Does God exist?

[Immortal Wombat]

How these threads ever go beyond "We cannot either prove or disprove the existence of God, nor will we ever be able to", I have no idea.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Then I suppose given the chemical composition of the early earth, we should be able to replicate protein chains.

Sadly every attempt to do so has failed.

Actually, that's where you're wrong. Actually, technically you aren't incorrect (we have not assembled through pure chance any modern polypeptide chains), but we have developed self-replicating ribozymes (enzymes made out of ribonucleic acid). Moreover, our experiments have always indicated the possibility of such proteins arising, just that we have not conducted our experiments on a scale comparable to the one in which they originally arose.

[Mercator]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Whilst I totally agree with the last paragragh, surely the second paragraph contradicts the first?

No. Can you scientifically prove or disprove that I have an invisible friend called Adsfsadf? The closest you might get is with psychology, proving that I'm a loony. But that still is no hard proof that my invisible friend doesn't actually exist.

You can't prove or disprove the existence of a pink unicorn either. It doesn't likely exist on Earth, but good luck searching the bajillion other square miles of the Universe. Theoretically it could be (dis)proven if we'd have universal knowledge, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

(edit: added quote to avoid any confusion)

[Kuciwalker]

Mercator, you forget Occam's Razor.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Some say they are glimpses of God throughout history, and that by definition, ours should be better because we have the greater weight of experience, and have progressive revelation.

Yes that I find especially interesting. At the moment I'm reading a bit of Dante and he blends the ancient greek-roman mythology with the christian tradition very nicely.
It's still not very convincing though.

[Ted Striker]

Invisible friends

[Kuciwalker]

Invisible female friends

Visible female "friends"

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Mercator, you forget Occam's Razor.

Occam's Razor doesn't prove anything though.

[Kuciwalker]

Yes it does.

[Mercator]

Occam Shmoccam

@ Ted Striker
Kuciwalker:

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Mercator, you forget Occam's Razor.

I don't really understand that. The simplest explanation is preferable, but there's a good chance it's not the simplest explanation after all!
It might be a bit simplistic to say it like that but that's what it comes down to... how can you effectively use it then?
With Occam's Razor you can say whatever you like really..

[Kuciwalker]

Here's an example: it's possible that there are completely undetectable dancing leprechauns on the surfaces of electrons. It's useless and stupid to, instead of saying they don't exist, simply say "we can't know whether or not they exist". They don't, it's that simple.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally postulated by William of Occam
One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything

It says (if you can already prove God is unnecessary to explain the universe) that you should not hypothesise God - but it doesn't say "therefore there is no God".

It is not a method of proof, only of simplification. And since science thus far hasn't come up with an irrefutable substitute for God, the tendency would be for the physics-bending Big Bang to fall to the razor, rather than one simple ineffable entity.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Here's an example: it's possible that there are completely undetectable dancing leprechauns on the surfaces of electrons. It's useless and stupid to, instead of saying they don't exist, simply say "we can't know whether or not they exist". They don't, it's that simple.

But Occam doesn't prove they don't.

[Immortal Wombat]

Oh blooody hell, this is how threads like this go on and on. ********* making stupid suggestions.