2024-02-06, 12:36 PM
(2024-02-04, 10:41 PM)Brian Wrote: [ -> ]No matter what you think makes sense, you cannot prove that your favourite position is the right one. Unless you think you are God, you have to admit that I am right about reasonable uncertainty and the need for faith.
Well I don't think you got my point. None of science can be said to be proved from the point of view of strict logic. No scientific experiment proves anything, as I illustrated by a simple Ohm's law experiment. Scientific measurements have a finite accuracy, can only sample a finite amount of data, etc.
Nevertheless science exists and is useful because it accepts results which still have a certain probability of being wrong. Alternative theories are considered 'disproved' if there is enough evidence against them. I'd say that applies overwhelmingly with materialism. If you rely on the inevitable residual doubt, you aren't doing science.
That seems to leave me with the option to say that God may well exist, but may not be much like the typical god of religions. I also feel free to speculate that there may be a spirit world that works in a less hierarchical way!
David