Free ideas
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 11, 2013
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Many believers will say, "It is impossible for
you to prove that God (Allah, Ra, Vishnu,
whatever) does not exist. There is no way to
prove that something does not exist." This is
a silly argument for the following reason.
Imagine that we have a conversation one day
and I say to you, "I believe in the
gerflagenflopple. You cannot prove that the
gerflagenflopple does not exist, therefore it
exists." You can see that this is ridiculous.
Just because I have invented something out of
thin air does not mean that its non-existence
is suddenly unprovable. There has to be some
evidence that the gerflagenflopple exists in
order to assert its existence. Since there is
not, it is quite easy to say that the
gerflagenflopple is imaginary.
Now let's imagine that we have a
conversation one day and I say to you, "I
believe in Leprechauns. You cannot prove that
Leprechauns do not exist, therefore they
exist." You actually have heard of
Leprechauns. There are lots of books, movies
and fairy tales dealing with Leprechauns.
People talk about Leprechauns all the time.
Leprechauns even have a popular brand of
breakfast cereal. But that does not mean that
Leprechauns exist. There is no physical
evidence for the existence of Leprechauns. Not
a single bit. Therefore, it is obvious to any
normal person that Leprechauns are
imaginary.
If you think about it, you will realize that there
is no difference between God and Leprechauns.
Lots of people talk about God as though he
exists, but there is no actual evidence for
God's existence. For example:
God has never left any physical evidence of
his existence on earth.
All historical gods were imaginary and we
know it. (see this page )
None of Jesus' "miracles" left any physical
evidence either. (see this page )
God has never spoken to modern man, for
example by taking over all the television
stations and broadcasting a rational
message to everyone.
The resurrected Jesus has never appeared
to anyone. (see this page )
The Bible we have is provably incorrect and
is obviously the work of primitive men
rather than God. (see this page )
When we analyze prayer with statistics, we
find no evidence that God is "answering
prayers." (see this page )
Huge, amazing atrocities like the Holocaust
and AIDS occur without any response from
God.
And so on
There is absolutely no evidence indicating that
God exists. There is a tremendous amount of
empirical evidence that God does not exist.
Therefore we can conclusively say that God is
imaginary. That is the only thing that a
rational person can say.
Another angle
Here is a second way to look at the same
question.
With every other object and phenomenon in
our experience, we use the scientific method to
determine whether it exists or not. For
example, X rays are invisible, but we know
that they exist. We can devise scientific
experiments to prove that they exist. Then,
once proven to exist, X-rays can be used
predictably in all sorts of beneficial ways.
If you would like to hypothesize that God
exists, then you should say to yourself, "Let's
devise a repeatable scientific experiment to
provide evidence that God exists." Every
experiment we devise demonstrates, yet again,
that God is imaginary.
Isn't it odd that God, unlike everything else in
our universe, has been put into a special
category? When we talk about God, we are
supposed to do so "philosophically." Why?
Why not treat God just like all other objects
and devise experiments to detect his presence
or absence?
The classic religious response is, "God must
remain hidden . If he proved his existence, that
would take away faith." This is clever -- here
we have an object named God that proves its
existence by completely hiding its existence.
Of course, in the real world, any object that
provides no evidence for its existence is
classified as imaginary.
Even more interesting, this object called God,
which is supposedly hiding its existence
completely, is in the meantime supposedly
writing books, answering prayers and
incarnating itself. How can that be? This
obvious contradiction shows how imaginary
God is. When we look at prayer scientifically,
we find that "answered prayers" are actually
nothing but coincidences . When we look at the
Bible scientifically, ethically or rationally, we
find that the Bible is wrong . When we look at
all of Jesus' miracles scientifically, we find
that none of them left behind any scientific or
historical evidence. Nor, for that matter, did
Jesus, nor did Jesus' resurrection . Strangely,
not a single historical source independent of
the Bible ever mentions the resurrection.
The reason why we can find no empirical
evidence for God's existence is not because
"God is a magical being completely able to
hide from us." It is because God is imaginary.
you to prove that God (Allah, Ra, Vishnu,
whatever) does not exist. There is no way to
prove that something does not exist." This is
a silly argument for the following reason.
Imagine that we have a conversation one day
and I say to you, "I believe in the
gerflagenflopple. You cannot prove that the
gerflagenflopple does not exist, therefore it
exists." You can see that this is ridiculous.
Just because I have invented something out of
thin air does not mean that its non-existence
is suddenly unprovable. There has to be some
evidence that the gerflagenflopple exists in
order to assert its existence. Since there is
not, it is quite easy to say that the
gerflagenflopple is imaginary.
Now let's imagine that we have a
conversation one day and I say to you, "I
believe in Leprechauns. You cannot prove that
Leprechauns do not exist, therefore they
exist." You actually have heard of
Leprechauns. There are lots of books, movies
and fairy tales dealing with Leprechauns.
People talk about Leprechauns all the time.
Leprechauns even have a popular brand of
breakfast cereal. But that does not mean that
Leprechauns exist. There is no physical
evidence for the existence of Leprechauns. Not
a single bit. Therefore, it is obvious to any
normal person that Leprechauns are
imaginary.
If you think about it, you will realize that there
is no difference between God and Leprechauns.
Lots of people talk about God as though he
exists, but there is no actual evidence for
God's existence. For example:
God has never left any physical evidence of
his existence on earth.
All historical gods were imaginary and we
know it. (see this page )
None of Jesus' "miracles" left any physical
evidence either. (see this page )
God has never spoken to modern man, for
example by taking over all the television
stations and broadcasting a rational
message to everyone.
The resurrected Jesus has never appeared
to anyone. (see this page )
The Bible we have is provably incorrect and
is obviously the work of primitive men
rather than God. (see this page )
When we analyze prayer with statistics, we
find no evidence that God is "answering
prayers." (see this page )
Huge, amazing atrocities like the Holocaust
and AIDS occur without any response from
God.
And so on
There is absolutely no evidence indicating that
God exists. There is a tremendous amount of
empirical evidence that God does not exist.
Therefore we can conclusively say that God is
imaginary. That is the only thing that a
rational person can say.
Another angle
Here is a second way to look at the same
question.
With every other object and phenomenon in
our experience, we use the scientific method to
determine whether it exists or not. For
example, X rays are invisible, but we know
that they exist. We can devise scientific
experiments to prove that they exist. Then,
once proven to exist, X-rays can be used
predictably in all sorts of beneficial ways.
If you would like to hypothesize that God
exists, then you should say to yourself, "Let's
devise a repeatable scientific experiment to
provide evidence that God exists." Every
experiment we devise demonstrates, yet again,
that God is imaginary.
Isn't it odd that God, unlike everything else in
our universe, has been put into a special
category? When we talk about God, we are
supposed to do so "philosophically." Why?
Why not treat God just like all other objects
and devise experiments to detect his presence
or absence?
The classic religious response is, "God must
remain hidden . If he proved his existence, that
would take away faith." This is clever -- here
we have an object named God that proves its
existence by completely hiding its existence.
Of course, in the real world, any object that
provides no evidence for its existence is
classified as imaginary.
Even more interesting, this object called God,
which is supposedly hiding its existence
completely, is in the meantime supposedly
writing books, answering prayers and
incarnating itself. How can that be? This
obvious contradiction shows how imaginary
God is. When we look at prayer scientifically,
we find that "answered prayers" are actually
nothing but coincidences . When we look at the
Bible scientifically, ethically or rationally, we
find that the Bible is wrong . When we look at
all of Jesus' miracles scientifically, we find
that none of them left behind any scientific or
historical evidence. Nor, for that matter, did
Jesus, nor did Jesus' resurrection . Strangely,
not a single historical source independent of
the Bible ever mentions the resurrection.
The reason why we can find no empirical
evidence for God's existence is not because
"God is a magical being completely able to
hide from us." It is because God is imaginary.