"Can you prove God doesn't exist?" (an imaginary exchange)

[Towlie]

"Can you prove God doesn't exist?"

"Maybe."

"What do you mean, 'maybe'? Either you can prove it or you can't!"

"Until I know what your standard of proof is I can't be sure I could prove to you that water is wet, so first I'll have to ask you some questions."

"Like what?"

"Do you believe Godzilla exists?"

"No, of course not!"

"Can you prove Godzilla doesn't exist?"

"Yes, of course I can. Everyone knows Godzilla is just something people made up."

"Okay, then yes, I can prove to you that God doesn't exist. All I need is to hear your proof that Godzilla doesn't exist and then repeat it back to you without the 'zilla'!"

[CrispyQ]

1. Thanks. Now I'll have the Blue Oyster Cult song in my head all day!

Fortunately, I like it!

[oldlibdem]

2. With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound......

Jesus enters the temple and pulls the moneychangers, downnnnnnnnnnn. GODZILLA!

[elias7]

3. The god exists/doesn't exist argument doesn't make sense to me

How can there be a reasonable discussion or proof if the thing we are trying to prove or disprove is not defined? When someone says they believe in god, what do they mean by god? If one person means something concrete, like a 24/7/365 Santa Claus type personality with will and ability to hear and respond to 7.5 billion people, and another person means something transcendent, like a conceptual naming of whatever undefinable energies and processes that led up to this moment where there is you and me on this amazing sun-heated planet discussing existence, the discussion is absurd.

I agree that any human construct like God or Godzilla is clearly fiction. It is easy to reject. But if God is the only substance in the universe and everything else is but an extension or attribute of that single real thing as Spinoza suggests, or if as a Taoist views the universe - as a process or a Way that has led up to this day and that process, which one might label Tao necessarily exists, I think the debate becomes much more interesting and substantive.

The word god instantly renders thoughts or images in our minds of what we imagine the nature of god to be, but we more commonly ask if one believes in god or not, rather than what are you imagining god to be. In the West, god is visualized as a personality you have a relationship with. In the East god is not definable, but is the mystery of your existence that you can either identify with or not.

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. My sig line;

"Prove there is no god" OK...do you believe in Zeus? "No, of course not" Fine. Tell me how you arrived at that conclusion and I'll just use your method."