re: #675 Director of the Stratosphere

It’s a bit more complicated than what I’ve described.
There are two levels of discourse in which it is possible to say “there are no gods” with two different results.
One could be speaking in the absolute language and one could be speaking in everyday language of probabilities.
In everyday language phrases like “Napoleon existed” and “Santa does not exist” are unremarkable. It can be argued that despite there always being possible defeaters for these claims (e.g. maybe historical record about Napoleon was forged, and nobody has actually proved Santa does not exist, so there is a possibility of him existing) we don’t frown at them. So if by “God doesn’t exist” someone means “No, I don’t claim absolute knowledge, but there are this, this and this probabilistic reasons to not seriosly consder God’s existence”, it’s OK.

In absolute language - such as might be used in philosophical musings - the absolute claim of gods not existing is pretty problematic.

As long as you throw “probable” in there, you are pretty snicker-proof.