Proving God

Don't be misled by that title; there's no proof for the existence of the biblical or any other god. There's also no proof against their existence, and therein lies the problem...

It has always struck me as funny when religious people try to prove that their god exists, and it's a pleasure for me to watch and listen to the many debates between theists and atheists that are strewn about the internet. That's a rather damning admission from me, because why, you might ask, does it bring me pleasure to watch these debates. The answer is simple and confirms the existence of my personal confirmation bias; I watch them because "my side" always "wins." Or at least they win in my opinion, in my personal experience of those debates. The theists never succeed in bringing forth any proof whatsoever for the existence of God. And my side, the atheists, have no such burden of proof; we simply lack the belief in a supernatural, timeless, spaceless, immaterial being.

I think it's important for me to admit to my own confirmation bias, not just for you dear reader, but for my own sake as well. If we aspire to search for truth, it's imperative to at least be aware, as much as we can, of the many pitfalls hidden in the workings of our mental machinery. Confirmation bias is a tendency none of us can escape completely, especially me. Why especially me? Because I'm the one writing this post, and although it's easy to observe the trappings of confirmation bias in others, my own confirmation bias is the only one I can be 100% sure of. And the observation of confirmation bias in others can very well be a part of my own confirmation bias... See what I mean?

Back to God. Atheists simply lack a belief in God, as I've stated earlier. We lack that belief in the same way we lack a belief in the tooth fairy, Zeus or Freddy Krueger. We can't however disprove the existence of the tooth fairy, Zeus or some supernatural monster that's resurrected through bad dreams. So we don't even try, we don't have to. In science, falsifiability is a standard of evaluation of scientific theories and hypotheses:

A theory or hypothesis is falsifiable (or refutable) if it can be logically contradicted by an empirical test that can potentially be executed with existing technologies. The purpose of falsifiability, even being a logical criterion, is to make the theory predictive and testable, thus useful in practice.
_{source: Wikipedia}

Furthermore, science only deals with probabilities; nothing in science is 100% sure or known, which is why the highest degree of certainty available in science is a theory. Many times the theists throw this in our faces; "you believe in a theory!" Or: "evolution is just a theory!" Not knowing that "theory" marks an almost complete consensus among scientists. Gravity is "just a theory," but I don't see theists test that out by jumping of high ledges. There might be a teapot orbiting Mars. We can't prove there isn't. But we can say it's highly improbable because there's no proof or evidence for said teapot. Therefore we choose not to believe in it, and the same goes for God.

I think it's a mistake for theists to drag science into the God-equation. As far as we know, nature works just fine without the invisible man in the sky. It's okay to believe in God as far as I'm concerned, but do so on faith; there can be no proof in the natural world for something that's by definition outside the natural world. That's the meaning of "supernatural," above or outside nature. The God-hypothesis is not falsifiable, but I sure as hell like to see atheists and theists square off trying to convince their respective audiences. I'll leave you with a debate between two of my favorites; William Lane Craig is in my opinion the premier apologist when it comes to smuggling science into his arguments, and Sean Carroll is a scientist whose podcast I regularly listen to. I hope you'll enjoy!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!