Can't blame you for not quoting all of it, but I think you got the useful bits down. I hope you don't mind if I show the same restraint
I would suggest that this concept of 'god' is so ill defined that for me to give any real argument that god 'is provable' is pretty much impossible. The grounds you seem to be working on are "if there is a god which created the universe, then..."
Having reread my mini-essay of a post, it seems that all my argument really amounts to is "we would know god exists if he showed us that he exists" (I'm defaulting to male gender here). Not very strong, but given those grounds is about all I can really say.
What I've tried to do is take the thought process into real examples. I mean it's obvious that if you should declare that there is a god that has some supernatural influence on the events which occur in the universe, then I totally take your point. I agree all the way that there's no way I can know if such a god's actions are indeed observable, knowable or therefore testable.
But I could say that about anything. I could suggest that we exist in a universe with imperceivable dimensions lying almost parallel to ours, but with the most subtle of intersections. Therein may lie an entirely different cosmos. Perhaps this is a bad example because a physicist may come along and suggest an ingenious method for testing, but I hope we can take this as an analogy for something that I can't confirm nor disprove.
Happily though, that's not..actually a very useful thing to talk about. Also happily, the religions I know of are not based around such a concept. I would be very interested to know if there is a religion that says "there is a god, we've never actually been able to perceive this god, but he created the universe and guides the events therein". Yes I took the Abrahamic religions as examples, because ultimately they're the ones I have some fragments of knowledge about.
I would like to take a moment to discuss the point about likelihood and proof. If we accept the idea that something being likely does not lead to proof, then quite simply nothing is provable. This is true, and perfectly fine, but it is out of this that hypothesis testing is born. I talked earlier in the thread about degrees of certainty, and a point at which we establish that a hypothesis is 'taken' or 'rejected'. That doesnt make it true
or false, but it allows a measure of probability given the evidence. But I'm on a tangent again, aren't I. What I'm trying to get that is religious artifacts must be allowed the same scrutiny in proporting or challenging the faith in 'god' as any other artifact that may challenge the explanations we hold about the world around us.
Anyway, if you can show me a religious faith that believes in some set of deities, one or many, that is
not based on some sort of explicit documented interaction with humanity, then I will concede the point in that specific case. Otherwise, we're talking about tangible evidence which turns it from hypothetical into observable evidence.
I'm not really sure how I'd class myself. I am an agnostic insofar as I 'believe in' observation and refined explanation as a continuously developing way to explore the world around us. I don't outright reject people's religious beliefs, but in general I don't see any tangible merit to them.
One of my other big problems is this concept of free will. Yes we could use the argument that 'free will transcends human understanding', but it's the same as this god question. I simply cannot accept as a given that there's anything beyond the potential for human understanding, because as soon as we take that as such, then we lose the drive to learn everything there possibly is to know about the universe, and develop into a better species for it. I suppose you can call that faith (i'd disagree), but until someone can show me that there's a real limit then I'll happily go on wanting to learn more about this wonderful world we live in.
I think I have to really start shortening these posts, I seem to go on and on discussing and presenting what's actually a rather simple argument
