Quote:
Originally Posted by Steerpike
As I said, if this entity is real, then it can provide the proof of its credentials.
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Besides the technicality that divinity can't really prove its own existence (that will always end up in circles), the credentials of divinity have no more credence than the credentials of a magic trick.
Say that you witness a fellow who puts a lady in a box and cuts her in two halves. You're certain that what your eyes tell you is a total reflection of reality. Now there are at least three scenarios. One is that the lady is actually cut in two halves. The magician, it turns out, is not a magician but a brutal serial killer. The other scenario is that the magician has magical powers and the third is of course that, despite your certainty of the contrary, your senses and mind are playing tricks on you.
The first scenario is trivial. The other two, however, are truly Begging The Question. If the magician is claimed to have magical powers, it can always be said that he doesn't and that your mind is playing tricks on you. Similarly, if your mind is claimed to play tricks on you, it can always be said that it doesn't because the magician has true magical powers.
There is no way there can ever be evidence of the magical powers of the magician, no matter how many traces or "credentials" he leaves behind. Since it thus can't be evidential, it has to be taken on faith.
Divinity faces the exact same dilemma.