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26 September, 2007

The Negative Proof Fallacy

The WTF quote of the day comes from Praveen Togadia, who says, in an interview with Rediff:

According to rationalists, anything that cannot be proven does not exist. Therefore, since God’s existence has not been proven, he too does not exist. I want to ask them: Has it been proven that God does not exist? So, why are you so eager to believe that God does not exist?

Togadia, of course, is committing the Negative Proof Fallacy. Daft, but entirely expected from the man.

Also, atheism, contrary to a common misconception, is not the belief that there is no God, but the absence of belief in God. There is a difference between believing that there is no God, and not believing that there is God. The former might be an article of faith, but the latter is entirely rational.

For more, read my post, Atheism as the Absence of Belief.

(Togadia link via email from Gautam John.)

Posted by Amit Varma in Miscellaneous | Politics | WTF

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