HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS? Many believers, when asked why they believe in Yahweh or Allah, start by asking me a question. They ask, how do you explain consciousness or the universe or the solar system or the emergence of life or love or altruism? They ask in the expectation that I will confess I dont know the answer. I generally cut to the chase and say, I dont know (even though we do know the answer to some of those questions). Then I ask how does my lack of understanding of the hard problem of consciousness prove the existence of the magical spirit-being first written about by superstitious, warring Hebrew tribesmen 3,500 years ago? No amount of ignorance on my part would prove the existence of this spirit being. This entire approach is a logic melt-down. Imagine the situation, if this logic was correct. Imagine that my inability to explain lightning proved that Zeus is real. Then, some years later, we found a perfect explanation for lightning that did not involve Zeus. Would this discovery suddenly make Zeus disappear and become fiction? Here are just three reasons why this line of argumentation is pitifully broken: 1) The fact that we have no natural explanation today does not mean we will never have a natural explanation. 2) There is no causal link between my ignorance today and the existence of entity X. In others words, my ignorance does not cause entity X to exist. (You may need to think about this--it may not be easy to grasp but it is crucially important). 3) You can use this exact same argument to prove the existence of Allah, Lord Brahma or any other creator god you happen to believe in or make up. An argument that can prove contradictory things cannot be valid. You cannot use my ignorance as your evidence--my ignorance is only evidence for how little I know. If you want to show your pet god exists, bring your own evidence. And, whilst you are thinking about that, please stop using this nonsensical argument.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 11:20:43 +0000
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