Question:
Is it possible to disprove the existence of God?
Reala597
2014-12-04 18:14:22 UTC
Everytime I ask atheists this question, the answer they mostly give is that religious people can't prove God exists and therefore atheists are correct. Is there any actual way, scientifically speaking?
Seventeen answers:
?
2014-12-05 07:02:27 UTC
You cannot prove an negative .. you can't ''prove'' that something doesn't exist.

You can only demonstrate that there is NO PROOF that it does exist.
?
2014-12-04 18:29:41 UTC
Theist(s) have not backed a SINGLE claim in the observable NOT via ''faith'' / magical / think submission -



Theist(s) have produced NO evidence to back said ''claims'' of God(s) in theological, metaphysical, or scripture proof that adds up to said claims - ''God(s)''



Here are TWO disproofs - theist(s) have NOT addressed



I can go on FOREVER.





DISPROOFS:





"X created the universe" - transcendence



(X) = God(s).



If X transcends the universe AND if universe denotes the entirety of existence, then X does not belong to existence -- does not exist.



if X does not transcend the universe, then X did not create the universe, and therefore X does not exist.



if X both transcends AND does not transcend the universe, then the concept of X is incoherent lacking any possible referent, therefore X does not exist.





-- Metaphysical DISPROOF:





X = God(s) - Christ, Allah



(A1) - Whatever is perfect does not change.....



(B2) - X is perfect???????



(C) Whatever exists changes.



(D) Whatever does not change does not exist.





(C) . X does not change. (A 1. --> B 2.)



. whatever is perfect does not exist.

THEN



X does not exist.



''God came from NOTHING'' God is ''JUST''



DISPROOF



GOD from ''nothing'' is about as plausible as 'something' coming from 'nothingNESS'





There is 'something' - if there is no potential for 'something' to come about (nothingness), then 'something' is impossible.



Metaphysical nothingness' is physically impossible.



Therefore, ''something'' > lead to > ''X'' unless X does not exist.
The Lightning Strikes
2014-12-04 18:51:04 UTC
Negative, However, Sometimes atheist assert that there is no proof God exists. The only problem is that an atheist cannot logically make that claim.



In order to state there is no proof for God's existence, the atheist would have to know all alleged proofs that exist in order to then state that there is no proof for God's existence. But, since he cannot know all things, he cannot logically state there is no proof for God's existence.



At best, an atheist can only state that of all the alleged proofs he has seen thus far, none have worked. He could even say he believes there are no proofs for God's existence. But then, this means there is the possibility that there is a proof or proofs out there, and that he simply has not yet encountered one.



Nevertheless, if there was a proof that truly did prove God's existence, would the atheist be able to accept it, given that his presuppositions are in opposition to the existence of God? In other words, given that the atheist has a presuppositional base that there is no God, in order for him to accept a proof for God's existence, he would have to change his presuppositional base. This is not easy to do and would involve a major paradigm shift in the belief structure of the atheist. Therefore, an atheist is presuppositionally hostile to any proofs for God's existence and is less likely to be objective about such attempted proofs.
scrubbag
2014-12-04 18:17:20 UTC
Being that THIS is possibly the largest argument of all time, that of God's existence or not, I would think that if ANYONE found proof either way, it would be almost instantly known, world wide.



And so, to answer your question, NO. There is currently, NO way.
Nous
2014-12-05 02:17:29 UTC
The only way primitive religion exists today is through the child abuse of forcing it into very, very young children but thanks to better education and growing intellects so many teens are able to discover the truth, throw off the indoctrination and step into the real world!



So atheism is not a conscious decision or a belief but a realisation!



The first person to produce a single tiny little piece of verifiable evidence for any god will become world famous and mega rich!



Academia states that in the absence of any sort of evidence of the existence of something it must be deemed not to exist until verifiable evidence is found - thus god is held not to exist pending some sort of verifiable evidence.



The bible is what is called "Faction” A fictional story set in a factual time and place. Thus the time, place and real historical characters are all correct but the fictional characters and stories are not!



There is not one single mention of Jesus in the entire Roman record - that is right - not one! At the same time as he was supposed to have been around there were a number of Jews claiming to be the messiah - all of whom are well recorded!



There is not a single contemporary record from any source and even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!



He was supposed to have been a huge problem to the Romans and produced wonderful miracles but still not one contemporary record?



Even the bible mentions of him like all other references were not written until many years after his supposed death!



Pilate is recorded in the Roman record as a somewhat lack luster man but no mention of a Jesus, a trial or crucifixion that would surely have been used to make him look brighter!



At best he was an amalgam of those others but almost certainly never existed!



Not one word of it is contemporary with the period and was not written until several hundred years after the period the story is set in!! How did the apostles write their books more than a hundred years after they would have been dead?



Christianity is an invention of the Italians and that is why it came from the Holy ROMAN Catholic church!



Please realize that those claims for the Old historians are worthless since they were not even born until long after everyone in the stories would have been so long dead!



Josephus AD 37 – AD 100

Tacitus AD 56 – AD 120

Suetonius - 69 – 130 AD

Pliny the Younger, 61 AD – 112 AD

Justin Martyr (Saint Justin) AD103–165 AD

Lucian - AD 120 -180 AD but he was hostile to Christianity and openly mocked it.

Pamphilius AD 240-309 AD

Eusebius AD 263 – 339 AD

Photius AD 877 – 886 AD



Thallus - But there are no actual record of him except a fragment of writing which mentions the sack of Troy [109 BC] Showing that he was clearly not alive in biblical times.



Some even try to use Seneca. 4 BCE – 65 CE but as a Stoic Philosopher he opposed religion yet made not a single mention of a Jesus or Christianity!



Even funnier is trying to claim Celsus AD ? – 177 AD Who said that Jesus was a Jew who’se mother was a poor Jewish girl whose husband, who was a carpenter, drove her away because of her adultery with a Roman soldier named Panthera. She gave birth to an illegitimate child named Jesus. In Egypt, Jesus became learned in sorcery and upon his return presented himself as a god.
?
2014-12-04 19:31:16 UTC
It's not possible to either prove or disprove the supernatural.



Individual gods can be disproven by noting gross discrepancies in their stories. For example, a loving, merciful god who has condemned all humanity to eternal torture is as impossible as a married bachelor.
2014-12-04 18:15:50 UTC
Nope, it is impossible to prove a negative. Prove to me that unicorns don't exist. You can't, but does that mean that you should believe in unicorns? No? But why not, is it because there isn't any evidence for unicorns? Oh huh, funny how that old thing called logic works.
2014-12-04 18:18:11 UTC
No.



You cannot prove a general negative.



Just as you cannot prove there is NOT a purple teapot in orbit around a planet somewhere in the universe.



But until someone gives me a good, evidence based reason to think there *is* a purple teapot in orbit around a planet somewhere in the universe, or a plausible mechanism for there being one, I will continue to accept that there isn't.



And until someone gives me a good, evidence based reason to think there *is* a god or a plausible mechanism for there being one, I will continue to accept that there isn't.
?
2014-12-04 18:19:09 UTC
yes .. you clearly haven't bothered reading or listening to any of the answers that have been provided in the past



in such matters its not possible to prove a negative - to prove an absence



the burden of proof lies with the person making a claim



those who believe in "gods" are making the claims



atheists simply reject the claim primarily because your claim is not substantiated with any evidence



read the wiki page for Russell's Teapot



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot
Disciple of Truth
2014-12-04 20:15:43 UTC
Sure. I know a doctor who wrote a paper in college proving that the earth is flat. I don't believe it and he didn't either, yet there it stands.
Carolina Giannella
2014-12-04 18:46:55 UTC
I think you are still unclear on the concept. Here's an analogy: A scientist hypothesizes that a new particle, particle X exists. Why does he do this? Perhaps it just seems to make sense from beauty of nature / symmetry argument. Suppose if X exists, it simplifies some existing math or makes sense of some existing known aspect of reality in an elegant way. The only problem is there's not one shred of evidence for X. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. Perhaps his X particle can be shown to predict some new result that we don't currently have an ability to measure... but we might someday. Well then, we put his X hypothesis on the shelf until that day arrives (if it ever does). In fact, maybe there's so much interest in this X hypothesis that it can be used to justify some spending to build a new sensor to see if the predictions based on X existing are true. Nothing wrong with any of that.



But we don't go around insisting that X exists UNTIL we start seeing some tests passed! We make sure those predictions come true. And if we come up with new predictions (new ways to test the X hypothesis) we also test those. This is a potentially never ending process... we keep coming up with new ways to test X and we keep testing for it. Until, we one day discover a test that the X hypothesis fails, and it's time to move on to a Y-hypothesis, which explains all the previous results, PLUS the new results that the X hypothesis cannot explain. Make sense? Will the Y-hypothesis definitely replace the X one some day? No, not necessarily. Perhaps the X hypothesis will continue to pass every test we throw at it forever.



The point is, we don't go believing in X until we have lots of good evidence for it. What if X sits on the shelf, untestable due to technological constraints for centuries. Well then, it sits there and we can't really say it's true. We have to assume the null hypothesis (i.e. reject the claim that X exists) until such time as there's at least a shred of evidence to support X.



Same goes for the God hypothesis. The trouble is that most God hypotheses are not even testable in a scientific sense, nor will they ever be testable. Occam's razor says such hypotheses are useless and should be eliminated from consideration. But just for the sake of argument, say somebody comes up with a God hypothesis that could conceivably be tested one day. OK, great, we'll just have to wait until that day arrives then.



There's no proving the God hypothesis nor disproving it until we can test it. And even if we do disprove it, it does not necessarily preclude a different God hypothesis from being proposed. Even if the hypothesis was untestable by design and discarded by Occam's razor, then that still doesn't mean it was disproved: it just means that it was useless (i.e. untestable forever).



So to say "atheists are correct" is a weird statement. An atheist is not necessarily claiming anything! In particular it's not necessary for the atheist to be claiming that god does not exist. In fact the atheist could reject the claim that god does not exist for the same reason he rejects the claim that god exists: lack of evidence. "Rejecting the claim" could mean simply withholding judgement on the claim. It does NOT mean supporting the opposite claim.



Anything different than believing gods exist, is atheism, by definition. For example that could be:



1. Withholding judgement on the claim that gods exist. This could go hand in hand with withholding judgement on the claim that gods definitely don't exist.



2. Believing (based on the preponderance of evidence, or for any other reason) that gods don't exit, but not claiming to know for certain that they don't exist.



3. Claiming to KNOW for certain that gods don't exist



All three are different "degrees" of atheism. Both 1. and 2. fall under the category of "agnostic atheism" because they are not claiming to know (a gnostic claim) that gods don't exist. See my source for more info.



EDIT: In response to "Redeemed" above, note the difference between what I've laid out above and what he's talking about. What he's describing is a logical proof, more akin to finding a proof of the truth or falsehood of Fermat's Last Theorem (which bedeviled mathematicians for centuries until it was finally proved to be true in the 1990s). Mathematics is very unlike science in that regard. With math you assume some things are true to start out with (axioms) and as long as the axioms are not contradictory, you can proceed to deduce logical consequences from them. That's not really how science works. Science starts with a guess (hypothesis) and then the guess is checked against nature. What's missing from Redeemed's argument is any checking against nature. He's only talking about proofs, but what are the axioms they rest on? If you start off with an axiom that buries within it an assumption of what you're trying to prove, that's called "assuming the conclusion" and is a fallacy. For example, I could start off with "What caused creation?" and end up with "A creator must exist." But by using the word "creator" in the question, I'm assuming already a creator must exist. Be careful of rationality unmoored from empirical testing against nature!
fruitsalad
2014-12-04 18:21:59 UTC
It's easy to disprove specific gods with specific characteristics, such as the Christian god. It is just not possible to disprove any gods, as the concept is too vaguely defined.
Archer
2014-12-04 21:14:50 UTC
One would need to be specific on "which" of the thousands upon thousands of gods mankind has created and worshipped they are asking about keeping in mind though that as mankind became more able and aware most of these gods have already been resigned to myth, lore and legend or simply forgotten.
torpex2002
2014-12-04 18:40:53 UTC
The biblical god is disproven, that's why most Christians themselves now say that genesis is not to be taken literally, they just move the goalposts and try to reconcile reality with their belief.
2014-12-04 18:21:41 UTC
Yes, Kim Kardashian is famous. No god would allow that
Chris Ancor
2014-12-04 21:09:45 UTC
Yes. Been done.
?
2014-12-04 18:16:47 UTC
science still leaves an undiscovered answer : who created big bang?

and in this point God takes role.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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