Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Three Gods

I'm not sure where this originated, but I heard it from Matt Dillahunty.

Let us assume that there are three gods;
God 1 exists and manifests in reality.
God 2 exists, but doesn't manifest in reality.
God 3 doesn't exist.

The argument is that God 2 and God 3 are indistinguishable.  They are both untestable claims, as there can be no parameters for that which doesn't manifest in reality.  So neither God 2 or God 3 can be defined meaningfully without interactions with reality.

God 1 on the other hand, manifests itself in reality.  I'm not admitting the argument that it used to directly manifest in reality, because there is no evidence of it doing so.  At any rate, this is a testable claim.  If a God 1 manifests in reality, it has a measurable effect on something.  The challenge is to determine which something we're discussing.  I'll open myself for ridicule and say that there is no measurable effect of any deity.  I invite contradiction and correction, please, prove me wrong.

The end result seems to be that God 1 is nonviable while God 2 is viable, but meaningless.  God 3 of course, doesn't exist.

There are three options;
  1. There exists a deity which manifests in reality, but masks it's interventions such that it's impossible to verify it, making it look like...
  2. There exists a deity which does not manifest in reality at all, making it look like...
  3. The deity which does not exist.
Based on that progression, it would seem that an interventionist god is a false and incoherent idea in reality.

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