Originally Posted by Borak
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Sigh, this is not black and white. You guys are replying to each other too rapidly to establish what evidence you find credible, which is the real issue. There could be a lot of "evidence" supporting god claims, but if it is rubbish, you can safely ignore it.
You have to establish some epistemological common ground and agree upon what constitutes good evidence and bad evidence. Very briefly, I will outline a few forms of evidence, from least credible to most credible:
1. Hearsay (written words/text)
2. Statement of authority (similar to #1 except made by "experts" such as professors / law enforcement / etc)
3. Historical evidence
4. Personal experience (only if it is your own, others fall under hearsay)
5. Scientifc theory (meaning well supported explanatory model, not "guess")
6. Mathematical calculation
If a problem boils down to a mathematical calculation (how far will this tank of gas allow me to drive), you would be ridiculed for ignoring the result because you think you know better. Similarly, if your evidence comes in the form of spoken words, no matter how eloquent, they cannot be given much weight.
OK, so this is a brief list of the TYPES of evidence there are. Now the question is, how much evidence do you need? Well, this depends on how great the claim is. If I claim to have $5 in my pocket, I doubt you would need much evidence for it, you might not even ask me for any. In any event, it would be trivial to produce the evidence. Now if I claimed to have $500,000 in the bank, you wouldn't just believe me saying so, you'd ask for a little evidence, but it wouldn't shock you either.
If I claimed to be worth $1 billion, you'd ask for a TON of evidence, because while billionaires exist they are quite rare and you can probably access a publicly available list of every one of them.
Now, if someone comes to me and states a claim that a supernatural being exists that is greater than this entire universe, what greater claim is there? This claim would require the best and greatest amout of evidence possible, and yet most often all the evidence offered is words in an old book. It doesn't take "faith" to reject a claim supported by the flimsiest of evidence.
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