Absolute Proof

[Teddio]

Is Absolute Proof ever possible for a human? (not alcoholic !)

[bert_h]

No; whatever one person thinks is proof, another person will think is just handwaving and wordplay.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't even have proof there is a world out there. You lot are part of my imagination.

[Zacs-Master]

Have you been watching The Matrix again?

[mibn2cweus]

Is Absolute Proof ever possible for a human?

Absolutely! To say it's not would be a contradiction.

[naomi24]

The religious like to think they have absolute proof in their books - but of course, they don't.

[chakka35]

I'm happy to follow Descartes' Cogito Ergo Sum - I think Therefore I Am.

The fact that I am thinking is proof enough for me to believe that I exist. Of course, as Old_Geezer says, I don't know that the universe or the rest of you exist. And I don't know what my existnce involves: I may be an alien on Mars, just dreaming about living on a planet called Earth.

But we get along OK by living with probabilities. That evolution explains complex life is extremely probable because it makes sense and there is a mass of evidence to support it. That gods exist is extremely improbable because it makes no sense and there is no evidence to support the idea. If we use our brains we can do without proof.

[mibn2cweus]

naomi24
The religious like to think they have absolute proof in their books - but of course, they don't.
16:25 Thu 28th Feb 2013

Some folks wouldn't know a contradiction if it was staring back at them in the mirror.

[naomi24]

.... unless .... on reflection.... :o)

[Noth43]

The only thing I know is that I know nothing

Socrates

[mibn2cweus]

Noth43
The only thing I know is that I know nothing

Socrates
17:08 Thu 28th Feb 2013

Some credentials . . . :o/

[Teddio]

Thank you all for your insightful answers to my first ever AB question.

[vetuste_ennemi]

No, Teddio. "Scientists believe in proof without certainty; bigots believe in certainty without proof." (Ashley Montagu).

[mikey4444]

Don't understand the question....proof of what exactly ?

[atalanta]

You could prove you have nerves in your big toe. Just kick a wall.

[chakka35]

vetuste - Ashley Montagu plainly knows little about science and scientists. The idea that they accept proof without certainty is absurd. In fact, they never accept certainty however great the evidence. Even the longest-accepted scientific principles are still theories - to be adapted if new evidence comes along.

His is one of those flip sayings that fools the unthinking.

[chakka35]

For 'fools' read 'fool'.

[vetuste_ennemi]

In descending order of importance, Chakka:
The grammar in your first post was correct, what with the subject of the verb being singular and all.
"In fact, they [scientists] never accept certainty however great the evidence.". I think that is exactly what the quotation was trying to say. Montagu and his aphorism were previously unknown to me. I found the quotation in the book Evolution v Creationism by the fragrant Dr. Eugenie Scott (of the National Center for Science Education) who cited Montagu to illustrate the difference between the scientific method and the fundamentalist mind set.