zodiac30 Dec 2005

Good logic is, well, logical. It starts with propositions and makes a logical conclusion. Like:

1. I am taller than my brother.
2. My brother is six feet tall.
3. Therefore, I'm taller than six feet tall.

Or,

1. All apples are fruits.
2. Meat is not a fruit.
3. Therefore meat is not an apple.

That I'm taller than my brother and that my brother is six feet tall are proveable; we're both in the house, we can measure. That I'm taller than six feet follows naturally. Even things that don't exist can be logical. For example:

1. In an imaginary universe, all snorkbeasts have fangs.
2. Steve does not have fangs.
3. Therefore, Steve is not a snorkbeast.

Bad logic makes one or more mistakes in that process. Easy examples of bad logic are:

1. I'm taller than my brother.
2. My brother is six feet tall.
3. Therefore, I'm older than my brother.

1. I'm taller than everybody.
2. My brother is six feet tall.
3. Therefore, I'm taller than my brother.

1. All apples are fruits.
2. Meat is not an apple.
3. Therefore, meat is not a fruit.

It doesn't make any difference that I AM older and taller than my brother; the logical process getting there is still flawed, because height doesn't really have anything to do with age, and because I'm not taller than everybody. Anyway, that's the short version.

What I've been trying to say is that everybody needs to stop talking about God in the context of logic, because whether you believe in God or not ultimately comes down to whether you accept 'God can do everything' and 'God knows best' as true. There are no possible proofs for those propositions, so in the end you have to just decide to accept them or not based on your own feelings. I'm also saying that if you believe in God, He seems very obvious and things seem very reasonable. But if you don't believe in God, He seems very non-obvious and things seem very reasonable. Logic has nothing to do with it. And trying to 'prove' God with logic is actually disgusting.