A Usenet persona calling itself Michael Daly wrote:


On 24-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

"Just because a bunch of fundies pull some numbers out of their
asses and make claims, doesn't prove anything."

Sounds pretty derisory to me.

That is a critisism of their foolish attempts at "proving" God exists.

Why would any attempt to prove that God exists be foolish? At worst it might
be unsuccessful, but when ever is inquiry inappropriate?

It doesn't say anything about people believing in God being fools.

I think you're engaging in sophistry.

But then, you can't read very well.

Or, perhaps I read just fine and understand far better than you would like
me to...



Proof of the existence of God requires, first, a definition of what "God"
is.

How can you prove the existance of something if you don't even know what
it is you are setting out to prove?

It's called "basic scientific research." It happens all the time.


The fact that such belief is an act of faith does not mean that either
church does not believe that God does, in fact, exist.

Belief is not proof. Proof is much more difficult.

No one is saying that belief is proof.


Since God exists in a spiritual world and we exist in a physical
world, there is a permanent problem of proving anything about a
realm in which we don't exist.

How do you know God exists in a spiritual world? What is a "spiritual
world?" What does it consist of? Where is it located? What are it's physical
properties?

On the other hand, philosophical references to a "spiritual world" may in
fact be only one way of describing that which is poorly understood that may
very well be a part of the physical world that we simply cannot detect,
quantify or understand at the moment. It may be that the observations and
faith-based beliefs regarding God come from some unanalyzed, indirect
"ripple" effect of the actual machinations of God acting in the physical
world in ways we ordinarily cannot perceive.

Philosophy is often a way to rationalize that which we do not understand,
pending scientific inquiry and proof. That we have not yet been able to
prove the existence of God in the physical world, and that we may
philosophically misinterpret our beliefs about God as being "spiritual" only
shows a degree of lack of understanding, something that can perhaps be
resolved as our knowledge and understanding of the physical world advances.

--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser