Friday, February 26, 2016

Apologetics: A Dead End

There is no evidence for any god, much less the Christian variety of such. All apologetics are unsupported arguments from ignorance, or the 'God of the Gaps" arguments. The best apologists can come up with are testable hypotheses. The testable hypotheses have been falsified.

What is "falsifiability?"  The inherent possibility that a statement, hypothesis, or theory can be proven false; Testable.

What is "falsified?"  To show or prove to be false.   

Among others, the following Bible passages are falsifiable claims and they have been falsified by science.  How?  If these statements were true, one would see a world of miracles.  No miracle has ever been verified by science:

John 14:12New International Version (NIV)
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

John 14:13King James Version (KJV)
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Matthew 7:7King James Version (KJV)
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you

1 John 5:14New International Version (NIV)
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Matthew 21:22New International Version (NIV)
22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

1 John 3:22New International Version (NIV)
22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
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Also, following are two links regarding how Christianity has been falsified:

Christians Falsify Christianity

Top Ten Reasons Why Christianity Is False
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Finally, apologists love to use philosophy and logic in support of the "evidence" for a god.  The problem with this is that using philosophy as "evidence" is a category error:  no amount of philosophy leads to evidence.  It is not unlike the idea that all the anecdotes in the world do not lead to a fact.

The main tool philosophers use in defense of a god is deductive logic (syllogism):  starting from general premise, one works down with other premises.  If they are true, then the conclusion is true and certain.  The problem with ALL apologetics is that at least one of the premises is false!!!  Science works from less certainty.  While it does use deductive logic, it frequently uses inductive logic:  starting from specific observations, one works up to a provisional general conclusion.  Science leads to the understanding of reality more than any other system in human history.  My bet is on science for understanding reality.

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Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.

Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.
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