Falsifying God? (Agnosticism)

by dhw, Sunday, December 21, 2014, 14:18 (3385 days ago)

Tony: (under "Horizontal Gene Transfer")Hrmm, but the concept of God, at least from my perspective, is falsifiable. Both by science, Archaeology, and Philosophy. I am not going to hijack this thread derailing into that statement, but yes, there is a means to falsify god, and ironically, God provides the means to falsify him.
David: Please give us your approach. This is an instructional and learning website.-TONY: The Bible's claim is that it is 100% true. That gives three sets of predictions:
The statements regarding science will be 100% accurate. 
The Statements regarding history will be 100% accurate. 
Neither one of those, in of itself prove anything divine, but they do build a record of reliability.
The on the proves divine influence is prophecy. Since prophecy, particularly specific prophecies over large time scales have no rational explanation, a 100% accuracy rating is the test of falsifiability.-I have several problems with this line of argument. Firstly, although I can't argue with you about details of the prophecies, there are plenty of folk who can. I googled FALSE PROPHECIES BIBLE and found numerous websites. The most detailed was-	http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Failed_biblical_prophecies-The tone is sometimes unpleasant, and some of the entries are pretty non-descript, but there are quite a few that run directly counter to what has actually happened. -Secondly, as we keep saying, the bible is a collection of books written by different authors. If a prophecy proves to be false, it will not falsify the concept of God. It will only falsify the claim of the particular author that God is speaking through him, and the claims of those who believe that the bible is the Word of God. So the concept of God can't be falsified in this way.-Thirdly, although in my view God's existence can't be falsified by prophecies, it could certainly be proven beyond any doubt: for instance if, as the Bible prophesies, the seven seals really are opened, God's chosen 144,000 male virgins really conquer the “beast”, Satan is imprisoned for a thousand years, God defeats the kings of the Earth, passes his judgement, and the old world is replaced by a new heaven and earth. However, I doubt if I shall be around, even if it happens.


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