Is the existence of God a scientific claim?

[the_antithesis]

For starters, everything is subject to scientific scrutiny. Nothing is outside of its purview. Science is not just a tool in our box, but the box full of tools. If anything turned out to produce similarly reliable results, it would go into the box.

Now, to prove god exists, it would be nice if you first defined what you're talking about. God has no definition, so it could be anything and is therefore nothing.

Furthermore, even if you fail in that, there is something we can examine to test to see if it is god or not. People believe in god for a reason. Those reasons can be examined scientifically.

Believers generally shy away from that because unexamined belief is as solid as a rock. Examine it and that belief needs to stand of its own merits and they don't want to take the chance to see that they have none.

[trdsf]

Furthermore, even if you fail in that, there is something we can examine to test to see if it is god or not. People believe in god for a reason. Those reasons can be examined scientifically.

My favorite was the test to see if prayer assists recovery for people in the hospital.  Apparently it does -- but only if you know someone is praying for you.  People who didn't know they were being prayed for recovered at the same rate as the control group.

One wonders what might've happened if they'd had a third group that was told no one was praying for them...

[the_antithesis]

My favorite was the test to see if prayer assists recovery for people in the hospital.  Apparently it does -- but only if you know someone is praying for you.

Yes. It effects you negatively. Power of prayer.

[trdsf]

Yes. It effects you negatively. Power of prayer.

I'm also fond of the implication that the idea of god is basically a placebo, something to trick ourselves, but not actually anything in and of itself.

[Ro3bert]

to ask the question "is there a God?", first of all, almost assures that whatever research is used presupposes there is a God and therefore all resources will be used to "prove" that premise even if the persons reasoning is unconscious.

It seems to me the only way is to not presuppose the assumption and try to figure out where the, so called, big bang came from. Then, maybe, but my own feeling it won't, that leads to a "first cause". Still that wouldn't account for the many qualities assigned to God.

I am an unrepentant atheist who believes there is no sole and at death the only afterlife lies in the memories of other people I've known.

Robert