I find it funny when religious people say "you can't say you know 100% that god isn't real". The fact of the matter is, I can. The definition of "real" according to the American Heritage® Dictionary is..
Real: Being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence.
For something to be "real", its existence would need to be verifiable. People that claim god is real are basically claiming something equal to me saying "pink unicorns are real because I believe in them". Sorry but that is misusing the English language, nothing is real unless it's existence can be verified. That is different then saying I can 100% know something does not exist. You can't know anything 100%, but you can know what qualifies for being real and no god currently qualifies.
You can think something may exist, but to say "I think god is real" is kind of like a person saying "I think chocolate comes from pork" (makes no sense).
"Real: Being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verifiable existence."
ReplyDeleteHow interesting. The American Heritage dictionary movies from ontology to epistemology in one sentence. "Being or occurring in fact or actuality" refers to the being of the thing itself, i.e., whether or not it exists. "having verifiable existence" refers to how we can come to know whether or not something exists. That something is real only if it's verifiable presupposes empiricism as a legitimate or reliable means of knowing something. I had no idea the staff at American Heritage were logical positivists!
For the mystic, who has experienced divinity, God is not only verifiable, but verified.
ReplyDeleteTry this: explain to a 5-year old very precisely what romantic love is. Assuming they have never experienced it, they may retort, "Well, I can't see it, and nothing in my experience supports your claims, so it is unreal and unverifiable."
But of course, it's not unreal or unverifiable -- it's just that certain people haven't experienced romantic love yet. Similarly, certain people haven't experienced God.
"explain to a 5-year old very precisely what romantic love is."
ReplyDeleteExplain? um, okay...love is the biological attraction two organisms have towards each other for the purposes of reproduction. You seem to think there is magic in love; love is a product of evolution. Same for god, we have the tendency to personify everything (god is a personification of the unknown.) We are very social creatures. We also see faces in everything, like clouds; do you really think the face is there? or is your brain just looking for a face? Think about it.
You need to understand what verifiable existence is. Otherwise every god created by humans fall under what you would call real. Same thing goes for all imaginary friends toddlers have as well.
What is the difference between explaining to a child what is romantic love and existence of god?
ReplyDeleteThat one day the child will know the truth about love and will know the lie of a god/imagery friend.
The problem with this "proof" is that supposing God is real:
ReplyDelete- We cannot understand God fully so we can't quantify him.
- God is not subject to any of our laws, rules, ideas, or opinions.
- Therefore, any definition we humans have cannot be applied to God.
- So you cannot say that God doesn't exist because he doesn't fit your definition of real.
- Also, to Christians, the verifiable evidence is Jesus and his resurrection.
It is very hard to apply logic to something not bound by the laws of nature.
You are speaking nonsense... If I go back in time and I say that radio waves exist and can be used for communication. People like you would say that they 100% believe that it doesn't exist because they can't see it,touch it,smell it,hear it,taste it hence there is not facts about it either. But does that mean that radio waves doesn't exist? Don't we use radio waves now in cell phones and other means?
ReplyDeleteYou can't say that you 100% know that god doesn't exist since you don't even know 10% of the universe that you live in. Its like you getting cocky thinking that you know calculus right after just learning that 1+1=2 when you don't even know that there is a 1+i even in maths which is one of the foundation of our knowledge there is an imaginary number and there is a real number.