Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site hplabsc.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!seismo!hao!hplabsc!brengle From: brengle@hplabsc.UUCP (Tim Brengle) Newsgroups: net.religion,net.origins Subject: Re: The Likelihood of Existence Message-ID: <2809@hplabsc.UUCP> Date: Mon, 4-Nov-85 18:30:33 EST Article-I.D.: hplabsc.2809 Posted: Mon Nov 4 18:30:33 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 06:00:15 EST References: <2294@ukma.UUCP> <121@uscvax.UUCP>, <139@sdcc7.UUCP> <1261@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA Lines: 21 Xref: linus net.religion:7763 net.origins:2550 > >Just for the sake of asking, what is 'unlikely' about God existing? > > [paragraph omitted] > > Admittedly, I've always been a bit befuddled by probability stuff, but > likelihood only seems reasonable to me when it deals with recurrent > events like rain, and not with the existence or non-existence of a > particular object like Australia...or God. Although I am not an expert, I have some training in probability. Recurrence is not the appropriate criterion for deciding when to use probability. Uncertainty is. It *is* appropriate to use probability to talk about individual or particular things. Remember the joke about the man being hauled away by airport security for bringing a bomb on board an airplane because the probability of TWO bombs on board being vanishingly small? Probability is most properly used when talking about the unknown. The probability that the universe exists is 1 (certainty), because the universe does exist (metaphysics aside). Similarly, the likelyhood that God exists is also 1. :-)