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Monday, November 6th, 2006 03:19 am (UTC)
Good questions. I guess a god is a being which can control the laws of nature to effect its will. There's nothing in that which prohibits there being more than one being capable of it, and should multiple gods exist, they may act independently or cooperate imperfectly.

Evidence for gods would consist of manipulations of nature towards a purpose. Granted prayers, smiting of infidels, and other series of coincidences or miracles visibly directed to a purpose would be examples of evidence. There's no guarantee that the actions of many gods would differ from the actions of one, but if they acted with consistently different goals or methods, it would present evidence for that.

What evidence would I expect for an active god? Just what I said above: series of coincidences or miracles visibly directed to a purpose. If sailors who didn't sacrifice goats to Poseidon before sailing consistently drowned, then there'd be evidence that somebody with extraordinary powers wanted sailors to make sacrifices to Poseidon. In my opinion, that's the sort of evidence scientists are looking for when they do prayer experiments, and not finding.

For a non-active creator god, say, I'd expect evidence that the universe and its laws of nature were designed to serve a purpose. No such purpose is clear, examining the parts of the universe we can see.

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