If you were taking a nap at home all by yourself, with the doors locked, and you woke up and found a chocolate chip cookie sitting on a plate that was not present when you fell asleep, and the plate had a note that said ‘compliments of your creator, GOD’ – how could you prove the cookie did not come from God?
2006-12-09 10:28:52 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
This type of question is what is know as "proving the negative". It is in the class of questions such as how do you prove big foot does not exist. "Proving the negative" is the most difficult type of problem, often unsolvable. One need only find one big foot to prove it's existence, but to prove it doesn't you must exhaustively probe every point in space to demonstrate that no location contains a big foot. Typically the only way to "prove the negative" is to demonstrate that the positive (eg. existance of big foot) would somehow violate a logical idenity. For example one need not visit every location in France to know that I am not there (question: prove the that I am not in France) by noting that I am, in fact, present and accounted for here in California. this is just to illustrate the nature of the question you pose.
Now, since this is asked in the science category, The fact that God, as commonly characterised, is neither measurable directly or indirectly, nor useful in reproducible experimentation (the "will of God" can not be predicted so as to have an expected outcome for an experiment nor expected to yeild the same results over repeated iterations of any experiment) means that God as a scientific concept has no basis in scientific application.
As to your original question, Occam's Razor would suggest that some other "real world" element was at work.
2006-12-09 11:27:50 · answer #1 · answered by kart_125cc 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no way to prove it *didn't* come from God.
That is precisely the problem with any hypothesis that includes 'God' ... it can *never* be disproved.
Even if your ex-roommate confessed that he had a key, and let himself in to leave the cookie and note ... God could still have placed that memory in his head.
Since God can do *anything*, it doesn't matter what evidence you find that points to an alternative explanation, it does not absolutely rule out the participation of God.
Nevertheless, I like your analogy. The universe is the cookie, and the note is the Bible.
But that doesn't prevent you from *first* trying to find an alternative explanation (i.e. checking all the doors to see if they really were locked, looking for other ways in, listing people who might have a key, etc.). That's what science does.
And scientists do this not because we hate God, but because we love the search for rational explanations. That's what you would do, as a rational human, if you woke up and found yourself in that situation ... before believing the note, you would check the locks first.
What irrational people do is wake up, find the note, and without even trying to find an alternative explanation, immediately say "It says right in this note that God wrote it, and God wouldn't lie, so the note must be true!" (Believe it or not, there are people who are unable to spot the logic error in that argument!) :-)
...
I leave you with one parting friendly thought. What if your roommate actually broke in and left the cookie ... but God left the note?
2006-12-09 11:20:56 · answer #2 · answered by secretsauce 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
I'd say it's a prank or something.
I definitely believe in God. But that's not how God would manifest himself. He'd let you know He's there in another way.
God really doesn't care about chocolate chip cookies. Nor does He write notes.
2006-12-09 10:38:12 · answer #3 · answered by someday. 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Easy to prove. Christians say that god is all knowing. So, god (if that is his real name), would know that I am diabetic, and with him loving me, (Christians tell me that this is true, even if I don't believe) why would he give me a chocolate chip cookie, knowing how bad it is for me.
2006-12-09 10:36:51 · answer #4 · answered by notanotary 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
There's a cookie on a plate in front of you... and you have the gall to question God? Besides "Belief" is the hardest in the absence of proof. If you could prove it it would not be as meaning-full.
2006-12-09 11:04:30 · answer #5 · answered by Kat B 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋
I don't think you could prove it.
If you meet a man walking down the street and he says "Hi, my name is Phil; here, have a cookie.", you still couldn't prove the cookie wasn't from the omnipresent God...
2006-12-09 10:34:50 · answer #6 · answered by Bugmän 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
God would not show himself in this way. For what purpose would this be? Would this bring glory to God in some way? I do now see what benefit this would give to our Lord for such an act.
If anything it would be an act of 'the great deceiver'.
2006-12-09 10:32:12 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
You can't prove a negative, so.. yeah... enjoy the cookie.
2006-12-09 10:39:05 · answer #8 · answered by Leina 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Woah, did thatreally happen to you? Id be scared cause id think someone snuck in your house!
2006-12-09 10:31:34 · answer #9 · answered by Baby Jack born 4/5/09 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Someone could prank you... Are you sure no-one was in your house at this present time?
2006-12-09 10:33:56 · answer #10 · answered by xKrissyx 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋