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Looking for a counterexample to an argument for God (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by arensb@lemmy.world to c/atheism@lemmy.world
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At some point, I ran across an argument along the lines of: "We hunger, and food exists. We thirst, and water exists. We feel horny, and sex is real. We yearn for God, and so I conclude that God exists."

Now, I can easily pick this apart a bunch of different ways, the easiest one being that just because you want some to exist doesn't mean that it really exists. But what I'm really hoping for is a couple of counterexamples: something like "Yes, well, we all want a unicorn, too, but unicorns don't exist."

This particular one doesn't work because wanting a unicorn isn't a universal desire the way food or sex are (even counting asexual people, we can still say that the vast majority of people want sex). But maybe some of you can think of something.

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[-] MD756@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Maybe it’s not God they yearn for, but meaning.

[-] XCraftMC@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

counterargument for that could be "well god gives me meaning."

[-] MD756@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Sure, but how do they know that? Saying “God gives me x of anything” can be countered with, “how do you know that?”

[-] XCraftMC@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

different things give different people meaning. Religion is a big one, obviously. For some people it's maybe their job, or nature, or a zillion other things. it's different for every person.

this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
26 points (93.3% liked)

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