1. The default position is agnosticism i suppose.
2. Attributing the existence of the universe to some form of 'first mover' is one position. Extending this to some sentient deity, or a religious belief, is another one entirely. I think I would be willing to accept
3. Your own personal relationship with god is like knowing a person yes, but knowing gods existence is not really- no more than knowing your friend is like knowing the great barrier reef exists.
4. Very true
5. This is because those terms not scientifically defined or labelled, and often have alot of leeway or ambiguity. The existence of a biblical god is not such a thing. The biblical god doesn't need to be 100% proven- but currently there's quite a bit of faith involved.
6. The bible gives us alot of great philosophical and moral teachings and is an important work- this is true. But accepting the word of Christ and the Gospel is probably a more difficult place to start- after all, it rests on assumptions about God.
Still no-one has defined what people mean by existence. If you define say existence as being and becoming, then by that definition, God cannot exist (because God is not 'becoming').
1. Even agnosticism is not neutral though, people who are agnostic still drift towards either position. Agnosticism says you cannot know, and so why bother? Most atheists end up being agnostics.
2 & 3. Ah no, there are 3 types of knowing:
- Knowing by rationalism (think like knowing the moves of a chess) e.g. maths & logic
- Knowing by empiricalism e.g. studying the features of an iceberg.
- Knowing by relationship (e.g. knowing a person)
Firstly, we need to acknowledge the limits of scientific enquiry (empiricism), it is not certainly the best means to study a personal being. Sure we can determine basic facts about them, but the issue is the very notion of 'existence'.
Axioms (not going to prove these):
- The universe exists (it has an essence and a 'becoming' to it)
- The universe is not eternal
- The universe is big/massive/lots of stuff (aka sufficiently complex)
These are the basic things we can determine about this 'being':
- He has to be powerful to be able to create all that exists
- He has to be eternal (which is often what people mean by divine) - the fancy term is transcedence
- He has to be able to connect with the physical world (otherwise the world could not exist)
We cannot deduce more than that by logical construct. Can we deduce whether he exists? (This depends on whether you accept arguments such as the first cause argument, which clearly your question earlier shows you don't, or the ontological argument).
Logically you can show (e.g. using an ontological argument), that God is not simply the universe, because the universe is not eternal, rejecting
pantheism. Scientific enquiry can deduce there isn't some ether (or 'God force') (aka panentheism), although you could argue that the physical laws play the same role (although emerging science debates whether these laws are consistent which I find intriguing but way over my head tbh)
5. With the exception of maths/logic perhaps (but even then the existence of unproved problems shows limit to human knowledge), there is always going to be ambiguity and need for confidence in the data or the methodology or the instrument or the senses.
This is because those terms not scientifically defined or labelled, and often have alot of leeway or ambiguity.
Isn't quite clear what this comment is reference to. But nevertheless even scientifically defined or labelled things have ambiguity and leeway (thats why there is always discussion about reliability, accuracy and validity of experiments), thats why we have terms like confidence and consensus. But no, the reason is because there are more ways to know things then just via science and logic (these same principles apply in a different way of course to theology - the study of God).
But the study of the meta-physical, easily go beyonds empirical studies (which is why panentheism is false in my view), because there are vast unknownness to what could lie beyond if such a God is.
The existence of a biblical god is not such a thing. The biblical god doesn't need to be 100% proven- but currently there's quite a bit of faith involved.
Of course there is going to be some faith involved. But faith is not some irrational decision, it is a trust based on the reliability, accuracy and validity of something. It is not hard to accept the idea of a 'first mover', a very primitive idea of God. No of course not, but often the word 'proof' is tied up with scientific enquiry or logic (often to the exclusion of literature studies and historical studies)
Firstly we need to broaden science to include historical studies, for this angle, we can study the historical data. If the text is 'the Word of God' then we have a contact point for studying (even if just theoretically) what kind of God there is. Often the reason why people don't study it, is because they feel like they need to have the 'God exists' premises, downpacked but it may be more useful, just to look at what is presented and go from there.
And finally...
6. Well, you are dealing with people who claimed to encounter God, so yes if you have difficult accepting the idea of God's existence, then you are going to have a difficult time accepting those who claimed to have seen or heard God. Such is the nature of skepticism.