Reply #197: "You cannot prove a negative"

[immoderate]

So, can prove that you cannot prove a negative?

Sorry, but every time I see this, that is my reaction. Often you can prove a negative. You can't always do it, but you can't always prove a positive either.

Actually, as people who have seen my posts will tell you, I'm more on your side, K-W than the opposition. One poster recently charged me with "hatred of anything religious."

My take is that any assertion of deity in the scheme of things, soon falls under the weight of the contradictions it generates. Especially when you conceive of god as having intelligence as we know it. You ultimately wind up with a being that's so inscrutable that nothing he does makes any sense. Just as easy to live him, or more rationally "it," out of the equation. I use it, rather than assigning gender because this entity is not party to life as we know it, so why ascribe human-like attributes.

God as described in the Bible, is the culmination of thousands of years of human neurosis, and therefore defies human scrutiny.

The concept of proof itself is only useful in certain circumscribes arenas, like a courtroom, or in geometry, where the rules or boundaries are firmly set. Without those boundaries, proof is moot.

--IMM