@dhwyll

16 hours ago

It is possible to prove a negative. One way is proof by contradiction. If we have a well-defined object that behaves in a well-defined way, then it is possible to say that because something that should have left a trace didn't actually leave it, then it wasn't involved.

It's called the contrapositive: If P, then Q. ~Q, therefore ~P.

Part of the problem is that "god" is not well-defined. For example, one type of god is associated with there being a global flood that killed all animals save for 2 or 7 of each "kind" (which isn't defined) and 8 humans sometime around 2350 BCE.

But there is no evidence of such an event. It is actually topologically impossible to have happened. Thus, because that global flood event did not happen, because there is no trace of evidence of such an event, then the claim of that god existing is shown to be false.

And usually what we see happening at that time from those who insist upon the god claim is to redefine god, often to the point that the definition doesn't actually mean anything. And at that point, the claim doesn't exist due to the existential lack of definition. Things without definition don't exist. Not on an epistemological basis where we just don't know but on an existential level where there cannot be any definition.

Since the caller can't even define what he means when he says the word god, by what possible justification can it be said to exist?

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