Disproving God

[adherent]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, there are only 2 possibilities about a God:
1) There is a God
2) There isn't a God
Could anybody out there prove that there isn't a God. And, by the way, please don't answer this post with another question, like: "Well... can you prove to me there IS a God?"

[otseng]

For those who do want to read about arguments for God's existence, the thread is at Does God exist or not?. Though I was hoping to eventually get into talking about why God does not exist over there, that thread is already getting quite long. So, I don't mind this being started in a new thread.

[Corvus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, there are only 2 possibilities about a God:
1) There is a God
2) There isn't a God
Could anybody out there prove that there isn't a God. And, by the way, please don't answer this post with another question, like: "Well... can you prove to me there IS a God?"

The question is an impossible one. One can never prove the absence of anything - especially when the particular thing does not exist in the material world, but inhabits a supernatural plane.

Where are you going to get the proof for the absence of God if God doesn't exist? How can evidence of the non-existence of something ever exist? As an example, I could just as easily ask you to disprove me when I say my fondest memories of my childhood were spent with a boy called Nebuchadnezzar, (a lie) and the only resources you can use are in America.

However, questions have been made dealing with certain illogical fallacies about the nature of God. The, "can God create a rock so big he can't lift it" thread deals with the faulty concept of omnipotence, and my Universal Good and Evil topic is supposed seeks to qustion whether good and evil are subject concepts that only apply to human affairs, if only some more people will get into the topic.

[otseng]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, there are only 2 possibilities about a God:
1) There is a God
2) There isn't a God
Could anybody out there prove that there isn't a God. And, by the way, please don't answer this post with another question, like: "Well... can you prove to me there IS a God?"

The question is an impossible one. One can never prove the absence of anything - especially when the particular thing does not exist in the material world, but inhabits a supernatural plane.

If the existence of God cannot be disproved, then wouldn't be it true that being an atheist is illogical? At best, they can only logically be an agnostic.

[perspective]

If the existence of God cannot be disproved, then wouldn't be it true that being an atheist is illogical? At best, they can only logically be an agnostic.

Yes, this is true. Being an atheist is just as illogical as being a believer. I don't believe in supernatural beings, but my faith lies in humanity and science - part of my being an atheist is believing in the unprovable notion that human kind will one day be smart enough to understand just exactly how we came to be. My faith relies on aspects I can't prove. So, rather than agnostic - I am actually atheist. I don't just believe that there is no evidence to support the existence of a god - I believe that there never will be. Of course I can't prove a universal negative - but I've never been more sure that there will never be proof of something. Believers have been trying to validate themselves to non-believers for centuries - and many a smart believer has tried to come up with some proof. The fact that so many years of toil and trial have gone by without any proof just make me more faithful to the definate non-proof of a supernatural being. But besides all that, yes, atheist is just as unprovable as christian.

[Nyniane]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, there are only 2 possibilities about a God:
1) There is a God
2) There isn't a God

There is a 3rd possibility, I think. It is
3) There is a creative/unifying source/deity that bears little to no resemblance to the God imagined by the men who wrote the Bible.

Once that 3rd option is recognized, it opens all sorts of interesting possibilities. The most ironic of these is that there truly is a God and a Satan, but as "the great deceiver" it is Satan who inspired most of the Biblical writings. The followers of these writings, then, would be the ones sent to Hell. (And no, I do not believe that. But I do feel it is just as likely as the Bible being the literal word of God.)

Nyniane

[otseng]

If the existence of God cannot be disproved, then wouldn't be it true that being an atheist is illogical? At best, they can only logically be an agnostic.

Yes, this is true. Being an atheist is just as illogical as being a believer.

I wouldn't quite put them in the same category. If there were absolutely no arguments to believe in the existence of God, then they would be in the same category. However, as I've pointed out in Goes God exist or not?, there are several arguments that point to God's existence. Whereas, there hasn't been presented any evidence that God does not exist. Therefore, they are not both in the same category.

I would agree that there are no proofs that God exists. Likewise, there are no proofs that God does not exist. But, there are definitely evidence and arguments to support the existence of God.

[perspective]

If the existence of God cannot be disproved, then wouldn't be it true that being an atheist is illogical? At best, they can only logically be an agnostic.

Yes, this is true. Being an atheist is just as illogical as being a believer.

I wouldn't quite put them in the same category. If there were absolutely no arguments to believe in the existence of God, then they would be in the same category. However, as I've pointed out in Goes God exist or not?, there are several arguments that point to God's existence. Whereas, there hasn't been presented any evidence that God does not exist. Therefore, they are not both in the same category.

I would agree that there are no proofs that God exists. Likewise, there are no proofs that God does not exist. But, there are definitely evidence and arguments to support the existence of God.

Do you believe in unicorns?

[otseng]

There is a 3rd possibility, I think. It is
3) There is a creative/unifying source/deity that bears little to no resemblance to the God imagined by the men who wrote the Bible.

That's an interesting possibility. But, for sake of argument of this topic, I think we can assume any god for possibility number one. It could be the god of any religion and not just the God of the Bible.

Now, a thread to debate on exactly the nature of God would be interesting to pursue.

[otseng]

Do you believe in unicorns?

As to unicorns, I'm an agnostic.