Debate:Evil is the absence of god

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Amount of God

So, I've been thinking about about that argument, and not just because I used to believe it whole-heartedly. This debate isn't to cover the general idea of the argument, but rather the specifics. Maybe not so much a debate as a brainstorm.

Assuming the argument is true (P1: God Exists; P2: Evil is where God is absent God's presence is less than ideal; C1: There exists some amount of God's presence that disallows evil things from happening), exactly how much God does there need to be in a place to prevent evil? How is God's presence in a place quantified? Is it tied to a physical location, like a church or street corner, or to people?

So, for instance, say some assholes plant dynamite at a church and it kills 4 children, injuring 22. Clearly an act of evil, and thus, simply the result of there not being enough God. But how much God did there need to be at a church on Sunday morning to stop such a thing? How does one increase the amount of God in an area?

Is God quantified in prayers per square mile per day? Does the amount of God decay over time if such activities stop? At what rate?

And, most importantly, what type of experiments could be devised to find out these answers? -- Onychoprion (talk) 18:08, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

Possible Experiments

Feel free to offer your own, and/or comment/critique existing ones!

Experiment 1 - Geographical Locations and Prayers per Day

Methodology: Select a set of street corners randomly throughout several cities, and randomly assign a subset of them to be prayer-spots. Over the course of a year, have local pious Christian groups gather and pray at those places daily, semi-daily, bi-weekly, or weekly. Track crime rates at the place, and at varying distances (10 meters, 50 meters, 100 meters). Do the same with the controls.

Data Review: Have a third party review crime rates at the locations throughout the year, and after, not knowing which ones were prayer-spots nor the frequency of prayers. Once completed, the crime statistics could be matched with the points, and if there's a correlation between frequent prayers and decrease in crime, that could give a start to quantifying levels of God needed to prevent evil. -- Onychoprion (talk) 18:08, 21 June 2017 (UTC)