Analysis of Christopher Hitchen's argument against God

Quote from stu:

That conversation was not with you, so why are you changing the subject of these exchanges?

You said you are not all knowledgeable but would have to be all knowledgeable to know about God's non existence or existence.
Just in case you haven’t grasped what a self-contradicting and self-defeating claim that is….
…..how come you know that about God's non existence or existence, if you’re not all knowledgeable.?

I've made no claim about God's existence or non existence. I directly answered a question with only three words.
Should I have answered that question with an "I don't know", would I be claiming "I don't know" or would I just be answering the question? I suspect had I done so, there would be no false assertions I was making a claim.

But because I answered "Sure I know", it seems that is supposed to be making a claim , rubbish of course, but does confirm how desperate any argument for God needs to get.

But that’s a different issue. Why don't you deal with your own contradictory claim?



"…..how come you know that about God's non existence or existence, if you’re not all knowledgeable."

:D :D :D

Now you are trying to be sly to escape being revealed as a liar...

Saying I am uncertain about the existence of God is explicitly stating I lack the knowledge. Saying otherwise is a desperate attempt to alter the focus from what you NOW are admitting to more and more explicitly is your Faith. Your "Religion", if you will...

Because this is not the only thread where you have made the claim (as fact) that God does not exist.

I have said (repeat) I am uncertain.

"Sure I know" is an Opinion. A Belief. Your Faith. "Certain" is also an opinion, but the connotation is meant to persuade. Do not try to evade it.

So if everyone called your claim merely your "Belief", is that ok with you?

Because if you say my uncertainty is my "Belief", that's ok with ME. :D
 
You are uncertain.
Then without your "All-Knowledge" stuff, you must also be uncertain that someone needs "All-Knowledge" to know about what you call God’s existence or non existence.

Obviously you can't deal with that. But childishly calling me names won't alter the fact you’re only making a contradictory and self-defeating claim.

"Sure I know" was my answer, not my claim.



Quote from MarketMasher:

"…..how come you know that about God's non existence or existence, if you’re not all knowledgeable."

:D :D :D

Now you are trying to be sly to escape being revealed as a liar...

Saying I am uncertain about the existence of God is explicitly stating I lack the knowledge. Saying otherwise is a desperate attempt to alter the focus from what you NOW are admitting to more and more explicitly is your Faith. Your "Religion", if you will...

Because this is not the only thread where you have made the claim (as fact) that God does not exist.

I have said (repeat) I am uncertain.

"Sure I know" is an Opinion. A Belief. Your Faith. "Certain" is also an opinion, but the connotation is meant to persuade. Do not try to evade it.

So if everyone called your claim merely your "Belief", is that ok with you?

Because if you say my uncertainty is my "Belief", that's ok with ME. :D
 
Quote from MarketMasher:

"…..how come you know that about God's non existence or existence, if you’re not all knowledgeable."

:D :D :D

Now you are trying to be sly to escape being revealed as a liar...

Saying I am uncertain about the existence of God is explicitly stating I lack the knowledge. Saying otherwise is a desperate attempt to alter the focus from what you NOW are admitting to more and more explicitly is your Faith. Your "Religion", if you will...

Because this is not the only thread where you have made the claim (as fact) that God does not exist.

I have said (repeat) I am uncertain.

"Sure I know" is an Opinion. A Belief. Your Faith. "Certain" is also an opinion, but the connotation is meant to persuade. Do not try to evade it.

So if everyone called your claim merely your "Belief", is that ok with you?

Because if you say my uncertainty is my "Belief", that's ok with ME. :D

At some point in time you have to recognize it's pointless to query someone who lies, hopelessly depends on semantics to evade clarification of his position and is in general too intellectually dishonest to have an open debate.
 
Quote from LORD KAL-EL:

At some point in time you have to recognize it's pointless to query someone who lies, hopelessly depends on semantics to evade clarification of his position and is in general too intellectually dishonest to have an open debate.
Yes you are right. Hopelessly depending on trying to turn an answer into a claim with semantics, is pointless really.

But then , that's often how arguments, even just in search of any possibility of God, normally go.
It's obviously all you've got.
 
Quote from stu:

You are uncertain.
Then without your "All-Knowledge" stuff, you must also be uncertain that someone needs "All-Knowledge" to know about what you call God’s existence or non existence.

Obviously you can't deal with that. But childishly calling me names won't alter the fact you’re only making a contradictory and self-defeating claim.

"Sure I know" was my answer, not my claim.

Read Ghost of Cutten's take on requiring omniscience - it pretty well sums it up.

You seem to be implying that your answer is a non-answer. But then you would have no opinion on the subject at all, which is not consistent with your past posts.

So......

So if everyone called your ANSWER merely your "Belief", is that ok with you?

Because if you say my uncertainty is my "Belief", that's ok with ME.
 
Apparently you didn't read or understand Godel's response to Russell.

You can call something silly, of course.

Proving something to be silly...well, that's sorely lacking in your comments.

But you believe whatever you like, even in the face of the inability to support your claims.

"It doesn't invalidate mathematics or logic or set theory. The Pythagorean theorem is still true. But there is some doubt. Kurt Godel (Gödel) proved that Number Theory (and by identical arguments, every branch of mathematics) is inconsistent. He converted Russell's Paradox, the set version, into a statement in Number Theory, and showed that Number Theory is inconsistent. This had huge repercussions in the world of mathematics. All of this leads to the following problem:

1. There are things that are true in mathematics (based on basic assumptions).
2. There are things that are false.
3. There are things that are true that can never be proved.
4. There are things that are false that can never be disproved.

And that is a problem, because we cannot ever tell if something is true unless we can prove it."


Yes, there are things that are true that can never be proved. Godel's work suggests that within the confines of a system, or a set, you can not truly prove certain things from within the boundaries of that situation. You would need to stand above and outside of that set, to view it objectively in order to have the type of proof that can only be worthy of objective empirical proof.

So what is the proof of empiricism, when the empiricists have no way to exclude themselves (to be fully objective) from their observations. They are intimately involved in the problem and the solution, which is a great inconsistency when searching for a truth that in independent of the observer and the relationship between the observer and the observed.

So there is an innate contradiction in empiricism as there is no way to check the instrumentation or process of empiricism against something known to be true. It is essentially a self referral process, where the self external perceptions depend on the self for self validation.

This suggests that truth of a deeper level can only be achieved by "going outside of the system" to get a completely objective view of the system.

The truth of the origin of the universe therefore can never be found within the universe itself, or study of the parts of the universe alone and independently from the completeness of the universe alone...only a study of the parts and the whole would yield full knowledge...and only from the outside of the universe could this be done, viewing everything objectively can that be known empirically. Which gives rise to the concept that there is something greater than the universe, beyond the universe that knows the universe...in the same way the fishes who swim in the ocean don't really know the totality of the ocean even though they are living in the ocean, experiencing the ocean all the time.

Science is full of these important types of contradictions, because our world is replete with contradictions...mostly born out of our inability to see both the part and the whole at the same time. Our minds move from one point (which stands in relationship to other points) to the next point, compares and contrasts, forms relational logic accordingly...but does not have the ability to do both at once. Like a camera that can zoom in, or have a wide range lens, it can not do both simultaneously. So the perspective is never of the set, and the components of the set simultaneously. Totality is the concept of the whole of the Totality and the parts of the Totality being known simultaneously, which produces a greater knowledge than just a view of the parts, or a view of the whole, but a complete view of the parts and the whole from both within the Totality and outside of the Totality simultaneously.

How could this happen?

Simply. Say there is only a singularity. Just one thing. Nothing else, just one. What is the property of that one thing. Consciousness, which means that the one thing could be conscious. Of what? Itself of course. It could be conscious of itself. Now, what happens when there is consciousness of anything? You have three things in play. One is the subject, then the observer. The object, the observed, and the distance and process between the object and the observed. You have subject, object, and process of observation. Three things are in play.

So singularity becomes aware of itself, and creates a relationship within itself of subject, object, and the process of observation. One becomes three, but all are still one. How can one become three and remain one? It is logically not possible in this world, as we see all parts are distinct and separate from each other...even though we do admit they make up a whole, but our minds still don't see that they actually are just one Totality. We can't see it, because we are bound my material logic and material thinking...which demands we see diversity, and the intellect decides yes or no. We do not experience a detached view of reality, because we are like fish in the ocean who have no perspective of the Totality of the ocean.

Totality is a singularity that when it becomes aware of itself, produces these parts of itself, from itself, and one has become both one and three simultaneously. When we only see the partial values, we don't see the whole value. We don't see the Totality, because we are a part of it, but we identify with the partial value, and not the whole value.

http://www.braungardt.com/Theology/Godel-Proof of God.htm



Quote from stu:

You might study Russell's Paradox, that might help you with the general concept of totalities, and how your "The Totality" or God as you call it, is.... well.....just silly.
Somehow I doubt it will.
 
"Sure I know" was my answer, not my claim."

Illogical. That you said "sure I know" is a claim to know. Everyone knows this...but some will deny this.

"Sir, do you claim to know to know X?"

"No, I don't claim to know X...but sure I know X."

Absurdity 101

Quote from stu:

You are uncertain.
Then without your "All-Knowledge" stuff, you must also be uncertain that someone needs "All-Knowledge" to know about what you call God’s existence or non existence.

Obviously you can't deal with that. But childishly calling me names won't alter the fact you’re only making a contradictory and self-defeating claim.

"Sure I know" was my answer, not my claim.
 
Incompleteness is sometimes used to refute the existence of an omnipotent god: If God were omnipotent, he would act as an oracle (in the mathematical sense) for any mathematical theory. That is, he could decide for any statement S whether S or not-S were true, which contradicts incompleteness. This argument is a more formal version of the "Can God make a rock even He could not move" paradox.

On the other hand, the same Godel that formulated the Incompleteness Theorems used those same tools (Model Theory) to forge an onthological proof of God's existence.[1]

Similarly, the existence of undecidable statements proves the illogic of atheistic attempts to demand proof for the existence of God. Because we know that there exist true statements that we can never logically prove, there are necessarily things that must be believed on the basis of faith, rather than logic. The atheistic mantra that "the burden of proof lies with the believer" ignores this classic result in mathematical logic, and exposes their ignorance. It is notable that Kurt Godel who demonstrated the existence of undecidability in mathematical logic was a devoutly religious man.

http://www.conservapedia.com/Godel's_Incompleteness_Theorems
 
Let me see if I can sum some things up....

On the topic of the existence/non of God, Stu said

"Sure I know."

If he was in fact addressing the topic, and not what he was going to have for dinner that night, or he was simply acknowledging comprehension of the topic at hand, his ANSWER is - He knows whether God exists or not.

HOWEVER, by his own admission, he is not CLAIMING to know.
The definition of "claim" most appropriate in this context is "to assert or maintain as a fact".

Therefore, his ANSWER is he "knows" without asserting or maintaining it as a fact.

Which puts us back to "Belief", or "Faith".

So I suppose there is now a new religion called The Religion Of Stu.

Has a kinda catchy ring to it too..... :D
 
Quote from stu:

Your history is that you misquote people. You've blatantly misquoted Susskind in the past and more recently done the same with Christian de Duve, oblivious to any refutation of the crude misinformation you like so much.

Quoting even more from the same religious apologists website is just infantile and adds nothing to the already hopelessly sad argument for intelligent design.

you are completely full of shit... I have misquoted nobody ever... you are just to emotional to accept science. It is hard to misquote when I quote and paste the quotes.

you implied the same thing in the past about weinberg and now you see a mit prof quoting him for the idea.
 
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