Gnostic Atheists: How do you know for a fact that there is no God?
This comment was posted to reddit on Apr 28, 2019 at 11:29 am and was deleted within 15 hour(s) and 38 minutes.
Gnostic Atheists: How do you know for a fact that there is no God?
I don't believe fire-breathing dragons, leprechauns or vampires exist. When I wake up tomorrow, do I believe they will still not exist? Yes.
Would I bet my life on it? Yes.
Can I prove for a fact that they do not exist? No. Why? Because any such proof would rely on an inductive argument:
I have never seen such creatures in my life before and their existence has never been reported.
Therefore, I will never see such creatures in my life and their existence will never be reported.
Why is this argument questionable? Because it is an inductive argument.
So what? If you are going to use an inductive argument, it is up to you to provide a justification for inductive reasoning as a means of deriving knowledge about reality (see the "Problem of Induction").
But that's stupid Nobody can function in life if they don't believe that the sun will turn black tomorrow or the laws of physics will change when they wake up tomorrow morning? So what. This argument not about what seems intuitive or what makes it capable for you to function in life, this argument about dispassionate logic.
Your stupid. Do you really think the laws of physics will randomly change when you wake up tomorrow morning? No.
But you just said we can't prove that the laws of physics will not randomly change when you wake up tomorrow morning? Yes. So what. I can believe something without being able to claim that I've proved it. For practical purposes, I can trust my intuition and base my life on it without making claims about knowledge. That's what I'm getting at.