• Question: what do you think of Feuerbach's proof of the NON existence of god i think its a load of rubbish and doesnt prove anything but how about you???

    Asked by mendelev69 to Jack, Jon, Tom, Yalda on 16 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Tom Branson

      Tom Branson answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      Being honest with you, I have not heard of this man untill reading your question. But I had a look at his theories and it sounds interesting…

      There are many ideas and “proofs” about god. But really it is an individual decision. At the moment nobody can proove it either way so whatever you want to believe is up to you. Make your own decision on the evidence around you and think of your own ideas about the world. Lots of people believe in a god, and lots of people don’t.

    • Photo: Jack Heal

      Jack Heal answered on 16 Mar 2013:

      Thanks for this question. I also hadn’t heard of Feuerbach and so looked him up and found it really interesting. I don’t believe his argument is a proof. His argument seems to be that “God is a projection of man”. In other words, humans created the idea of God to help them cope with their fears of things like the afterlife, and to give them hope. This could be true, but it may not be, and so it is not a proof. (A proof can’t be disputed!)
      It is not a proof that God doesn’t exist because the question still remains “where did the humans come from in the first place?”

      Another question we got on here was about St. Thomas Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument. This says “we don’t know where we came from, so we must have been made by God”. Again, this isn’t a proof for me: just because we don’t know what the answer is doesn’t mean that the answer is “God”.

      I think that these arguments are interesting. They are fun to read about because they make you think about things in a new way, even though they do not answer the question of God’s existence or non-existence. So I don’t think it’s a load of rubbish, but I agree with you in that I think it doesn’t prove anything.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      You’re totally getting us to do some homework, aren’t you! I can’t say I know much about his philosophy but I do know that for some people belief in a god is exactly that – a belief. It comes from something inside them and, whatever the evidence for or against the case – they believe there is a god. In the same way as I don’t believe there is a herd of unicorns at the bottom of my garden (but have no proof either way), some people believe there is a god (despite any proof).

    • Photo: Jon Marles-Wright

      Jon Marles-Wright answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      I had to look Feuerbach up too! His argument doesn’t seem like a proof, more a theory. I’d say I agree to some extent with his argument, but that’s just a personal belief. We don’t have good scientific tests to prove/disprove the existence of God, so arguing about it is kind of pointless.

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