On the lack of empirical demonstration of the existence of God

Brian Dean bridean@worldnet.att.net
Thu, 17 Dec 1998 18:34:17 -0500 (00913959257, 19981217233835.POFU18214@default) 

JEFF
(on category 2 of non-empirical claims)
	Although I have never been there and thus have no empirical
	evidence of it, the Statue of Liberty exists.

	Although I have never seen her birth certificate, I believe that my
	mother's maiden name was Whittington.

BRIDEAN
The reason I would not doubt these claims has less to do with my ability
to verify them as it does that these are not extraordinary claims.  If for
example, someone were to claim to me that an alien ship crashed at
a certain location and made some wreckage, I could in principle go
there and see if I find any wreckage there.  Whereas if someone claimed
that there is a restaurant in Paris called "Du Forment" it does not seem
to be a bizarre French name (I admit to not knowing French very well)
so I would lend more credibility to that claim then to the claim of the
alien spacecraft wreckage.  But I would not actually try to verify either
claim
but for different reasons:
1) The alien spacecraft wreckage is an unusual enough claim that I would
    probably be wasting my time going there to see if I could find any
wreckage.
    That is unless I have a few hours to kill and it would take me less
than a
    few hours to go there.  But even then, I would have a strong feeling
that I
    am just wasting my time.
2) The "Du Forment" restaurant in Paris is much too far away from me to
    bother going there.  If the same restaurant were in Columbus (where I
    live) I would much more likely go there then I would the alien
spacecraft
    wreckage because I feel that I would not be wasting my time.  The
reason
    I feel I wouldn't be wasting my time going to "Du Forment" is that it
might
    be a good restaurant, whereas the alien spacecraft wreckage is so
unlikely
    as to render me wasting my time going there to be quite likely.