Thursday, March 17, 2011

There is Evidence for God

Something many atheists claim is that there is no evidence for god or religion. Not one single bit of evidence at all. But that's not true. It's frequently talked about as if it were an all or nothing kind of thing. As if all the evidence points one way or the other. But, it's possible for there to be evidence for something that's false.

There is evidence for god. It's weak evidence, and clearly overwhelmed by the evidence against, but it's still there. It's not nothing.

The biggest piece of evidence I can think of is that the vast majority of people believe in god. And this is not argumentum ad populum, but rather a probabilistic, Bayesian point of view. Which is more likely? The probability that so many people would believe in god given that god exists, or the probability that so many people would believe in god given that god doesn't exist? I think people are more likely to believe in something true rather than something false, especially if it interacts with them personally. Of course, people are willing to believe all sorts of crazy shit, so it's not much more likely. Which is why it's very weak evidence.

2 comments:

  1. If there is no strong evidence for God - then what created us? If there is an attraction that would lead you to believe in God - what would that be?

    What I mean by this is that if there is God, then would He not want to communicate with His creation?

    Would he not want to attract them by something invisible, lets say a still quiet voice that goes by the name of "The Holy Spirit"?

    To test this hypothesis, please talk to God, quietly inside your heart, your spirit, that part of you that goes beyond logic. I hope you find Him, that is part of life's test, to find him and use His communication to do it in His way.

    There is a longing in man (or woman) that longs for something else - that longing can be fed, but not completely satisfied on this earth, that longing can be directed towards Satan or God.

    I hope you find God - you are a very good thinker, much better than I. But in order to find God, we cannot lean towards our own understanding - but use our understanding, along with our soul's yearnings to seek.

    Would not God also give us His Word? It is the Bible, it is divinely inspired, King James Version, NIV etc. Give it a chance, or another if you have already.

    Best wishes!

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  2. The part of me that goes beyond logic? Why? If God is real, he should be able to convince me of that without needing me to give up logic.

    As for the Bible, well, what about the Koran or the Bhagavad Gita, or any of countless other holy books? They claim to be divinely inspired too. Why should I believe the Bible is, but those others are not? And they can't all be, because they're contradictory.

    As for praying, it didn't work.

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