Don't you have to know everything in the whole universe before you can deny the existence of God?

Question

Nobody can search 100% of the whole universe, right?

If you only test 99.999% then God could exist in the 0.001% that is left, right?

If that were the case would he still be important?

Answer 1

No. If god is defined in a self-contradictory manner you can show logically that he doesn't exist, just as you can with a circular square. God as defined in the bible is self-contradictory and so cannot exist (at least as described in the bible).

[EDIT: Also what J.P. said...]

Answer 2

Even if you were 100% knowledgeable of all that is in the universe, we cannot truly KNOW for certain of the existence or non-existence of a god (or gods and/or goddesses)

What about what is outside of the universe? If there is an "in" there must be an "out"

We can, however, deny the existence of certain gods through logical reasoning. But even that is based on what we know, not what we don't know. Thus, it is impossible to know if one exists or not.

A mystery, by its very definition, cannot be known. They may pretend to know because some book written in the bronze age tells them so, but no one can possibly know.

Answer 3

First , this god has no properties that can be tested for.

Second, if you don't have to "know everything in the Universe" before you can claim god exists, why should you have to know everything in the universe before you can say he doesn't?

It is religion that has picked this fight with science, not science that has picked the fight with religion - science says nothing either way, left to itself, about god existing or not existing. Science minds its own business, which is to describe the universe and how it works.

If that has meaning, or if that has no meaning, that is not the business of science.

But religion has not left science alone, and has whined and complained and supressed and legislated and bad-mouthed against science so much that science has no choice but to try to set the record straight and to fight back.

It is foolish to demand that science give proof that god does not exist. First, science is not about god and says nothing about god - it is religion that says science is saying there is no god [even though some scientists, as individual persons, say there is none], and Second, nobody can prove the non-existence of a thing, including god: it is a logical impossiblity.

Answer 4

You make a valid point......Going along with your argument.... One could ALSO make the point that even if we could test 100% of the universe... what if god is not testable? What if there was no way to "detect" a god or verify his existence? If a god is all powerful surely he would be able to "hide" from any forms of detection we could possibly create. Unless we somehow create a magical "god-detector." Kind of like a metal detector but much larger.

That would mean that you would still only have faith & ancient story books to go by to believe in the existence of a god. When it boils down to it all this comes down to is faith & belief . Do you have faith/belief that a god exists or do you have faith/belief that a god does not exist? Whichever you believe is important ... that is what is important to you.

Edit: I like lilith's answer too!

Answer 5

First of all, please define what you mean by "God" - is it an old man with a long white beard on a golden throne in the sky? I can deny the existence of God all day long, but as I believe that "God" is the natural universe (my own definition) then that would be pretty silly. Also, it is not possible to know everything. If you knew everything, then you would BE God and you probably wouldn't be wasting your time on Yahoo! Answers.

Answer 6

If the god has characteristics, you can prove the non existance of that god by proving they are logically impossible.

Of course, there could be a god which started the universe and left it, thus leaving no evidence of his existance. You can't prove the non-existance of this god, but Occam's Razor says you can treat life as if it doesn't exist anyway.

Answer 7

No, you don't need to know everything. In such a case, the use of the contrapositive is valid.

It is via the same method that it is proven that the square root of two is irrational. You prove that there are no two integers such that their division is equal to the square root of two.

Every concept of a theistic deity has as a necessary consequence the existence of free will. Free will is a literal impossibility in the universe in which we find ourselves. As such, no theistic version of a deity is possible.

Deism is still an option, but short of calling the initial formative actor 'god' instead of 'nature', Deism simplifies to atheism, as Deism holds that the deity is not involved, has never revealed itself and never will, and that there is no afterlife.

Answer 8

Not anymore than one has to know everything in the whole universe before they can deny the existence of the Easter Bunny.

But no one goes around all day worrying about the Easter Bunny, because we know he is a made-up fairytale...just like God.

Answer 9

Drink up!
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No, this rather tired old argument is simply false. You don't have to search the entire universe to say "There are no pink unicorns", do you? If you think that you do, then I think you're WAY too absolutist. I'm perfectly willing to say "On the basis of current evidence, I know there are no pink unicorns". If we should discover pink unicorns...or gods...in the future, I'll change my mind.

In addition, isn't God supposed to be omnipresent? It certainly looks as though you're saying "God may be hiding out in some remote corner of the universe somewhere". I don't think most believers are going to be happy with that, do you?

Answer 10

You can deny anything you like. You won't be sure until you return to dust, and if your consciousness never returns, you WERE right!
In which case, the meaning of life is nothing and intelligence is an illusion in a biological impossibility. A self-contradiction.