For something to be evidence, it has to exist**. Now everything which exists exists for a reason*, either through an external cause or of the necessity of its own existence, etc. (-->Leibnitizian CA). So, unless it is possible for nothing at all to exist, then there can't be evidence for God not existing. So, I think, unless you can show that it was possible for there to not be anything existing, then I think it means that there can't be evidence for God not existing.
Even f there were a possibility that nothing at all would exist, something does exist and we are entitled to ask why something rather than nothing actually exists. Either way atheism is stuffed.
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You could fill in the blank with anything....
"So, unless it is possible for nothing at all to exist, then there can't be evidence for _________ not existing."
"Even f there were a possibility that nothing at all would exist, something does exist"
...what? Are you saying that even if nothing existed, something would still exist anyway? How the fuck does that make sense?!
The first paragraph assumes that if anything exists, God exists. That's a big assumption to make. The second paragraph seems to have trouble with the concept that if nothing existed, nothing would exist. Either way, Black Dwarf has stuffed himself.
@Grimsoncrow:
I’m not a physicist, but as far as I know, even in a “total” vacuum, due to quantum fluctuations, random particles and the according anti-particles are constantly appearing from “nowhere” and are instantly cancelling each other out, i.e. disappearing again. So there really is no such thing as a total vacuum.
It is one hypothesis for the starting of the big bang that there was one particle which was not cancelled out by his counterpart and this imbalance started a chain reaction which caused the expansion of the singularity.
But as I said, I am not physicist. So if I am wrong, everybody please feel free to correct (and educate) me.
"there can't be evidence for God not existing."
This is very true. There is not now, never has been, and never will be evidence that god does not exist.
What we have, however is a lack of evidence that god does exist. Beyond that, we have an overwhelming lack of evidence where we should expect to find evidence .
If I were to tell you that I own a dog, and you decide to investigate, you would expect to find some evidence of a dog. If you ask my neighbors, and none of them has ever seen or heard a dog at my house, that's not evidence that I have no dog. If you examine my house and find no dog food, no food bowl, and no water bowl, that's not evidence that I have no dog. If you were to take a microscope and examine every particle of dust, and find no dog hair in my house, it's still not evidence that I have no dog.
However, if you take the complete lack of evidence that I have a dog and compare that to what you know of dogs and dog owners, you might start to come up with a different picture.
For something to be evidence, it has to exist**. Now everything which exists exists for a reason*, either through an external cause or of the necessity of its own existence, etc. (-->Leibnitizian CA). So, unless it is possible for nothing at all to exist, then there can't be evidence for God not existing. So, I think, unless you can show that it was possible for there to not be anything existing, then I think it means that there can't be evidence for evolution not existing.
Either way christianity is stuffed.
Why God? What about Apollo, Amun Ra, Allah, Pangu, Zoroaster, etc.? Why does it always go from "something had to exist to create everything" straight into "therefore the Jewish god exists who flooded the world and impregnated a virgin with himself, became a carpenter, died, and came back before the vultures got to him"? As if Christianity is the only religion in the world.
It's very telling how fundies not only concludes that, by default, a god exists, but that it's THEIR god.
Could you make that just a leeetle bit more confusing, please?
You do know that atheists don't believe in ANY gods, right? We don't believe in Brahman, Shiva, Allah, YHWH, God, Odin, Zeus, etc. Do you mean that they all DO exist, as we don't believe in them?
As I read this, all I heard was that noise from charlie brown that gets made whenever an adult speaks.
"wonk wonk wonk wonk wonk wonk "
Seriously, what was his point? Something about stuffing?
"So, unless it is possible for nothing at all to exist, then there can't be evidence for [the invisible dragon that lives in my garage] not existing."
So, I've got an invisible drago in my garage--right?
Either way atheism is stuffed.
OK, you've convinced me: something supernatural must have happened 14 billion years ago. Happy?
Now explain how that proves God exists.
then there can't be evidence for God not existing.
Yeah yeah. In the place of "God" insert name of favorite deity, mythical being... etc.
This argument is getting old, Fundies.
That old canard again? Sure, absence of evidence is not, technically, positive evidence of absence, but guess what? It is still absence of evidence, so Occam's razor says that until such evidence surfaces (don't hold your breath... Or do :P) the wisest course of action is to assume that your unproven entity most probably doesn't exist. And that's not even getting into the internal incoherencies of your mythology or the ways it contradicts observable, testable reality...
You also seem to be assuming that there has to be a sentient/metaphysical cause or purpose behind existence, which is a very much gratuitous and unsupported assumption. Even if it was true, though, it wouldn't mean that said cause is a god, nevermind your specific interpretation of the Abrahamic god.
[i}There is no evidence that a planet of Little Ponies does not exist.
And Princess Molestia is more than ready to educate the neighsayers about her existence by way of horn-raep :P
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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