Am I Omniscient Enough to Know There Isn't a God?
District Supt. Harvey Burnett recently asked me this question:
Do I need to have omniscience before I can claim the following things?
1) That there are no unicorns, elves, trolls, or hobbits.
2) That there is no Santa Claus or Easter bunny.
3) That there is no Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Juno, Janus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Baal, Asherah, Molech, Ra, Hathor, Osirus, Seth, Horus, Thor, or one of the 2,500 deities of the world? Logic alone tells me they cannot all exist! Atheism Blog informs us that at least 500 of these deities are dead. Based on this J.L. Schellenberg argues that the odds are always going to favor the conclusion that your view is wrong in this situation. There are just too many other gods out there that undermine the probability that you’ve got the right one.
While I merely mentioned a few things that directly relate to whether I can claim to know the Christian God exists, there are a host of other things I can claim to know without also claiming omniscience. This includes everything I claim to know, as in E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, since Harvey likes to use capital letters to emphasize things. Even though I do not have omniscience I can still claim to know everything that I claim to know, all of it. And trust me on this, there are degrees of assuredness to the things I claim to know, so when I say I know George Washington was the first President of the United States my assuredness of that fact in the past is always going to be less than my claim that when I drop a book it will fall because of gravity. So along with any knowledge claim there is an implicit assuredness factor that is left unstated. But I could state them for you if you want me too, with some further reflection. This means there is always a probability factor involved in all knowledge claims, and I also have a good grasp of those claims of mine that have a higher level of assuredness to them than other things I claim to know that I am less sure about.
So when it comes to my denial that the Christian God of the Bible exists I am about as sure of this as I am that George Washington was our first president, since whether or not this God exists is also a historical conclusion regarding the claims that such a God revealed himself in the past--the ancient superstitious past, mind you.
So in answer to Harvey’s question I know enough to know I don't know that much about the universe, kinda like Socrates who said that the wise person is the one who claims not to know much at all.
But, what I do know tells me there is no creator God, no Holy Spirit, no Trinity, no fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, no universal flood, no Exodus or Canaanite conquest, no prophecy about Jesus that specifically points to him as the Messiah, no virgin birth, no incarnation, no atonement, no resurrection, no ascension into the sky, no future coming of the Son of Man, no great white throne judgment, no Satan, no heaven above nor hell below, and no inspired writings from God.
I could be wrong about these things though, as Harvey will be quick to say since I've just admitted I don't know much about the universe. Yes, I could be wrong. I admit this. I could be wrong about George Washington too. But I consider what I do know to virtually eliminate that possibility. You cannot drive a truckload of silly hypotheses and ignorant conjectures based upon non-veridical religious experiences through that small hole of a possibility.
Now I have a question to ask you Harvey. How much do YOU know about the universe (and I’ll throw in the history of theology, the history of the Bible, the history of the church, apologetics, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy)? ;-) My claim is you don’t know what I do.
How much knowledge of the natural universe do you have? What is the percentage? Give me an estimate. I would like to know.The import of such a question is reflected in the title to this post. Some believers think, perhaps Harvey does too, that in order for me to claim a god doesn't exist I need to know all things. Really? This is so laughable I hardly know where to start, but here we go...
Do I need to have omniscience before I can claim the following things?
1) That there are no unicorns, elves, trolls, or hobbits.
2) That there is no Santa Claus or Easter bunny.
3) That there is no Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Juno, Janus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Baal, Asherah, Molech, Ra, Hathor, Osirus, Seth, Horus, Thor, or one of the 2,500 deities of the world? Logic alone tells me they cannot all exist! Atheism Blog informs us that at least 500 of these deities are dead. Based on this J.L. Schellenberg argues that the odds are always going to favor the conclusion that your view is wrong in this situation. There are just too many other gods out there that undermine the probability that you’ve got the right one.
While I merely mentioned a few things that directly relate to whether I can claim to know the Christian God exists, there are a host of other things I can claim to know without also claiming omniscience. This includes everything I claim to know, as in E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, since Harvey likes to use capital letters to emphasize things. Even though I do not have omniscience I can still claim to know everything that I claim to know, all of it. And trust me on this, there are degrees of assuredness to the things I claim to know, so when I say I know George Washington was the first President of the United States my assuredness of that fact in the past is always going to be less than my claim that when I drop a book it will fall because of gravity. So along with any knowledge claim there is an implicit assuredness factor that is left unstated. But I could state them for you if you want me too, with some further reflection. This means there is always a probability factor involved in all knowledge claims, and I also have a good grasp of those claims of mine that have a higher level of assuredness to them than other things I claim to know that I am less sure about.
So when it comes to my denial that the Christian God of the Bible exists I am about as sure of this as I am that George Washington was our first president, since whether or not this God exists is also a historical conclusion regarding the claims that such a God revealed himself in the past--the ancient superstitious past, mind you.
So in answer to Harvey’s question I know enough to know I don't know that much about the universe, kinda like Socrates who said that the wise person is the one who claims not to know much at all.
But, what I do know tells me there is no creator God, no Holy Spirit, no Trinity, no fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, no universal flood, no Exodus or Canaanite conquest, no prophecy about Jesus that specifically points to him as the Messiah, no virgin birth, no incarnation, no atonement, no resurrection, no ascension into the sky, no future coming of the Son of Man, no great white throne judgment, no Satan, no heaven above nor hell below, and no inspired writings from God.
I could be wrong about these things though, as Harvey will be quick to say since I've just admitted I don't know much about the universe. Yes, I could be wrong. I admit this. I could be wrong about George Washington too. But I consider what I do know to virtually eliminate that possibility. You cannot drive a truckload of silly hypotheses and ignorant conjectures based upon non-veridical religious experiences through that small hole of a possibility.
Now I have a question to ask you Harvey. How much do YOU know about the universe (and I’ll throw in the history of theology, the history of the Bible, the history of the church, apologetics, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy)? ;-) My claim is you don’t know what I do.