You can't see the air, but you know it exists...?

Question

Some guy tried to give me this analogy to prove the existence of God. He claimed that you can't see air but you know it is there, just like God. Maybe I can't see air, but one can certainly prove that it exists. I mean come on, they can actually synthesize the stuff in lab. We may not be able to detect air with our eyes, but we have instruments that can detect air. You can't synthesize God in a lab and no instrument in existence can be used to detect him. Sorry, another argument that fails to convince me.

Answer 1

Don't arguments like that make you cringe when you realize he can probably drive, vote and reproduce? (CRINGE)

Answer 2

It would've been a great analogy, say, 500 years ago. Maybe they need to look at a calendar and see what year it is. Maybe they were home-schooled. That happens a lot with religious families. Did they tell you the earth was flat by chance? Hmmmm. There are better analogies than that I'm sure.

Edit: Diane, I'm not an atheist, but I love your point:)

Edit: If you read the bible you will notice that many of the faithful ones had specific reasons why they believed in God. If someone here told you that they believed in God because they went for a walk with him the other day, you'd think they were crazy. That's what Abraham did. Why you believe in God (or don't) is your reasoning and doesn't necessarily mean it's reasonable. We shouldn't expect people to believe in what we believe in just because we believe it.

Answer 3

The leader of the religious school I attended as a child pulled the same thing. He made a special visit to our classroom and made us drink water that had dissolved sugar in it. He said "we can't see the sugar but we can taste the sweetness of life God creates." I was six years old and it was the first time I remember thinking that things weren't adding up. I'll never forget it.

Answer 4

You're essentially correct. If you can't see something, you have to rely on some other way to experimentally verify it's existence, or else the only logical conclusion is that it doesn't exist. You could use a powerful microscope, or an even more ingenius apparatus. If all your attemts to "observe" something come up short, however, you have to let your belief go. That's just reasonable thinking.

Answer 5

I'm still stunned when I see these lame arguments. The other one in the same vein is "you can't see the wind but you know it exists." Some people really do think these are good arguments/analogies. =)

Answer 6

Nothing will ever convince you, so why do you keep asking stupid questions? when you know that you will never accept any answer or proof that you are given. You just like to come on here and harass Christan's, nothing else.

Answer 7

Exactly. My belief is that God exists, though.
Even though I'm a logicist, I believe that God exists by looking at the cosmos, and wondering how did they happen. However, my belief is that God exists in another universe, in a lab, who created our universe, on purpose, or not.

Answer 8

Maybe God decided not to be proven according to science or knowledge and chose only to be proven by an individual's belief.

Answer 9

I can see other gases dissolve into the air,

I know oxygen and nitro/ ammonia and carbon dioxide are also gasses

don't have to see them

Answer 10

Just as every house has a builder, how much more a complex universe like ours would we logically say there's no creator?
Also, when you logically reason out to someone and they admire your thoughts, you tell them "my brain is working" -would your hearer say, you have no brain just because they don't see it??