Big fan of Carl Sagan, he was like a father figure to me, I’m partially molded by him.
That said, something he used to say all the time really baffled me, still does:
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”
He said this when talking about aliens.
However: Sagan was a famous non believer.
How does this aphorism reconcile with the existence or non existence of a god?
If “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” does that apply to a god as well?
Is there a god even though there is no evidence of him/her/it?
In: 95
To a scientific mind, yes. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and the question of the existence of God is no different. SPOILER ALERT re: Contact (the novel). If you know Sagan and his views on religion, the very end of his novel Contact (not included in the movie) is shocking. He presents his scientist protagonist discovering pretty uncontravertible evidence of the existence of a creator god who wants his presence known (or at least discoverable to mathematicians). While I was as surprised as anyone at this, I am sure that his point was (a) this is the level at which you’d have to find evidence of God for it to be convincing, and (b) no, scientists are not anti-religion, but will change their views of the world when presented with actual evidence, as this is the very meaning of science.
Latest Answers