Yikes. Remind me to never use the word "stalemate" so casually ever again.thePyro_13 said:That stalemate comes across as your loss, "prove they don't exist" is a logical fallacy. You cannot prove that anything doesn't exist. We prove that things do exist. But we cannot prove that something isn't happening as that would require us to completely examine all evidence everywhere, which simply isn't feasible unless we already know everything. The onus of proof is on the person who claims something exists.The Spartan E1337 said:No, I cannot prove that they do exist. Which seems to put us in the stalemate that I so often find myself in when I have this discussion. Oh well.
And for the record, I don't believe the people who hear a creaky house and scream "Ghosts!!" or try to go hunting for ghosts and whatnot. They are just nutters. But I like to think that there are some things in life that you just can't explain, but that doesn't make them any less true by default.
And that video was fantastic.
You cannot prove that gods don't exist.
You cannot prove that CatDog doesn't exist.
You cannot prove that the flying spaghetti monster doesn't exist.
That's no good reason to believe in those three things(you can have other reasons if you so wish, but not the above reasons). And the person who cannot prove that CatDog doesn't exist does not stalemate with me. If I think catdog exists, I have to prove it.
This is true for all parts of life. Suspected criminals must be proven guilty, it's not up to them to prove themselves innocent. New theory's are assumed to be wrong first, and must be proven to be correct.
Proving a negative is impossible. Any argument that relys on tricking your opponent into trying to prove a negative is simply wrong. Please don't do it. If you don't want to defend your belief, then just don't argue about it. Your wasting the time of anyone who is putting research and logic into their argument when you start working with fallacies.
Prove I'm not a ghost! Prove ghosts cannot touch keyboards! Now you have to agree that I am a ghost or we have to agree to disagree. Stalemate indeed.
You seem to be under the impression that I believe in ghosts simply because they cannot be proved to not exist. I suppose that is my fault due to the way I worded my first post, so I will accept blame for that. I believe in ghosts for other reasons, but I didn't include them because I assumed that either other people have said most of them or they would be easy to infer.
My argument is not to convince you that I am correct, because I am aware of how difficult that would be. I am also aware of the fact that, in the eyes of the world, I am the one who needs to support my theory, because it is the newer and less accepted one. Unfortunately, I don't have the kind of proof that would win anyone over, so I have no leg to stand on.
When I said "stalemate," I meant that neither of us would be able to convince the other of our beliefs. I am a man of logic and reason. If you can prove to me that ghosts do not exist, I will gladly agree with you. Until that time, however, I will continue to support my opinion, albeit weakly.