[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Zapmeister:

quote:

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Originally posted by PvK:
[qb] While it is true that we could all be Norfleet, it is perhaps more likely that... It's possible. Just not very likely.

Hmmm. Someone with more education in this area may care to correct me, but I believe that the above statement is untrue for a rather esoteric reason.

That reason is that the words "likely" and "possible" imply a probabalistic treatment of an existential question, which is invalid.

It is meaningless, for example, to conclude that there is a 60% chance that there is a god. Either there is a god or there isn't - there's no 60% about it.

The same applies to questions of historical fact. You can't say that its likely that the Great Flood occurred, because it has already either happened or not. What you can describe is your uncertainty in the matter, which is different (being a statement about your knowledge rather than about the alleged event).

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I am not an expert there myself but I believe that what you said about invalidness of probabalistic approach to an existential question such as wether the god exist or no, is correct.

However I think that you can approach in such matter the historical questions, such as wether graet flood or other global event happened there and than, or not. Granted, it would likely to be impossible to calcualte exact probablility, but you can, assuming that you posses enough historical related information, operate with terms such as "very likely",
"possible", "highly unlikely", etc.

Oh well, I hope I am answering the correct question here Zapmeister - midnight is not a good time to get existential. Time to hit the bed.