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CatAvailable3953 t1_j5zfxnc wrote

Reply to comment by wastelandho in Erdogan's governing ally: "I remind Swedish government that Allah is one and his army is Turkish" by michele-x

Can’t prove a negative. It’s like answering “Have you stopped beating your wife?”

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gangler52 t1_j5zn27u wrote

That's the opposite.

Can't prove a negative means you can't prove that Allah isn't one. So in your example, proving that you don't beat your wife is impossible.

"Allah is one" is a positive. You can prove those. The same way you can prove that you do beat your wife.

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Educational_Set1199 t1_j60wkz9 wrote

If you prove that Allah is one, you have also proved that Allah is not two. But "Allah is not two" is a negative, which we know cannot be proved. Therefore, it is impossible to prove that Allah is one.

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SpinningHead t1_j60lblj wrote

>"Allah is one" is a positive. You can prove those.

So prove it.

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gangler52 t1_j61ktv5 wrote

I'm gonna blow your mind here.

There's a difference between not being able to prove something because it's untrue, and being unable to prove something something because it's a negative statement.

Going back to the analogy, you can prove that somebody beats their wife, people do that all the time, but if they don't beat their wife then that's a pretty significant obstacle to that undertaking, and it's not because you're making a statement that would require you have every moment of this dude's life recorded from birth to present day in order to come to a definite conclusion.

You can't prove that unicorns don't exist because the data required for that would be too comprehensive. We haven't observed all of existence. But you can't prove that unicorns do exist, because they don't. You can prove that squirrels exist, by looking out your window, and pointing at the squirrel. Proving the existence of something isn't inherently an impossible achievement.

Proving that something exists and is "one" would obviously need some further work to define what qualities being "one" describes, but that's provable, but only if it's true, as opposed to the reverse, which is fundamentally unprovable without completely unfeasible amounts of evidence.

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PM_ME_UR_XTRA_NIPS t1_j60o4ru wrote

Their prophet consummated his marriage when his wife was a whole 9 years old. Nine. Religion is gross.

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SpinningHead t1_j60pvha wrote

What does that even have to do with proving an imaginary deity "is one"? Also, the Bible is equally gross.

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uummwhat t1_j622ghp wrote

You can prove it is a statement about its provability, not its trueness.

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Khemith t1_j61dmbh wrote

LOL someone probably called you out and now you are trying to use it on someone else, but you only end up proving that you STILL don't understand the concept.

Oh look you're a typical christo reactionary.

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