Y ddraig yn fy ngarej

Bûm yn darllen Demon-Haunted World, un o glasuron niferus Carl Sagan, yn ddiweddar. Hoffwn ddyfynnu un darn sy'n berthnasol iawn pan mae rhai cristnogion yn ymateb i bwyntiau syml gydag ystrydebau diwinyddol ffug-ddwys (niwlogi pethau a dod â'r drafodaeth i ben yw'r amcan, am wn i). Egyr un bennod fel hyn:

"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage". Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!

"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle--but no dragon.

"Where's the dragon?" you ask. "Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."

You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints. "Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."

Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. "Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."

You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. "Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick." And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.

Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.

Gwych iawn. Fersiwn o ddadl duw'r bylchau yw hon yn y bôn. Wrth gwrs, nid oes rheswm i gredu rhywbeth os nad oes tystiolaeth i'w gefnogi. Gan nad oes tystiolaeth o blaid bodolaeth duw, unig dacteg posibl y rhai sy'n ei "addoli" yw symud y pyst gôl dro ar ôl tro. Wrth i "soffistigeiddrwydd" y ddiwinyddiaeth gynyddu, daw'r gwahaniaeth rhwng y fersiwn o "dduw" a ddisgrifir ar un llaw, a duw nad yw'n bodoli o gwbl ar y llaw arall, yn llai a llai eglur.