{"id":15510,"date":"2025-05-21T00:09:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T03:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/?p=15510"},"modified":"2025-05-27T20:14:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T23:14:59","slug":"913-the-epistemology-of-god-and-the-debate-over-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/archives\/15510","title":{"rendered":"913 &#8211; The epistemology of God\u2014and the debate over nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/913-science-religion-168x100-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"168\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-15511\" \/><audio controls preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/BROADCASTS\/20250521-justRIGHT-913-theEPISTEMOLOGYofGOD-andTheDebateOverNothing.mp3\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\">Your browser does not support the audio element<\/audio><br \/>\nWhether theist or atheist,  both sides of the debate usually share the same logical fallacy &#8211; <strong>the fallacy of non-existence<\/strong>.   On that premise, science invented the &#8216;big bang&#8217; theory while religion invented the &#8216;creation&#8217; narrative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>At the heart of the dilemma lies the attempt to resolve a philosophical issue (the nature and fact of existence) by means other than philosophy.<\/strong>  Neither science nor faith alone are capable of addressing such an issue.<\/p>\n<p>The flaw in <strong>most of the &#8216;creation of the universe&#8217; theories and beliefs<\/strong> is that they <strong>presume that there was once a condition of &#8216;non-existence&#8217;<\/strong> out of which arose existence itself.  It is not even possible to conceptualize a condition described as &#8216;non-existence&#8217; and with good reason; any attempt to do so is contradictory.<\/p>\n<p>To suggest that &#8216;nothing exists&#8217; or or <strong>to refer to the &#8216;existence of non-existence&#8217; is self contradictory and therefore meaningless.  Yet from science to religion, we see an acceptance of the &#8216;existence of non existence&#8217; as if that was some kind of valid premise on which to base any theories or beliefs.<\/strong>           <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To resolve the contradiction, religion&#8217;s narratives describe the &#8216;creation&#8217; of the universe by a supernatural being most commonly referred to as <strong>God<\/strong>.  Science has popularized a &#8216;big bang&#8217; origin of the universe,  followed by evolutionary processes that continue to shape the universe and life into that which exists today.<\/p>\n<p>It must be made clear that by speaking of &#8216;existence,&#8217; we are not referring to any specific entities or existents within the universe.  <strong>Everything in the universe comes into existence and goes out of existence, subject to the law of identity.  But the universe itself is another matte<\/strong>r; it is the &#8216;supreme being&#8217; &#8211; the &#8216;being&#8217; of all, of existence itself.<\/p>\n<p>To the supreme being has been given the name of <strong>God<\/strong> &#8211; and whether one relates to existence either by referring to <strong>&#8216;existence&#8217;<\/strong> literally, or to God as the supreme being, each concept is axiomatic.  This means that <strong>neither can be &#8216;proven&#8217; or &#8216;disproven&#8217;<\/strong> in any meaningful or valid way because any attempt to do so will result in contradiction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Existence exists, and that reality must simply be accepted as axiomatic. <\/strong> Trying to find &#8216;explanations&#8217; for existence is a futile exercise, and diminishes both religion and science in the attempt to do so.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Science is meant to investigate that which exists<\/strong>, not to entertain notions of that which does not exist.  And <strong>religion is meant to provide a basis of morality<\/strong> and to develop a code of behavior that that supports and enhances human life, not to embark on metaphysical expeditions in an attempt to compete with science.<\/p>\n<p>Unless each discipline restricts itself to its own jurisdiction of endeavor, resolving  any theories of &#8216;creation&#8217; either by science or by faith is very unlikely to result in any understanding of existence that is Just Right.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/blog\/913-topics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/images\/buttons\/topics.gif\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/blog\/913-clips-credits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/images\/buttons\/clips_and_credits.gif\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you found this presentation valuable please consider supporting us:<br \/>\n&#x1f9e1; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.me\/justrightmedia\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">PayPal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your browser does not support the audio element Whether theist or atheist, both sides of the debate usually share the same logical fallacy &#8211; the fallacy of non-existence. On that premise, science invented the &#8216;big bang&#8217; theory while religion invented the &#8216;creation&#8217; narrative. At the heart of the dilemma lies the attempt to resolve a <a href='https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/archives\/15510' class='excerpt-more'>[Continue Reading]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,596,28,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","category-ideas","category-latest","category-politics","issues-atheism","issues-deities","issues-existence","issues-god","issues-non-existence","category-12-id","category-596-id","category-28-id","category-6-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15514,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions\/15514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}