Can the existence of God(s) be proven or disproven Via religion or otherwise?

[IAMFORTE]

I got into an argument about this with a friend of mind and I was wondering what others thought. I can't really get my head around such a topic, since I always go back to the argument, that puts human beings at the level of advanced animals, with nervous movements, and reflex's that form our every emotion.

In any case, I would love to hear everyone else's opinion on such a topic.

The topic being
Can the existence of God(s) be proven or Via religion or otherwise?


I guess i should put my thoughts up here:

I consider almost all religions to be an advanced form of a group mentality. Kinda like animals who form packs together with a leader at their head.  In religions case, weak willed people are brought together by a much more powerful person with an idea to control the rest of them. In this case, this idea is religion, preying on ones fear of the unknown (death) enticing them to believe that some higher power is watching over them. So, to summarize, religion was a product of human instinct to band together.

Oddly enough,
Taking that into account, due to probability, there is no way to 100% disprove that there is no higher being in the universe , and if it exists that higher being will almost certainly not spend its time watching 6 odd billion people go about their daily routines.
(and no we are not alone in the universe, although there is a chance we are alone in the galaxy [Fermi's paradox + drakes principle prove this somewhat]) How can we as a civilization be so self centered as to think we are the most important in the universe...

Wow, that's a lot of writing.

[Sashikinaroji]

Honestly, there is non way to prove or disprove God.

If you disprove God, then the religious will say that God defies science, and therefore, basically, falsified the tests to hide his presence. The Scientists would be fine with it.

However, if you prove God, then God is no longer a celestial omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, but something finite and measurable, and therefore, nothing more than another form of life, which would enrage the religious, and say that God cannot be measured and is infinite, and what science found must be something else. The Scientists, however, would call the research, as it deals with deities...



What I mean to say, science may one day be able to prove (or, at the very least, find to a 90% probability) whether this is or is not a God, but, no matter what, the research will be dismissed as ridiculous and hocus-pocus...

[Acolyte]

I agree, there is no concrete way of knowing if there really is a god or not, short of him/her/it coming down and telling us as much. But even then, how would we know that creature is God? Even if God were to appear, there would still be people that wouldn't believe it.

On a more existential view of your question, on a personal level, anyone can prove God does or doesn't exist, in the sense that what you believe makes it real. To Christians, God has already been proven to them, because they believe in him, and that is all the proof they need.

So on a scientific level, no, it is completely impossible to prove or disprove God, or any other deity. But on a spiritual level, anything you believe is real is real. It may not be real to others, but if you subscribe to the theory that no one really exists but yourself, then the opinion of others doesn't really matter anymore.

[IAMFORTE]

Hmm, so the existence of god cannot be proven or dis proven, due to the fact that both sides believe with their hearts that they are right

[Moss.]

Can't be proven or dis-proven, so you might as well just live your life happily, and it couldn't hurt to be nice to people.

[IAMFORTE]

Sorry was I being mean to someone? Sorry XD My apologies

[Sashikinaroji]

Although I may be wrong (and I often am), I believe that what Arlen was trying to get across was that sure, we can't prove that there is a being which will punish us if we do bad and reward us if we do good, but who cares?

Just live a happy life and be kind regardless of the reward or punishment.

(ammirite?)

[Moss.]

(urrite)

[IAMFORTE]

Right,that's how we should live

[&&&&&&&&&&&&&]

These are people who believe they telepathically talk to a man in space, who sits on a thrown in their heart. Which by the way is the thing that controls emotions, not the brain.

Man "I hear a voice in my head that tells me to donate to charity."
Phycologist "What's his name?"
Man "Yodal'guff."
Phycologist "You my friend, are crazy."

Christian "I hear a voice, it tells me to slaughter livestock and cover myself in their entrails."
Phycologist "What's his name?"
Christian "Yahweh"
Phycologist "You my friend, are normal."

[Kokowam]

Psychologist*

[&&&&&&&&&&&&&]

Psychologist*

Google told me Phycologist  and RMRK's spell checker keeps saying it's Physiologist. What, I don't know what going on no more. ;___;

[Kokowam]

That's something else, lol. According to dictionary.com, the former has to do with botany and the latter has to do with living organisms.

[IAMFORTE]

phy relating to phylum?
psy relaiting to psyche?

[DarkMessiah]

Even though I'm a christian, I know the christian god has many flaws and can be sort of dissproven
However a God who's traits haven't been defined cannot be dissproven

[SRBall]

Definetly cannot be proven or disproven. There are things that show signs of there being a god and there are signs of him not. Personally, I do not believe in god, I am a total science freak and a realistic person in general. I can't wrap my head around the thought of god, especially with all of the things going on now. Then again though the opposite can probably be said about that so there is no proof of there being a god or not being a god.

[DarkMessiah]

Christianitys God cannot technichally be disproven, however, there are many flaws...for example, God apperently thought the world was flat. He made it, so how could he not know it was round?

[Cascading Dragon]

You know we have a spell check button here? Use it.
Second, where did it say God thinks the world is flat?

[cozziekuns]

Well Isaiah 11:12 says something about the four corners of the earth, but that's not really speaking from God's point of view so I contributed in no way.

[Cascading Dragon]

'The 4 corners of the Earth' is more figurative anyway. 

[NPC]

God can be proven, but he can not be dis-proven.

No matter what scientists do there is no way to show that god is not pulling the strings to make it seem that he doesn't exist... or that he exists but never does anything... or that, well, you get the point

If on the other hand, god does something like... descend from the heavens as a 40 foot tall Steve Martin in every city and town in the world simultaneously and speaks in a language not spoken since the beginning of time yet understood by all simply stating "hey, I exist." Then we can pretty much prove it.

Heck, it doesn't even have to be that drastic, maybe just have praying make something 90% more likely to happen for those belonging to a specific religion... that's not proof per-se but really dang close.

[&&&&&&&&&&&&&]

It wasn't until I was like 7 did I even question the existence of god. I sat a soda can on a table and said "God, if you're there and really love me, so much that you gave your only... etc, then knock this can over."
The can stayed where and it was, and I became an atheist.

If there is a god, why can't he move a can for me?

[Irock]

It wasn't until I was like 7 did I even question the existence of god. I sat a soda can on a table and said "God, if you're there and really love me, so much that you gave your only... etc, then knock this can over."
The can stayed where and it was, and I became an atheist.

If there is a god, why can't he move a can for me?

That doesn't prove that there isn't a God or a God who can't move cans. That just proves that you told God to knock a can over and the can didn't move.

[&&&&&&&&&&&&&]

I'm not saying it proves there isn't one, I'm saying it doesn't help trying to prove him.

[IAMFORTE]

If there is some kind of divine being, I don't think it/he/she would like to be asked to demonstrate their powers, thus, it is extremely hard to prove or disprove the existence of a god/gods