How do I know there is not, nor ever could be, such a thing asGod?

Well, how would one seek to prove that there is a God, unequivocally? What scientific evidence could there possible be? Hypothetically, one might say, "Well, if God appeared one day and said, 'Hello. this is God.'" But anyone could go around claiming to be God. If you saw someone you knew one day claiming they were God, you'd just say, "The hell you are, Dave! I've known you all my life."

"Well," Dave says, "How do you know I haven't really been Him this whole time?"

"Because you're not omnipotent and I saw you kick that cat that one time. God wouldn't kick a cat."

"Well, how do you know that he wouldn't? Aren't the true characteristics of God unknowable after all?"

That brings up a good question: How "knowable" is God? If a supernatural deity did exist, what would distinguish it from the rest of the universe? If a characteristic is that He isn't distinguishable (not just now, but EVER), then what grounds would you ever have to claim anything could ever be God, for certain? Furthermore, how do you know that God, in fact, is never distinguishable unless you are formulating this hypothesis without good cause? If the case is that God's existence can't ever be proven because He doesn't look or act any different from the rest of non-God reality, then there is no valid argument to conceptualize anything as being "God". If your "God" can more readily be defined as "the universe and the physical properties thereof," then all you have done is add a superfluous word to the human language.

In order for objective existence-- of anything-- to be claimed, there must be grounds for it to be first regarded as an observable "thing," that is, it must have characteristics which can be identified and studied. If no differentiating characteristics can be observed, whether directly (via the primary human senses), or indirectly (via instruments or through a mathematical science like quantum physics), there can be no grounds to say there is any "thing" at all.

The existence of dark matter is not observable directly, but it's existence remains detectable via calculations on the rotation of the galaxy and what we know about the matter we can observe with our eyes. Furthermore, while it doesn't scatter light, its gravity bends light so it can be detectable with certain telescopes through lensing. These characteristics tell us, while we don't completely understand what dark matter is or how it operates, we know that it has unique characteristics which permit scientists to study its existence further.

Unless God can exhibit certain distinguishable characteristics that can allow us to conclude that, no only is this a "thing", but also something which we can logically conceptualize as a supernatural being or deity-- a "higher power," if you will-- can there even possibly be a conclusion about whether anything is, or is not a God.

This is where you run into further problems. Most religions' God (or Gods) have different characteristics and personalities. Some say that He is all loving and merciful, while other depict theirs as spiteful and the cause of all types of natural disasters and misfortunes. Some think that God "tests" us by conjuring up bad things while others say it is the work of the Devil or demons. Certain individuals claim to believe in some kind of supreme being or creator of the universe which they attribute their own, unique characteristics to Him that don't follow the teachings of any organized religion. Usually these people refer to themselves as "Deists,"

which is really just a way for those who are uncomfortable with organized religions to not have to give up their security blanket of believing there is still a benevolent, mystical father-figure out there who loves them unconditionally-- or worse still-- gives them an excuse not to have to employ reason or logic to understand reality.

In order for some entity to be proven to be a supernatural creator of the universe, we first need to come up with grounds to properly conceptualize what it is we would be looking for. If some observable "thing" is out there which could objectively be called God, how would we know when we've found it (providing, of course, that it were ever feasibly possible to discover such a thing)? If you don't have an objective concept of God, then there is nothing stopping your friend, Dave, from claiming that he is God, despite behaving just like another human.

Let's come up with a working list of attributes that just about anyone would agree encompasses what we mean when we say "God":

-All powerful (there is nothing that He can't do)
-All knowing (He knows everything that could be known)
-Loves all humans unconditionally
-The creator of the universe
-Intelligent (capable of logical thinking)
-Exists beyond the universe (in another dimension/universe)
-Operates on a logic that transcends our own
-Supernatural (can orchestrate miracles that defy nature)

Well, I think it's easy to say that if God is all powerful and all knowing, then He can't be always benevolent, since that implies that he is responsible for all unjustness in the world. And if it wasn't part of his plan for the unjustness of the world to happen, then he must not be all powerful since he couldn't stop it. If he could have, but didn't want to, then he is an accessory and is therefore just as morally culpable since he let something terrible happen to one of His "creations" that he loved.

Furthermore, what need would there be for an all powerful, all knowing God to have "intelligence"? Or rather, what good would thinking or reason do Him, if He already knew the solution to any possible problem He could have before he could have it? And if he was all powerful, wouldn't he have solved it before it needed solving? Does he need to think out what His plan is or how to implement it at all? He wouldn't have to think about what He's going to do next-- He would just be operating on whim at all times. Clearly, the idea that God would have an intelligence, or a mind, or could think is something of human creation and that we would need to attribute to a God that could design a universe "intelligently," in any sense of the word. And frankly, there isn't much evidence to suggest that this universe is designed intelligently or under any plan-- at least not for lifeforms at any rate. Its pretty hard to stay alive, if you think about it. If it wasn't for the capacity to reason and build our own habitat that could keep us a live for long periods of time, humans would still only last until the 30s if they were lucky. And that's just on Earth, not to mention how utterly uninhabitable the rest of the universe is for life, let alone human life.

Although perhaps the case is that there is, or was, a God at the creation of the universe who set the Big Bang into motion and designed the universe without life in mind (judging from how difficult it is for life to survive in it). However, there was such an entity who exists in some other dimension who is just sort of apathetic about the whole thing. But let's still say that there could be a creator who has the power to create a universe from nothing. How would one conceivably come to recognize such and entity even in the most hypotheical situation one could think of? For arguments sake, lets say at some point in human existence we can send a human or probe, safely, to this universe/dimension where God is. What would it be like to observe this "God"?

No matter what dimension or universe such a being would exist in; no matter what sort of crazy logic exists there which is different from ours (where the rape of children appears to make moral sense, or where certain beings have the power to create universes with stars and human life in them), such a "God"-- with the power to create matter out of nothing, the physical properties that govern their movement, and by extension, the logic that makes them all these functions operate on-- would necessarily have to obey what ever type of order that corresponds to that universe. If there is some kind of "Super logic" that humans can't understand that exists there, then in order for it to be a logic of any type, it would have to be consistently applied or else there would be perpetual, unfathomable chaos. The substances that a "God" would be made up of would have to obey the physical properties of that universe or else it couldn't exist there either. And whatever principles allow this "intelligent, all powerful being" to design our universe would mean that this "God" would have to obey said principles (even if it had the power to create different principles that govern our universe). This necessarily means that such an entity would not be "all powerful" in whatever universe/dimension it existed in, and therefore, not God.

The concept of something real and yet "supernatural" is a contradiction in terms. Something cannot exist which is beyond the possibilities granted by the laws of nature. If ghosts or ESP could be proven scientifically to be real, then they would not be "supernatural." They would be as natural as roses, insects, or galaxies-- all of which are things provable and able to be studied scientifically in one form or another. If there is a logical explanation for something-- even if it is "God did it"-- that disqualifies it as being "miraculous" or "supernatural."

However, I think that perhaps the most compelling proof that there could never be any omnipotent being is can be found in the omnipotence paradox: "Can God create a rock so large that even He couldn't lift it?" or some derivative thereof. There is no possible answer to that question that would suggest that whatever being that you are talking about would be logically considered to be called "God." Even those who would suggest something a long the lines of "well, God's omnipotence doesn't cover such paradoxes in logic" is conceding that "God must be governed by the rules of logic and doesn't have the power to do something illogical."

How do I know there's no God? That's how.