rock, over the next hill, on the nex planet, that god might just be hiding under.
A

nd I will keep repeating that something cannot come from nothing until it is proven otherwise.
Why not? That's is just an unprovable assumption. It is like the difference between Euclidean geometry and Non-Euclidean geometry with respect to parrell lines.
If
If any fact existed that proves the existence or non- existence of a Creator, we would not be debating the issue. The fact is, such a fact is non- existent.
But the two constructs are not, as I have already show, co-equal.
You sound so certain about something which has it's believers and non- believers. Which is where it all rests. On the belief of an individual.

now that is the question, isn't it. There is no absolute answer to that question. The Big Bang theory gives an explanation. But no-one can explain the Big Bang ( if it did occur at all). What was the source of the 'supposed' Big Bang? Nothingness could not trigger an explosion. Even Stephen Hawkins admits this. So what was the source? And from what did that source come into existence?
I don't yet know and am looking is very different than I don't know so God-did-it.
And there is no proof of a Big Bang even having occurred. It is a theory.
No. You don't understand what a theory is.

A scientific theory is an explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can, in accordance with the scientific method, be repeatedly tested, using a predefined protocol of observations and experiments. Established scientific theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and are a comprehensive form of scientific knowledge.

It is important to note that the definition of a "scientific theory" (often ambiguously contracted to "theory" for the sake of brevity, including in this page) as used in the disciplines of science is significantly different from the common vernacular usage of the word "theory". In everyday non-scientific speech, "theory" can imply that something is an unsubstantiated and speculative guess, conjecture, idea, or, hypothesis; such a usage is the opposite of the word "theory" in science. These different usages are comparable to the differing, and often opposing, usages of the term "prediction" in science versus "prediction" in vernacular speech, denoting a mere hope.

The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of phenomena it can explain. As additional scientific evidence is gathered, a scientific theory may be rejected or modified if it does not fit the new empirical findings; in such circumstances, a more accurate theory is then desired. In certain cases, the less-accurate unmodified scientific theory can still be treated as a theory if it is useful (due to its sheer simplicity) as an approximation under specific conditions (e.g., Newton's laws of motion as an approximation to special relativity at velocities that are small relative to the speed of light).

Scientific theories are testable and make falsifiable predictions. They describe the causal elements responsible for a particular natural phenomenon, and are used to explain and predict aspects of the physical universe or specific areas of inquiry (e.g., electricity, chemistry, astronomy). Scientists use theories as a foundation to gain further scientific knowledge, as well as to accomplish goals such as inventing technology or curing disease.

As with other forms of scientific knowledge, scientific theories are both deductive and inductive in nature and aim for predictive power and explanatory capability.

Paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and science historian Stephen Jay Gould said, “...facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world′s data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts.”
(thanks wiki)
Will

Can anyone out there give me one possible.reason why humanity has no absolute proof of the existence or non- existence of a Creator.
Asked and answered.
Religion Can based on that, science can easily arrive at that and does reductively. So reduction and theism curiously seem to be the identical thing!!!
No, scientific reductionist is based on evidence, theism does not even make it to hearsay, it is, by and large, stuck in what is at best historical fiction.
 
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