Permalink Reply by T.A.D. Tijerina on July 29, 2012 at 11:08am *question mark ellipses*
Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on July 29, 2012 at 12:54pm I agree completely, but you asked, "If such things were true, and if god is non-physical how would we detect such a thing? How would you design an experiment for it?"
I gave you the only one I could think of, an adaptation of Occam's Razor. Even then, I advocated a "Possible" file, rather than a "Probable" file, on the assumption that over time, these too would evaporate when coming into contact with inevitable actual scientific knowledge.
Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on July 29, 2012 at 2:58pm I would say a hundred Hail Mary's and pray the rosary for days on end, but I assume I would still go to hell.
Permalink Reply by Dr. Allan H. Clark on July 29, 2012 at 5:58pm He will certainly have a lot to answer for. As Nietzsche said: The only excuse for God is that he doesn't exist.
Permalink Reply by Chris Thompson on August 1, 2012 at 11:36am Hey let's all go and worship!
Permalink Reply by Jonathan Chang on August 2, 2012 at 1:13pm That's a funny thing. I am atheist, was born atheist (like all of us), but if "God" was to show up, and somehow, prove that he was God, and has the abilities of God, and that when we die, we will go to heaven, then I'd start believing God in a hot minute. There's probably some mechanism behind gravity that we don't yet understand, but so far as we could show that it exists, and fits within our framework of knowledge, then I'll believe that too.
That's the thing with this topic: it's like a trick question. "If" -- meaning "suppose it's true" -- so suppose it's true that science proves God's existence, then what? Well, then, atheism would be quite illogical, wouldn't it?
Perhaps someone could make a legitimate point for believing in God's existence, but not following God's rules, something that involves free will.
Permalink Reply by Jonathan Chang on August 3, 2012 at 5:59pm The thread topic presupposes the existence of God. The word "if" is grammatically the conditional operator. In a logical statement, anything that follows this word is assumed to be true. People who absolutely refuse to entertain hypothetical questions -- why they even respond to this thread is beyond me. I'm sorry for being rude, but it's like if someone asked a silly question, such as: "Where would you escape to if you were wanted for murder?" And you answered, "I'm not wanted for murder, therefore your question is just falsely conceptualized in your brain." (facepalm)
God may always be a human concept in the real world, but "what happens if science proves God's existence?" It's rational to disbelieve God, sure. But ifscience proved God's existence, then it would be irrational to disbelieve God. I wonder how those who absolutely refuse to consider hypothetical questions feel about scientists formulating hypotheses in order to advance science. I can just imagine someone going, "That's absurd, there's no proof that your hypothesis is true. Case closed."
Permalink Reply by Alan Perlman on August 2, 2012 at 1:45pm Believers go further, with various wacky add-ons like "God knows what you're thinking," "God hears your prayers," and "We can't understand God's plan." This means that a hypothetical god would have to be omni-telepathic and able to process trillions of prayers a minute (including those from intelligent beings on other planets than ours). Busy as a Chinese waiter, as Mel Brooks once said. It would take at least that to impress me. Or how about simultaneous communications on every channel and cell phone?
There's an early Star Trek episode where they encounter the aliens who were taken to be gods in ancient Greece. Roddenbery was a staunch atheist.
Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on August 5, 2012 at 2:59am "We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing, all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes."
-- Gene Roddenberry --
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