Sunday, July 07, 2019

Objectivity and provability

Before black swans were discovered in Western Australia, people believed that all swans were white. We had no proof that black swans existed. Nevertheless, the objective fact was, and is, that there were black swans in Western Australia. Objectivity is about what is real, not what we can prove. 
God, for example, might really exist, but have provided us with no proof of his existence sufficient to convince all reasonable persons. But his objective existence (or nonexistence) does not depend on it being provable either way. 

1 comment:

Starhopper said...

With all due respect, I think your OP gets it all wrong, Victor. It's not like unbelievers have been looking in the wrong place, or haven't looked hard enough.

Any "physical" so-called evidence for God would in fact be nothing of the sort. Such can only be evidence for something within creation. God as creator, being outside of and beyond the created world, can not be "proven" by anything within creation. He can certainly be seen from within creation (as St. Paul tells us), but not demonstrated.