From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Jul 05 2000 - 11:46:51 MDT
See http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kevsol/seat4.html#corner
"Thirty Proofs of God's Existence."
Some of my favorites:
1. We can never really prove or disprove the existence of God.
Therefore, God exists.
8. Even though I know very little about Nature, I feel certain that it
could not have, by itself, produced things like consciousness, sunsets
and birds. Therefore, God exists.
10. The light in a child's eyes has to come from somewhere and it
couldn't possibly be that dull, grey mass called the brain. Therefore,
God exists.
12. The Bible says that God exists and it would never lie. Therefore,
God exists.
16. There have been many who have martyred themselves in the service of
God. Look at the early Christians in Rome! It is simply inconceivable
that they would have sacrificed themselves like this had God not
actually existed. Therefore, God exists.
17. I am a person and therefore important. Therefore, God really does
exist!
18. When I kneel down and pray for God's forgiveness, I feel uplifted,
as if touched by a higher power. Therefore, God exists.
20. Since becoming a Christian, I have given up my drinking and whoring,
and have become a better person who cares for others. I am currently at
peace with the world. How can you account for this other than the fact
that God exists?
21. When I entered the Christian community, I felt for the first time I
truly belonged. Here at last was my true family, a family I have never
known. Therefore, you can have my word on it, God most certainly does
exist.
24.When I prayed to God, He cured my mother's cancer. Therefore, how can
you say that God doesn't exist? [Note: This one would be pretty good
if it were experimentally repeatable.]
26. Unfortunately, we are only human. We cannot become perfect, as Jesus
urged us to do. Therefore, God exists in order to console us.
28. I don't want to know anything. I just want everything to be a great
mystery, like in childhood. I just want to bury my head in God's
shoulders and cry. Therefore, God exists.
30. Although my head tells me that God is a ludicrous concept, my heart
cries out for His existence. Indeed, the fact that I see God as being
ludicrous is precisely a test of my faith. The more ludicrous God
appears to me, the stronger is my faith in believing in Him. Therefore,
after examining the matter from all angles, I can only conclude that God
exists.
"I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and
detesting superstition."
-- Voltaire.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://singinst.org/beyond.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:29:43 MST