Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: B-Chan
Yes, you've said that already -- but you failed to support your claims by either logic or evidence.

It is not he who asserts the existence of a giant all-powerful benevolent cloud-walking bearded invisible guy.

It would seem to me that not only is it impossible to prove the negative, but that the burden of proof, falls on the one making the positive assertion.

169 posted on 04/23/2003 5:42:20 AM PDT by OWK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 136 | View Replies ]


To: OWK
First, God is not a "cloud-walking bearded invisible guy." The reality is much more profound than that

Science is the process of making observations of the universe and drawing conclusions based upon those observations to create a coherent model of physical reality. We know from experience (=observation) that everything that exists came to exist -- in other words, every being is necessarily a contingent being, depending upon something outside itself for its existence. This is a universally observed fact: nothing just pops into existence; every Effect is preceded by a Cause. We agree that the Universe of space and time, matter and energy exists.Therefore, the universe is a contingent being -- it came to exist; it did not just pop into existence contrary to all observed fact. Since we observe that everything that exists came to exist through the agency of another entity outside of itself, we can only conclude that the Universe came to exist through an agency outside of itself. But since the universe consists of all the space and time, matter and energy that have ever existed or ever will exist, the Cause of the Universe must necessarily exist outside of space and time and in a form other than matter and energy. In other words, whatever Cause produced the Effect we perceive as the physical Universe must necessarily be eternal, immutable, immaterial, and omnipotent. "This," as St. Thomas Aquinas observed, "All men call God."

Otr, to look at it another way:

1. In every case, we observe that a work of art is created by an artist. No work of art simply pops into existence; every instance of creativity we see is the product of an intelligent creator external to and independent of itself.

2. The physical Universe, with its laws, order, and beauty -- and the human being especially -- is a work of art.

3. Therefore, the universe -- and the human being especially -- is the product of an intelligent Creator external to and independent of itself.

Materialist skeptics who challenge us to "prove" the existence of God are, in effect, asking us to demonstrate the existence of a entity whose reality men throughout all time and place have assumed is self-evident. One might as well challenge someone to prove that "redness" exists, that freedom exists, that oneself exists, that existence itself exists.

It's really quite simple. "Everything that exists was made by something outside itself; reality exists; therefore, reality was made by Something outside itself."
181 posted on 04/23/2003 6:38:48 AM PDT by B-Chan (Anglican Use Bump!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 169 | View Replies ]

To: OWK
...the burden of proof falls on the one making the positive assertion.

Shhhh! We're not supposed to know that.

198 posted on 04/23/2003 7:27:27 AM PDT by Anamensis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 169 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson