God & The Burden of Proof

Nor is there proof that God does not exist despite the millions who have been trying to prove He doesn't.

Why doesn't Buddha, or any of the other "gods" referred to in this forum? Why is the God of christianity always the one who must prove Himself?

Miss Eppie, the Buddha was not, and never has been alleged to have been, a god. We discuss the christian god in these fora because the site is located in the United States, where the overwhelming majority of dangerous religious extremists are christians.

hephzibah wrote:

Nor is there proof that God does not exist despite the millions who have been trying to prove He doesn't.

remember the difficulty in proving a negative versus a positive? Remember the strawberry jam scenario? Prove to me that the dark side of the moon did not turn into strawberry jam for 10 minutes 200 years ago. You can't! Does that mean it's reasonable to believe that's what happened to the moon?

hephzibah wrote:

Why doesn't Buddha, or any of the other "gods" referred to in this forum? Why is the God of christianity always the one who must prove Himself?

I am sure that many people around the world do ask the same about Buddha and other gods. If you would like, I will ask you about Buddha and Shiva, so what about them?

As far as the common position that the burden of proof must always fall on the owner of the assertion, it is nowhere near that simple, nor should it always be the case. Let me give you an example based on the premise that the more extreme the claim, the higher the burden of requisite proof. In other words, the more extraordinary the claim, the more stringent the proof required.

Well, i can only speak for myself. I don't worry about Muslims or Hindus who show up here, because i don't live among Muslims or Hindus. As for Buddhists, they don't believe in gods per se (such beliefs are optional with them), and once again, they don't represent any significant proportion of the population here.

The most important consideration is, however, that there aren't Muslims and Hindus here trying to legislate their personal and indiosyncratic morality into the government of my homeland, but the United States is just lousy with christians making such an attempt.

equal about of opposition

Bartikus wrote:

I carry no burden to prove God to anyone since proving God is an impossible task for any man.

I don't see why that should be, if god is all powerful, it would be easy for him, in fact the bible is full of such examples where he appears. What's the point of the all needless mystery now? Why was it OK for him to appear earlier but not now?

Bartikus wrote:

If a person demands proof....then God would be the only one who could provide it and even then....what level of proof would be required?

Why would god be the only one who can prove proof of god? For example if he appeared before a group of scientists they could take all sorts of measurements and tests and if these measurements and tests were properly presented, I and many others would believe in god without god needing to directly supply proof to me personally.

Bartikus wrote:

I believe one day you will have proof....of course I can't prove that you will accept any form of proof.

What's wrong with right now? Why does it have to be "one day"?

But setanta, if the legislation was run by the christians, there would be an equal about of opposition from those who weren't. Regardless of who runs it both sides are opposed to each other and will have some who will refuse to even consider believing anything other than what they consider to be right.

Gotta run... be back later.

It sure is . . . these days, if some old joker dragged his son up a hill, and put a knife to his throat, holding it there while he had a conversation with a "god" up in the clouds that only he could see or hear, he'd be locked up in the rubber room pronto . . . good thing, too . . .

What kind of tests would scientists conduct that would 'prove' to the world God was real?

Setanta wrote:

It sure is . . . these days, if some old joker dragged his son up a hill, and put a knife to his throat, holding it there while he had a conversation with a "god" up in the clouds that only he could see or hear, he'd be locked up in the rubber room pronto . . . good thing, too . . .

exactly setanta. No one would take anyone's word for these things these days 'knowing' what we 'know' now! lol

only by faith could one believe it.

Scientific tests and experiments....lol....that just cracks me up. Man is convinced he can discover all truth through his devices alone. lol

Bartikus wrote:

What kind of tests would scientists conduct that would 'prove' to the world God was real?

A voice which the entire world heard all at the same time accompanied with various demonstrations of infinite power such as stopping the world from orbiting the sun for awhile with no ill effects would be rather convincing. Bringing a few people back from the dead to talk about the beauty of heaven would be good as well.

Why don't you ask him and see how it goes?

I just asked him to demonstrate his presence and power so that I might understand him to be the one and true god, but nothing happened.

Back to the main point please...

Who is to say what claim is more extraordinary?

What I'm really getting out of this statement chumly (correct me if I'm wrong)is that to you the claims of the christian "God" demand a higher burden of proof because to you the idea itself is extraordinary. However, being one who does not believe in this "God" the argument against it does not require as high a burden of proof, simply because the idea itself is not extraordinary to you.

Bartikus wrote:

Setanta wrote:

It sure is . . . these days, if some old joker dragged his son up a hill, and put a knife to his throat, holding it there while he had a conversation with a "god" up in the clouds that only he could see or hear, he'd be locked up in the rubber room pronto . . . good thing, too . . .

exactly setanta. No one would take anyone's word for these things these days 'knowing' what we 'know' now! lol

only by faith could one believe it.

Scientific tests and experiments....lol....that just cracks me up. Man is convinced he can discover all truth through his devices alone. lol

You loll about far too much . . .


WHOOOOOOSH . . . that's the sound of ideas rushing over your head, at subsonic speeds . . .

I don't see why that should be, if god is all powerful, it would be easy for him, in fact the bible is full of such examples where he appears. What's the point of the all needless mystery now? Why was it OK for him to appear earlier but not now?

In earlier times when God appeared....people were'nt told they were having hallucinations or suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. People are just way too 'smart' these days to just accept anyone's eyewitness testimony. Don't you understand that chumly?

Science and the vast 'knowledge' of man...is'nt it grand?