Kimpatsu

God's existence is an either/or question. Does god exist? Yes or no. God cannot "half exist".
Calvin and Hobbes is better.

Lobstrosity

Well I guess one could propose a quantum theory of God (perhaps I'll call it Quantum-God Dynamics, or QGD for short) in which God's wavefunction is a superpostion of existence eigenstates

|God> = 2^-(1/2) |exists> + i 2^-(1/2) |doesn't exist>

Then I guess it'd be fair to say that God neither exists nor doesn't exist--like Schrodinger's cat--unless a measurement is made to collapse his wavefunction into a specific eigenstate. Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I hit |God> with the Hamiltonian...

Great, but the problem is you don't know any more than anyone else. No one "knows" anything as all knowledge is comprised of assumptions of varying degrees of confidence. So basically we're back to the point where you're making unfounded assumptions.

Abacus

How do you know?

Kimpatsu

I think Yguy confuses "know" with "believe". To know something requires evidence; to believe in something doesn't.

Abacus

Ah yes. I guess it's pretty common for theists to equate belief with knowledge.

Shadowy Man

I thought it was:

To "know" something requires proof.
To "believe" something requires evidence.
And to "have faith" in something requires neither.

yguy

May I take this as a "yes"?

I know that rape is wrong. Don't you? Or do you just "assume it with a very high degree of confidence"?

Lobstrosity

Actually, right and wrong are mere opinions. You don't assume anything as they're predefined as personal beliefs. I don't assume murder is wrong, nor do I know murder is wrong; it's just something I subjectively believe. Others exist who don't view murder as wrong. That doesn't make them "incorrect," it simply makes them dangerous to other humans.

In short, yguy, you need to be honest with yourself and all of us. You don't know half of what you've convinced yourself you do. You believe rape is wrong. It's a personal opinion you hold. Rapists do not share this view of the "truth."

Other people believe eating meat is wrong because you're needlessly causing pain to living creatures capable of suffering. You may not agree with this stance and you may not feel guilt every time you eat a burger, but this isn't because those people are "incorrect" in their "knowledge." It's because rights and wrongs are subjective, personal value judgments that each of us formulates for ourselves based on our experiences in life.

yguy

I do.

Now, are you going to answer my other question?

Lobstrosity

I already have. Talking to you is like repeatedly slamming one's head into a brick wall...sort of like this, I guess :banghead: