Quote from: pungopete468 on February 17, 2014, 06:46:08 AM

Quote from: organofcorti on February 17, 2014, 06:31:31 AM

In that case, how do you figure out what things exist and what don't? What level of proof do you need? Do you often carry a pink unicorn poop scoop just in case?

My point was that the statement is "pink unicorns exist" unable to be falsified unless a pink unicorn is detected. If a statement is unfalsifiable, then arguing its merits is pointless.

Unless you're religious, in which case unprovable somethings are the basis for an enjoyable afternoon's debate.

The answer is simple; until you know everything, never discount the probability of something. That doesn't mean you should carry around a pink Unicorn poop scoop; unless of course you have a reason to suspect that you might find a good use for it.

The Higgs Boson particle was theorized in 1964 but humanity lacked the technology to verify it's existence. It took scientists 49 years to develop the knowledge base that allowed for the verification of this particle. The existence of this particle was therefore un-falsifiable from the time is was theorized until the time when the technology was developed that allowed it to be verified and observed.

My point is; when dealing with questions that we can't know the answers to we shouldn't answer them incorrectly just because un-answered questions naturally bother us.

That's fine when a probability is quantifiable, as in your higgs boson example. What is the probability of the existence of god?