It’s been something of a week for Ask an Atheist and company, hasn’t it? Join us as we talk about it as well as how it might be possible for the religious to change our minds. Your hosts will be Mike and Sam, plus new host (but familiar voice) Deanna.
Sam Mulvey is a producer and the technical brain behind Ask an Atheist. He is a collector of vinegar varieties, vintage computers, antique radios, and propaganda.
In the discussion of what would convince you that there’s a god, you pointed out the difficulty in distinguishing between a god, and a “mere” superhero like Superman. And it’s true that any demonstration of godly powers, be it curing hunger, or rearranging the stars, or creating new universes on demand, could be achieved by sufficiently-powerful aliens (for varying levels of “sufficiently-powerful”). But I was thinking of a line from Watchmen, when Jon Osterman becomes Dr. Manhattan, and one of his coworkers says “God exists, and he is an American.” It seems to me that at some point, you might… Read more »
arensb, I completely agree. I referenced Superman because Superman is easier to prove because his powers are more easily defined and measurable. But when you bring in a character like Dr. Manhattan, Q, or Samantha from Bewitched.. these are people who could copy any “miracle” that appeared in the Bible and plenty more that haven’t been thought of…yet, we wouldn’t define them as gods. To define something as having NO limits seems almost impossible to prove. The claim is just so big. Impossibly big. Unlike Bigfoot and Superman, which are easy to define, God claims tend to be vague. This… Read more »