Jan Ardena:
If a dog could, it would say I am a dog.
That too would be an entity claiming to be something it is. But dogs can't talk. I can, and your God can, supposedly.
It seems the “I” can claim loads of things, but they are simply essentially “I”.My perspective (theist) Is about the “I”, whereas yours (atheist), are about the designations.
I don't know what you mean by that.
That’s because you’re all about the designations.
This is a new one. You're now excusing your inability to present the evidence for God (that you say exists) because
I'm all about "designations"? How is that a problem for you, who is not bound by these designations that restrict me?
Okay. Hold it. Back up.
You wrote "No one here accepts that Capracus is God,
because he has done nothing that shows he is God."
The implication is that God must do something to show he is God before you will accept him.
But then, when I ask you what God has done that shows you he is God, you come up blank again, and you say it doesn't matter to you.
Which part was the lie? The first part, where you said it was important that God shows he is God, or the second part, where you said it doesn't matter to you that God shows himself?
Okay.
Why is the evidence insufficient?
I take it that if you know the evidence is insufficient, you must have an idea of what would be sufficient evidence.
Can you tell us what that would be?
I already did, at some length, in a previous thread, in a direct response to you regarding exactly the same question. I really don't see the point of jumping through your hoop again. Go back and look at what I wrote there.
So if the evidence that Capracus is not God, is because no one has ever turned out to be God (according to your worldview) )before. How is that evidence. By your own standards?
That's not evidence. That's just commentary.
Just to add: positive evidence is often more persuasive than negative evidence. They say that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but people tend be convinced by actual evidence of presence. There could be an invisible dragon in my garage. There's no evidence that there isn't one there. But then, there's no evidence that there is one, either. In that case we don't end up with a 50-50 probability that the dragon is there.
Capracus isn’t God.
God could appear to be Capracus (if He wanted to be).
How do you know Capracus isn't God, if God could appear to be Capracus? Oh, I know, because of the claim he made. And God isn't capable of making certain claims, even though he can appear to be Capracus. Why is that?
I know for sure Capracus isn’t God.
No you don't. How could you know for sure?
More importantly Capracus knows for sure he isn’t God.
How can you possible know what Capracus does or doesn't know about himself?
You’re not sure because for you there is no God, unless there is evidence. But you cannot discern evidence, as long as you are an atheist.
You are caught in a loop.
Why does being an atheist make somebody incapable of discerning the evidence?
This must be a very strange kind of evidence, where one's prior beliefs about the conclusion actually make the proof of the conclusion invisible.
Is there any other example, apart from God, where belief affects the ability to discern the evidence, in this way?
I note, of course, that you keep alluding to the existence of evidence for God, yet you keep failing to actually present it, whether or not I can discern it. You could, for example, present it and other theists, who can discern it, could confirm to me that, yes, what Jan presented sure is evidence of God.
Why don't you do that?
There is no God, unless there is evidence.
No, that doesn't follow. See above. However, if there is no evidence, we are free to conclude, provisionally, that there is no God. Until something turns up.
I can never identify the evidence, so there is no God until the evidence presents itself.
Strange, this idea of evidence presenting itself. As I recall, I asked
you to present the evidence. You keep saying you have some. Where is it?
When the evidence presents itself, I will accept there is a God. I can not identify what is evidence of God, so there is no God until the evidence presents itself, until the evidence presents itself, I have to conclude there is no God. As I am currently unable to identify evidence for God, I have to assume there is no God, until the evidence presents itself, till that time comes I have to conclude there is no God.
Then you fall on the floor in dizzy heap.
The only wrong step in all that is your assertion that I would be unable to identify evidence of God. But let's assume you're right. You can still present the evidence, and other theists, who can identify the evidence, can confirm that your evidence is, indeed, evidence of God.
There's nothing stopping you from presenting evidence, regardless of whether I can identify it.
If you have any, that is.
You’re right because that would be a waste of my time.
No. You don't realise it, but this is the central question. This magical ability to
just know that you keep trotting out: where does it come from? How does it work?
Firstly you don’t know what is evidence of God.
I know the Kalam Cosmological Argument doesn't provide evidence.
Secondly, it depends on who you ask.
Sure. If you ask somebody who isn't too hot on what a logical argument entails, they might be bamboozzled by the Kalam argument. But to someone who has spent a lot of time engaging in understanding and analysing that argument - like myself - it's very clear.
Quite apart from anything else, Craig's leap from "The universe had a cause" to "The cause is God" is completely unjustified. And that's ignoring his begging of the question.
As for me, I think it is decent evidence of God, if you don’t deny, and, or, reject God.
You think a failed philosophical argument is decent evidence? Okay, well that explains a lot. You're just not very good at this evidence stuff. No wonder you spend so much of your time claiming that it doesn't matter.
That’s where WLC goes wrong. He thinks God is the “Christian God”. In this way his comprehension of God is limited.
Interesting.
So you agree that Craig's Kalam Cosmological argument is flawed, but you still support it in part? You agree that Craig's logic breaks down part way through his argument on that, but you think it's fine up to the point where it breaks.
Previously, you worte that you agree with everything Craig has written. Here we have a point of disagreement. Are you starting to see why it is important to present your own thinking, rather than to pretend to adopt somebody else's thinking willy-nilly?
I don’t know what “ Christian God” means (topic for another thread perhaps).
Doesn't Craig explain that to your satisfaction?