I've seen it many times. someone agnostic will say there is "no way" to prove or disprove god's existence. The question I have is how do you know there is no way to prove or disprove a gods existence?
2007-11-09 14:00:03 · 14 answers · asked by Magus 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Some of you are getting it.
2007-11-09 14:06:41 · update #1
I have not yet seen, nor do I know of any one else who has seen, a proof of either, therefore I consider the question of no consequence.
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2007-11-09 14:05:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
It is a given that you cant prove that *anything* doesn't exist - if you don't get this concept you really need to review basic logic (try disproving Santa with an ironclad argument.). On the "prove side" there is no proof or even indication that there is a god or gods, so they are still right in some ways there.
Edit:
Basically we look at what various gods have been said to do, and then look for evidence of that. Clearly the Abrahamic god as portrayed by Judaism, Christianity and Islam is sadly lacking in any evidence for any claimed physical events. To me as an atheist this is a strong indication that there is no god (other gods don't seem to have nearly as strong a claim), but to the agnostic this just means that we have not yet encountered anything conclusive.
2007-11-09 22:06:50 · answer #2 · answered by Pirate AM™ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no conceivable way to disprove God's existence, because an all-powerful being could always conceal Himself from us, and answer prayers behind our backs, and not directly intervene in the physical world.
As far as proving God's existence, that basically boils down to finding something that cannot be explained in terms of natural laws. The problem is that natural laws are things that we formulate in order to explain our observations. So if we make consistent observations that don't correlate with natural law, then we change natural law. Physical "laws" are just models we create for ourselves to predict the world. They're always conformable to future development.
Nothing short of a single, astronomically unlikely, event, that everyone witnessed, and that clearly implicated a higher power, would convince me of a definite existence of a God. So that's why there's no way to prove or disprove the existence of God (at least not to me.). If you think that you have "proof" of God, and that works for you, fine. But I demand real proof, or at least strong scientific evidence, before I accept anything.
2007-11-09 22:14:35 · answer #3 · answered by anotherguy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
>> how do you know there is no way to prove or disprove a gods existence?
It's basic logic, either to prove the existence of a Higher Being or drunk serial-killing Easter bunnies...
You cannot prove that something that does not exists, does not exists. Double negative.
If you cannot bring something under a microscope or telescope and show it to the world whenever asked to do so, then you will never be able to prove (or disprove) its existence.
One of the basis of scientific knowledge was brought by Socrates:
"He who pretends that something exists must, first, bring proof of its existence."
If you can't do that, it's not even worth researching.
2007-11-09 22:18:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, for all those who have tried to prove or disprove a god, they haven't succeeded a hell of a lot in over 2000 years, have they?
2007-11-09 22:08:17 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It took a while to formulate this, but it's a complex concept involving the inability to fix the probability of God's existence implies a lack of knowledge. We don't know the probability of fixing the probability indicating further lack of knowledge. The cycle goes on.
There are other tests of completeness of knowledge.
2007-11-09 22:07:00 · answer #6 · answered by novangelis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The real question is "if we don't know either way, is the most rational answer agnosticism?" The answer is no.
And to answer your specific question, no, there is no way to know for certain whether or not you know something for certain.
The recursive error series is (as far as can be determined) infinite.
2007-11-09 22:05:03 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There's also no way to know if there is a way to prove a deity's existance either...
2007-11-09 22:06:08 · answer #8 · answered by mathaowny 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think that we would all welcome your knowledge on YOUR proofs.
Further - agnostic - gnostic? No relationship to each other.
We await your wisdom on the subject.
2007-11-09 22:06:23 · answer #9 · answered by Tricia R 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We can't even define God, how can we prove it?
2007-11-09 22:05:01 · answer #10 · answered by Daisy Indigo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋