skid: Regardless of where the
burden of proof lies, in
JustSomeGuy's own words, "there is no way to prove the non-existence of God." That's different from the node title, which claims that "the existence of God cannot be disproven." It can be disproved (if it can be "proven" in the first place) but as JSG said, God can't be proven to
not exist. That's what this node is really about.
Lord Bear: It's not limited to the human system. An omnipotent being can make eirself undetectable to anyone, even a being of "higher evolution," assuming that being isn't itself omnipotent. Perhaps there can't be multiple omnipotent beings, but that's a whole 'nother cup o' beans.
However, JSG's argument is fine, it only applies to the nodescript onmiscient omnipotent being. Most Christians like to throw in omnibenevolent, which makes for a new problem, and may allow for disproof of this good god.
(I'm a
skeptic (
Epistemologically speaking) so I don't believe
anything can be proven beyond all doubt.
Descartes destroyed my illusion of knowledge and failed miserably in his awful attempt to recreate it.)
Some years later: I'd make this writeup not suck, but I'm too lazy. For now I'll just point out that the verificationist would define JustSomeGuy's god as non-existent.