Irrationality of theism?

wavefreak
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Irrationality of theism?

I guess I have yet to see a convincing argument that theism is intrinsically irrational. I completely agree that in practice, theists are often far from rational, but the logic is flawed in extending that to all theists. I'm sure I could find irrational atheists. That certainly doesn't make all atheists irrational. The best analogy I can come up with involves Euclidian geometry. The entire body of theorems in Euclidian geometry are derived from a select few axioms. One of those axioms is that parallel lines never converge nor diverge. Euclidian geometry is considered 'flat' for this reason. But there is nothing to prevent changing this axiom and doing so results in hyperbolic or sphereical geometries. The key in this is that these core axioms are assumed, not proven. And by changing these assumped axioms the nature of the geometry is changed.

Starting from this analogy it seems reasonable to me that each of us must form some explanation of reality. At the heart of that explanation are core axioms with which we build a framework to explain the world around us. One of these axioms deals with the existance or non-existence of "god". As far as I know, there is no rational proof for or against the existence of "god", so one must choose one or the other and build an explanation of reality based on this assumed "fact".

In this light, thesim and atheism are in equal footing. Neither is rational. They are both core axioms in a framework of ideas that attempts to explain reality.

 

 

So what is wrong with this argument? 


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Hello, welcome

Hello, welcome wavefreak!

Theism is irrational because logic and reason are suspended in order to have "faith". Every other part of your life requires evaluation of evidence, inference from data, and logical reasoning(though it may be flawed). Faith is the one area where all of the faculties used for everyday life are suspended and we are just supposed to "believe".

That is why it is irrational. 


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What's wrong? Quote: One

What's wrong?

Quote:
One of those axioms is that parallel lines never converge nor diverge.

You are entirely free to attempt to create an axiomatic system that describes god. Many have tried and failed.

The thing you're forgetting is that both types of geometry you site are entirely logical in themselves. If we apply this restriction to god we immediately run into problems. But we run into even bigger problems if we deny this restriction.

Making a god out of axioms is apparently a fool's errand. But you're welcomed to try.


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BGH wrote: Hello, welcome

BGH wrote:

Hello, welcome wavefreak!

Theism is irrational because logic and reason are suspended in order to have "faith". That is why it is irrational. 

 Glad to be here.! 

Thiesm does not *require* the suspension of logic and reason. If I build a framework for explaining reality that includes a theistic 'axiom', and I find evidence that contradicts this framework it only means that the framework is flawed, not necessarily the axiom. Irrationality enters the picture when I insist my framework is correct in the face of contradictory evidence. If evidence can be offered proving that god does NOT exist, then the axiom itself must be discarded, but I am not aware of such evidence.


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kmisho wrote: What's

kmisho wrote:

What's wrong?

Quote:
One of those axioms is that parallel lines never converge nor diverge.

You are entirely free to attempt to create an axiomatic system that describes god. Many have tried and failed.

 

You are taking the analogy too far. An axiomatic description of god seems a fool's errrand to me as well. What I am suggesting is that each of us holds at our core a set of beliefs (axioms) that frame our reality. The existance of god is un-provable as is the non-existance of god. Hence any framework of reality that addresses the question of god's existance must accept yea or nay and go from there.

This actually allows for theism, atheism and perhaps an explanation of reality that simply refuses to address the question of god's existence. Not agnosticism, but rather akin to a null value in a data field.

 


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I think that theism can be

I think that theism can be rational to a point...
By rational I mean acting in accordance with reason, given the information you have available to you. Although I think that there are serious problems for theism (see Kmisho's post) they take a strong grasp of complex philosophy to full appreciate. Until a person understands these problems, belief in the supernaturalism isn't necessarily against reason.

After all, many of the finest minds in history believed that there is a God, including Plato, Descartes, Kant. While I think their reasoning was flawed to reach to this conclusion, there's a big difference between subtley flawed reason and a lack of reason altogether.


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It can never be a fully

It can never be a fully rational thing. Every argument in favour of theism is fundamentally flawed. It comes down to epistemology. You can't ever know there is a God, unless a God comes and says "Hi! I'm God." which doesn't happen and in all probability won't happen. You're looking at the world might suggest to you that it was designed. It doesn't look all that designed to me, but to some people prima facie it does. Your reason might bring you to the God conlusion, but it can never be totally in depth reasoning because for that you would need to look long and hard at all the scientific evidence - none of which presents itself to a God conclusion. To be a theist you must work on some kind of assumption to begin with, for the argument from design this means that you must work on the assumption that something that appears designed must have a designer - this is the result of the intentional stance, something wired into our brains to help us identify predators and predict their actions - many creatures have it. But ask yourself, why should it need a designer? Let's say you have a rock face where there was a glacier, the glacier wore the rock face down and made it smooth, perfectly smooth, so smooth in fact that you would think it had to be designed - but no, it was a glacier thousands of years ago. A glacier is just ice, moving very slowly down a mountainside, does ice have consciousness? No, it's just H2O. Two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom.

Give me any theistic argument and I can rip it to shreds.


wavefreak
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Jacob Cordingley wrote: It

Jacob Cordingley wrote:

It can never be a fully rational thing. Every argument in favour of theism is fundamentally flawed. It comes down to epistemology. You can't ever know there is a God, unless a God comes and says "Hi! I'm God." which doesn't happen and in all probability won't happen. You're looking at the world might suggest to you that it was designed. It doesn't look all that designed to me, but to some people prima facie it does. Your reason might bring you to the God conlusion, but it can never be totally in depth reasoning because for that you would need to look long and hard at all the scientific evidence - none of which presents itself to a God conclusion. To be a theist you must work on some kind of assumption to begin with, for the argument from design this means that you must work on the assumption that something that appears designed must have a designer - this is the result of the intentional stance, something wired into our brains to help us identify predators and predict their actions - many creatures have it. But ask yourself, why should it need a designer? Let's say you have a rock face where there was a glacier, the glacier wore the rock face down and made it smooth, perfectly smooth, so smooth in fact that you would think it had to be designed - but no, it was a glacier thousands of years ago. A glacier is just ice, moving very slowly down a mountainside, does ice have consciousness? No, it's just H2O. Two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom.

Give me any theistic argument and I can rip it to shreds.

 

 

God exists.

 

Rip away.

 

I'm being facetious of course.

 

What part of the scientific process precludes the existance of god? I agree that you cannot use science to arrive at the god conclusion. But what in that process proves god does not exist?


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wavefreak wrote: God

wavefreak wrote:

God exists.

Rip away.

I'm being facetious of course.

Good thing.  I was going to have to start posting links and I'm really tired!  Smiling  

wavefreak wrote:
What part of the scientific process precludes the existance of god? I agree that you cannot use science to arrive at the god conclusion. But what in that process proves god does not exist?

Please keep in mind that a negative cannot (usually) be proven.  It is the responsibility of the person who asserts the positive who bears the burden of proof.

Anyway, glad to have you aboard!

 

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As far as I know, there is

As far as I know, there is no rational proof for or against the existence of "god", so one must choose one or the other and build an explanation of reality based on this assumed "fact".

 Well, I'm a theological noncognitivist, and I felt I put up a strong argument for God's non-existence: 

http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/sapient/philosophy_and_psychology_with_chaoslord_and_todangst/6279

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

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There's two main types of

There's two main types of argument against belief in God.
One says even if God isn't disproved, we don't have to absolutely disprove something to validate dis-belief and invalidate belief. God is up there with unicorns and pixies. Arguments of this type try and show that belief in God is absolutely unnecessary, so is quite pointless.

The second goes further and points out that the word 'God' isn't well defined. If I asked you to prove Unicorns exists you could find me a Unicorn and I would recognise it as such. We both know what a unicorn is. If I asked you to prove what a twithy is then the correct reply would be "wtf is a twithy" as we cannot even talk of belief/unbelief, let alone proof, until we know what we are talking about.

There are various arguments that descriptions given of God actually fail to describe anything. (this is the 'non-cognitivism' stance that Deluded was talking about) If the word God is meaningless then we can't even understand what we are talking about, let alone believe in it.

However, these arguments aren't obviously correct, so I don't think it's necessarily irrational for someone to be sceptical of them at first and believe in the meantime.


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deludedgod wrote: As far

deludedgod wrote:

As far as I know, there is no rational proof for or against the existence of "god", so one must choose one or the other and build an explanation of reality based on this assumed "fact".

 Well, I'm a theological noncognitivist, and I felt I put up a strong argument for God's non-existence: 

http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/sapient/philosophy_and_psychology_with_chaoslord_and_todangst/6279

 

That is a very good argument but you overstate your case. At most you can conclude that a god with the four attributes in your premise gives rise to logical contradictions. Logical contradiction does not prove non-existence. If the goal of thesim is to have a logically consistent god then you have shown that, within the constraints of your premise, this is impossible.

 


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So you don't see

So you don't see contradiction as a problem?
The thing is, a contradiction involves a violation of the rules of our language. For a sentence to mean anything, it has to follow the rules of language.

"sldjsdlkg lsdjflsdkgj" is meaningless because the letters don't form words.
"I can carrot" is meaningless because carrot is a noun where an action should go.
"I am both strong and not strong" might not be meaningless if you interpreted it like this:
"I am both strong (compared to an ant) and not strong (compared to a giant)" but in that case it's not a real contradiction.
A real contradiction is "P & ¬P". 'strong compared to an ant' and 'strong compared to a giant' are different things.

So is a real contradiction always a break in the rules of language?
Here's an example why:


"The law of contradiction doesn't apply to me!"

"Really? Are you an idiot?"

"No. I'm not an idiot."

"That doesn't mean you can't still be an idiot though. You're an idiot, aren't you!"

"No, I told you I'm not!

"And I told you that you can still be gay as well!"

"How can I both be an idiot and not an idiot?
It makes the word 'not' worthless as the whole
point of it is to show something isn't the case."

"So the law of contradiction does always apply then, so long as you understand the meanings
of 'not' and 'and' and are applying the words properly. For language to work we need to follow the rules.
If you misuse words so fundamentally it can render your words meaningless.
That's why a square circle isn't merely an object we haven't found yet, the word
'square circle' actually fails to define an object because the words contradict each other.
This means that they cannot refer to anything and are unintelligible."

 

 

If you were to allow contradictions to be true then the word 'not', and language as we know it, would become meaningless. Seeing as language is as it is, if a definition has a contradiction in it then it is meaningless.

We can talk of chairs existing because we know what chairs are.
We can talk of unicorns existing because we know what unicorns are.
Both of these words have coherent, non-contradictory, definitions.
If God isn't defined properly as a word then it doesn't even make sense to talk about a 'God', let alone declare its existence!


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If you are refering to my

If you are refering to my response to deludedgod's proof, then let me clarify. I understood his post to be a proof for the non-existence of god. If that is not what it was, then disregard what follows. His proof was essentially one based on contradiction of one of his premises. I don't see any glaring problems with his proof, unless you consider the fact that his proof does not address existence. THe structure of the proof is

1) A has attribute W

2) A has attribute X

3) A has attribute Y

4) A has attribute Z

He goes on to offer a compelling argument that 1 is contradicted by the other premises. Or in other words, "A has attribute W" is logically false. But the premise talks about an attribute of god. In fact, for this proof to make sense you must assume that god exists, otherwise assigning attributes makes no sense. 

This proof must be modified so that the existence of god is the premise that is contradicted. It must be structured as

1) A exists

2) A has attribute W

3) A has attribute X

4) A has attribute Y

5) A has attribute Z

And statements 2 through 5 true must be shown to contradict 1


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He goes on to offer a

Quote:
He goes on to offer a compelling argument that 1 is contradicted by the other premises. Or in other words, "A has attribute W" is logically false. But the premise talks about an attribute of god. In fact, for this proof to make sense you must assume that god exists, otherwise assigning attributes makes no sense.

Um... I could list you the attributes of Darth Vader and Unicorns...
Before you can evaluate whether something exists, you need a valid definition of what that thing is. Deluded gave attributes that most people believe God has and showed that a definition with said characteristics is invalid.

Perhaps you disagree that 'God' has the attributes that Deluded gave him and would like to present us with a definition of God that doesn't contradict itself and does mean something?
Until we have a valid definition of God, we can't even use the word meaningfully.


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Strafio wrote:

Strafio wrote:
Until we have a valid definition of God, we can't even use the word meaningfully.
If we cannot use the word in a meaningful way then the entire proof is meaningless. Besides, I am not saying the the word god is meaningful. I am only saying that the proof does not acheive the goal stated in his post. Look at the structure of the proof. It does not connect the existence of god to the derived contradiction. He asked for a critique of the proof. It only proves that "God is described as a maximally intelligent entity" is logically contradicted by the other premises. This is the nature of logical proofs. We are not allowed to state anything else. I cannot prove the 2+2 does not equal 5 then go on to say that that implies the limit of 1/x^2 as x approaches infinity is zero.


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I should probably clarify

I should probably clarify what I mean by 'meaningless'
It depends on the context.
To say that God exists requires us to define God in a certain way.
Deluded's point was that the characteristics that people give their definition of God makes this impossible.

The logical deduction would go something like this:
Premise 1) If we are to say that x exists then x must be coherently defined.
Premise 2) God cannot be coherently defined.
Conclusion) It cannot be said that God exists. The proposition 'God exists' must be false.


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Definitions of god lose

Definitions of god lose their coherence because they attempt to define god in absolutes. Take omniscience. What the heck is that? We still don't have a completely agreed upon definition of exactly what knowledge is and some people want to talk about a being that knows everything? I can't wrap my brain around that.

 

So how about just saying god is a sentient being that knows more than everything humanity can or will know? This elimanates all the complications of absolute knowledge and stangely enough puts this being in a position above humanity that for all intents and purposes is divine. This wokrs because it speaks to what is knowable, even if what is knowable is beyond humanity. This also leads to a form of omnipotence as this sentient being would be capable of acts that would be forever beyond our knowledge to duplicate. Omnipresence isn't that hard either. A sentient being that exists in some hyper dimension that completely contains our space-time could be everywhere at once in our space but have specific locality. For all intents and purposes a sentient being that satisfies these properties would be from a human perspective indistinguishable from the infinite god of whom definitions so quickly descend into incoherence. So a coherent defintion of god?

 

1) A sentient being that knows more than humanity can or will ever know

2) and from that pool of extra-human knowledge can perform actions that are permanantly beyond our understanding

3) and is hyper-dimensional in a manner that completely contains the dimensions of our universe.

 

While this definition can certainly use refinement, it is also far more coherent than a being with infinite properties.

 


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I'm gonna jump back in

I'm gonna jump back in here.

As a noncognitivist, I hold that the definition of God is nonsensical. Before asking whether X exists or not, I want to know what X is. The attributes I listed where what classical theists understand God to be. Sentience, is not just an attribute of God, but a defining attribute, in the same way that the defining attribute of a chicken is that it is a chicken. I thought that by taking that to pieces, I could compellingly show that classical theism is impossible.

Do you remember the last sentence of the argument? It was carefully phrased. I didn't ask "What is the probability of God's existence?". I asked:

What is the probability that God is a supernatural entity capable of communicating with humans, the creator of the universe, of maximally intelligent sentience?

Essentially, to me, this is what your statement readsL

Given that a chicken is a chicken, the probability of a chicken is X.

You (in confucious voice) Ah yes. But what if the chicken is not a chicken? Then the probability is Y.

Go through the last part of the argument. I started with a collection of attributes about God. These attributes are all held by classical theists. Some of these attributes presuppose each other. For instance, maximal intelligence, communication, omnipotence etc are all presupposing Sentience, while concepts like creator of all, eternal, supernatural etc are all presupposing etherealism. I first showed that these two concepts were mutually exclusive. God could not be both. But IF God was not both, then God was not God. Which is what I showed next. Afterwards, shooting down extra concepts like divine revelation were just bonus points.

 

I then took attributes away one by one. The remaining attributes were still impossibly contradictory with each other. I then pointed out that the Sentience parameter is in and of itself the "God parameter" since if God is not sentient, then God is not God. We define God by sentience. Think about the attributes which are definitionally given to God. Omnipotence, maximal intelligence, benevolence...I tried to show that these were contradictory with another belief about God which is that God is the creator, and therefore precedes his creation (physical reality). I also tried to show that these attributes were all impossible per se under quantum physics. I felt I suceeded.

Remember, these are the attributes which define God. If not these...then what?

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

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deludedgod wrote: I'm

deludedgod wrote:

I'm gonna jump back in here.

As a noncognitivist, I hold that the definition of God is nonsensical.

 

OK. Now I'm confused.. If as a non-cognitivist you hold that the definition of god is nonsensical then why bother to offer a proof that god doesn't exist? What is gained in proving things about something nonsensical?

Before you jump all over me,this is a sincere question, not an attempt to trap you in some weird snare.


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It was a matter of proving

It was a matter of proving that the definition of God is nonsensical. If Deluded's proof holds then all concepts of 'God' with those characteristics are incoherent and all worldviews that contain them are false. So it gives that nailing argument against theism that you were looking for in your original post.

Ofcourse, there's always the possibility of new definitions of God but until a fully coherent God concept is given, all theology concerning God is false.


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Strafio wrote: It was a

Strafio wrote:
It was a matter of proving that the definition of God is nonsensical. If Deluded's proof holds then all concepts of 'God' with those characteristics are incoherent and all worldviews that contain them are false. So it gives that nailing argument against theism that you were looking for in your original post.

Ofcourse, there's always the possibility of new definitions of God but until a fully coherent God concept is given, all theology concerning God is false.

 

If all that is real can be defined by logic, then the god of classical theism cannot exist because the attributes assigned to the god of classical theism give rise to logical contradictions. Got it. Or is there something wrong in the way I said this?

 

So then help me with this:

God is: 

1) A sentient being that knows more than humanity can or will ever know

This seems fine to me as such a situation already exists. Presumably humans know more than marmosets. And that we know things that marmosets will never know. It is entriely plausible to me that something exists "out there" that knows more than any and all of us. We bevome the marmoset.

2) and from that pool of extra-human knowledge can perform actions that are permanantly beyond our understanding.

This would allow for actions that appear divine. If I kill a marmoset with a shotgun as it lays dying it is presumably unable to understand what caused its predicamate even though the experience is real. 

3) and is hyper-dimensional in a manner that completely contains the dimensions of our universe.

This may not work. It's been awhile since I discussed higher order dimensions with  but if I remember correctly, it allows for some strange things. 

 


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wavefreak wrote: If all

wavefreak wrote:
If all that is real can be defined by logic, then the god of classical theism cannot exist because the attributes assigned to the god of classical theism give rise to logical contradictions. Got it. Or is there something wrong in the way I said this?

Close enough. If you are to say something exists then you need to understand what you are talking about - the words need to have correct definition. If something has a contradiction in it's definition then it fails this.

 

I noticed you gave a definition but analysing it will be difficult and I'm supposed to be revising. Could you leave it for a couple of days? I promise I'll get back to you! Smile


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Strafio wrote: wavefreak

Strafio wrote:
wavefreak wrote:
If all that is real can be defined by logic, then the god of classical theism cannot exist because the attributes assigned to the god of classical theism give rise to logical contradictions. Got it. Or is there something wrong in the way I said this?

Close enough. If you are to say something exists then you need to understand what you are talking about - the words need to have correct definition. If something has a contradiction in it's definition then it fails this.

 

I noticed you gave a definition but analysing it will be difficult and I'm supposed to be revising. Could you leave it for a couple of days? I promise I'll get back to you! Smile

 

I'll look forward to your response. 


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How do you live without

How do you live without faith? Just to function everyday you have to have faith. I have faith that my car is going to start in the morning, I have faith that gravity wont suddenly fail us. A more appropriate criticism would the 'blind faith' often involved in theistic beliefs. If you are familiar with David Hume, you will know that he suggested that we cant say 'x' caused 'y'. He believes we can't necesarily prove the connection. We can assume there is a correlation and nothing more. Should we always live in fear the assumption that 'x' causes 'y' may fail us since we can't prove it? No, one must have faith in the correlation, common faith yet faith nonetheless. It's economically irrationally for the average middle-class man to buy a new vehicle yet countless people do it (Of course no one here would) . Logos involves perception and perception is apt to fail us. In the end everything is relative thus the idea of "reason" and  and rational are subjective. I apologize that my comment bounces around, but my main point is it hard to objectively criticize an individual for being irrational.


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Come on, there's a clear

Come on, there's a clear difference between believing in something that has a slight chance of being false and believing in something that has almost no chance of being true!

Click here to learn more about faith.


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Thats why I clarified and

Thats why I clarified and presented a far more appropriate term 'blind faith'. The term faith is much too ambigious. Science is consistly changing and is often theoretical (basis for most experimentation) taught as fact and often has a chance of later being proved false (or as they prefer 'clarified' 'revised&#39Eye-wink "Intellects" rely on the often changing scientific 'truth'. Criticize theists all for being ignorant but how are theists any different from the rest of the common man? How many times do people listen to others because they have authority of some sort. (politicians, PH'ds, etc) How many times do people believe a scientific fact yet do not attempt to perform the same "reproducable" experiment. Kind of interesting because often you have to have some special certifications to perform there experiments. It seems as though authority is required, a secret society of people who hold the "truth". Sounds alot like alot of religions. You have the special people who tell everyone how it is and everyone follows. Almost everything has as much a chance of being false as true, becuase in the end, its all relative.

 

I think the problems is that everyone criticizes everyones ideas and beliefs and presents theirs as superior (yes like i'm doing, how ironic) but its hard to argue with the relativity of it all. As if life didnt have enough drama "Save the drama for yo mama"


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OK. Now I'm confused.. If

OK. Now I'm confused.. If as a non-cognitivist you hold that the definition of god is nonsensical then why bother to offer a proof that god doesn't exist? What is gained in proving things about something nonsensical?

That was explained further down the post. I suppose it is because I have been repeatedly asked why I dont believe in God. Thats why I wrote it.

Before you jump all over me,this is a sincere question, not an attempt to trap you in some weird snare.

It's kind of an odd hangup over words. 

"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.

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dandres87 wrote: It seems

dandres87 wrote:

It seems as though authority is required, a secret society of people who hold the "truth". Sounds alot like alot of religions. You have the special people who tell everyone how it is and everyone follows. Almost everything has as much a chance of being false as true, becuase in the end, its all relative.

No, we have the not-so-special way of thinking (reason) that leads us toward the truth.

As for scientific errors, most often when they are made it involves areas that are on the very cusp of scientific breakthrough: new hypotheses and ideas about theories.  Established scientific facts are those that have generally stood the test of time and been reproduced over and over again.  

Still, it's nice to know that there is a system in place where a student can question the results of a practicing scientist and if the student can prove the scientist false, he or she will be recognized as correct.  That's the way science is supposed to work.  Granted, because of human foibles there are times when it doesn't work as well as we'd like, but it certain works better than relying on an ancient text that has been proven to be contradictory and inaccurate. 

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