Belief And Unbelief

[poliphilo]

Is it possible to prove or disprove the existence of God- or indeed of any supernatural entity? Of course not. Human beings have been trying all through history- and have yet to come up with anything that holds water- which doesn't stop us- believers and unbelievers alike- from parading our certainties and pouring scorn- or worse- on the opposition.

A belief in God is ridiculous. So is atheism. Because in the final analysis it is ridiculous that anything exists. Even if the Hadron collider eventually establishes the "how" of the Big Bang, it won't be telling us "why". Did Mind produce Matter or did Matter produce Mind?  Both positions are equally plausible/implausible. You choose- if you do choose and your position isn't simply inherited or indoctrinated-  on grounds of intellectual fashion or aesthetic preference,  but not on grounds of  reason or evidence. Reason doesn't stretch that far and there is evidence- unsatisfactory, inconclusive evidence- on both sides. Mary saw a ghost; John says she can't have done because ghosts don't exist. Which of them should you trust? 

I think belief in God (don't ask me to define the word) makes life more interesting. And I notice that Richard Dawkins makes exactly the same claim for his disbelief. 

Comments

For the bunny lover on my list...

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I saw this on Cute Overload and immediately thought of you.
I know it's off the subject...

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Mary saw a ghost; John says she can't have done because ghosts don't exist. Which of them should you trust?

Neither?

The statement "I saw a ghost", has meaning for the person making it. What someone else makes of such a statement has no bearing on whether ghosts exist and should be irrelevant to the beliefs of the person making the claim - in a perfect world, of course.

People experience ghosts. People experience the divine. These experiences are as 'real' as any other. The impact such an experience has on their lives is real, too. These things inevitably run aground when someone tries to turn something inherently personal into an impersonal and universal 'truth'. If religion were more about cultivating a meaningful and personal relationship with the divine, and much less about converting the unbeliever, religion would be far less problematic.

[redatt.livejournal.com]

Mary saw a ghost; John says she can't have done because ghosts don't exist. Which of them should you trust?

I'm not sure why trust should come into. I'd think that Mary saw something which she classified as a ghost and that John defines 'ghost' as something that people only think they see and for those reasons I wouldn't necessarily believe or side with either of them.

I am an atheist (and I'm with Sherlock Holmes, "The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.") but I'm also agnostic and think as you do. What we believe and what we can prove/disprove (and therefore really know for certain sure) are not always the same thing at all. This does not, however, necessarily prevent me from parading my certainty or pouring my scorn on the opposition.

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

It is interesting that the further I move from fundamentalist/Pentecostal Christianity, the more comfortable I am with not knowing. Back then, I used to think we had the definitive answers to those questions. Of all of the doubts I had, the existence of God was not one of them, which shows just how much faith I had in the people who indoctrinated me. Now that I have seen just how little of what they told me truly works (at least for me), I question all of it, including the very existence of God.

Does God exist? I don't know. Sometimes I talk to God, even though it makes little sense to do so when I am not sure there is someone there listening. That's the ridiculousness of it all. But I am comfortable being ridiculous. I am not comfortable with being absolute.

[oakmouse]

I like the response a friend of mine made when someone asked him in tones of horrified semi-scorn: "Surely you don't BELIEVE in the gods, do you?"

He said, "No, I don't believe, I know. The gods are as real as rocks."

That's my experience too. Not everyone's, I know, but I live in my world; other people don't have to. ;)