Determining the Attributes and Effects of Gods

[cleanhippie]

Found this to be an interesting read. Thought you might too.

How can we know we are looking at a god if we don’t know any of god’s actual attributes? I don’t think we can. But that’s not because I’m being circular or difficult. It’s because we lack a referent in reality to allow us to tell the difference between true and untrue claims about attributes of god. This situation, created by theists, who cannot agree on a metric to differentiate true claims from false claims about gods, is not a problem that can be laid at the feet of atheists. When someone asks me “what evidence would convince you?,” they have already invented a situation where it’s all but impossible to answer, because I don’t know what a god is. There are some vague notions, but nothing specific and agreed upon to the point of usefulness. But bring me your external referent, and then start making your claims, and at that point you and I can compare your claims to a real god and make some determinations about their truth values. Without that, though, it’s claims predicated on claims, predicated on more claims, with no way of determining what is true—for thousands of years, as we have already seen.


http://freethoughtblogs.com/axp/2014/07/03/determining-the-attributes-and-effects-of-gods/

[intaglio]

1. Thanks for this

A very interesting point.

[cleanhippie]

2. The author seems to drive home a point many have tried to make in the other group.

But as usual, it falls on deaf ears.

I suppose this one would too if posted there.

[cleanhippie]

3. Did anyone read this? Thoughts?