Tycho:
I would disagree with the idea that a belief which is held on faith cannot be proven or disproven. It would no longer be an article of faith after it was proven or disproven, but I don't really see that as a problem.
That's my point exactly.
quote:
The "belief in God is based on faith, faith is belief in something unproven, therefor God cannot be proven" argument is a bit circular in my mind. Why is belief in God based on faith?
I think he is saying that you can't prove something that is beyond you or your mind to comprehend, and faith fills in the gap. Therefore, God is unprovable TO US, but obviously not to God. So my argument is that the closer we get to God, the more the faith is replaced by knowledge, and if we could ever become just like God, the faith would not be necessary at all.
quote:
Because you can't prove it. Why can't you prove it? Because it's based on faith.
No, I think he's saying you can't prove it because our minds cannot comprehend it completely and therefore faith becomes an article of faith. Of course, he was also working in the confines of the Bible, and proving God to him would be contradictory to biblical passages--meaning only one or the other is true.
quote:
It's more accurate (in my view, at least) though less dramatic, to simply say that something which is based on faith hasn't been proven, rather than that it can't be proven. It would, however, make sense in the opposite direction: if something can't be proven, then belief in it requires faith.
I agree.
However, I think given the resources and mental capability, anything can be proven--we are just too weak and powerless to prove very much.