Clenndenning explores nature of God and belief

Vox Pop

Here are some words on science, religion and the reality of beliefs. Even if we cannot conclusively prove either that God does exist or that He doesn’t, it doesn’t follow that the belief that God exists is just as reasonable or unreasonable as the belief that He doesn’t. If there are very good grounds for supporting God exists and little reason to suppose He doesn’t, it is far more reasonable to believe in God than it is to deny God’s existence.

Conversely, there might be powerful evidence that God doesn’t exist, and little reason to suppose He does, in which case atheism may be far the more reasonable position to adopt. We should not allow the fact that neither belief can be conclusively proved to obscure the fact that one believe might be much more reasonable than the other.

Unfortunately, theists sometimes respond to atheists’ arguments by pointing out that, as the atheist has not conclusively proved there is no God, belief in God must be reasonable after all. Actually, even if the atheist can’t conclusively prove there is no God, they might still succeed in showing that belief in God is very unreasonable indeed, perhaps as unreasonable as a belief in fairies or leprechauns. Pointing out the absence of proof against belief does not push it much up of the scale of reasonableness. People can have true beliefs without having any evidence or justification for them. (Look at politics.) That’s not true knowledge, you need evidence for a belief, and evidence needs truth.

Evidence shows the scale of reasonablenesses is on the high side of science. Religious ideas are the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes for some of mankind. Unfortunately, no human has physically proven a thing about a creator.

Where as some scientific theory is confirmed by available evidence that helps mankind sustain 8.5 billion on this rock. Without science we would have no advantage over nature. And like Plato stated, “If people neglect education, they walk lame for the rest of their lives.

And for the record, I believe in the concept of Deism, but with no evidence to make my belief true, I understand reality rules over unproven beliefs, until proven different. The ambiguity of beliefs makes one crazy world.

— M. Clendenning, Rib Lake