11. Burden of Proof

No, my guy, you don’t get to say “prove me wrong” after dropping nonsense

Let’s set the scene.

Someone stands up and confidently declares:

“There’s a giant invisible lion in my backyard that whispers life advice to me.”

And when you give them the side-eye, they say,

“You can’t prove there isn’t one. Checkmate.”

Ladies and gentlemen: this is how conversations die.

See, in logic, there’s a thing called “The Burden of Proof.” It’s not a gym routine. It’s a basic rule that says: If you make the claim, you bring the receipts. You don’t get to say wild stuff and expect the rest of us to disprove it. That’s not a discussion, that’s spiritual gaslighting.

If I say “I own a pet dragon named Leonard,” I need to show you evidence. You don’t have to check every cave in Zimbabwe just to prove I’m lying. Until I show you a dragon doing the cha-cha in my kitchen, you’re free to not believe me.

And yet, in religious debates, this logic gets thrown out like expired maheu.

You say, “I don’t believe in God.”

They say, “Prove He doesn’t exist.”

Ah! Sorry what? Me? Prove a negative?

That’s like asking someone to prove there’s no flying spaghetti monster cooking sadza in the clouds. Or to prove there’s not a unicorn living inside Jupiter. You can’t prove something doesn’t exist if it was never demonstrated in the first place.

It’s not just unfair—it’s straight-up reverse uno.

Now here’s where it gets juicy: religious folks often have thousands of years of claims, holy books, miracles, and dramatic testimonies. You’d think they’d love to carry the burden of proof, right?

Wrong. Most of the time, they pass the hot potato back to you:

“Well, you can’t disprove it.”

Mate, that’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

Imagine if science did this.

Scientist: “We discovered a new particle called the Snorlaxon. It’s invisible, undetectable, but trust me bro.”

Physics community: “Uhh, show us the data?”

Scientist: “Why? You prove it doesn’t exist.”

Yeah, no Nobel Prize for you, chief.

In reality, belief without evidence is just… guessing. And hey, we all guess sometimes. You can guess that Arsenal might win this season (bless your optimistic heart). But if you build your life philosophy around a guess, you better have something sturdier than “You can’t prove me wrong.”

And don’t get it twisted—this goes both ways. If an atheist says “There is definitely no god,” cool, now they carry the burden of proof too. Because a bold, universal negative claim is still a claim.

But most atheists aren’t saying “God definitely doesn’t exist.” They’re saying, “There’s no good reason to believe in one, so I don’t.”

That’s not arrogance. That’s literally how disbelief works. You don’t believe in Bigfoot unless Bigfoot shows up on ZBCTV News at 8 holding a copy of The Herald.

So next time someone says, “You can’t prove God doesn’t exist,” just smile and say,

“And you can’t prove I’m not Beyoncé in disguise. But here we are.”