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What would make you believe in a God?

What would need to happen for you to be able to distguish between a God and more advanced technology.

paul1967 8 Sep 22
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124 comments

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0

Odin appearing in my room, with two ravens on his shoulder and two wolves by his side. And the eye patch, of course. And he would have to speak like Sean Connery.

An Irish Viking God? Yeah we can do that. Okay one Irish Odin on his way.

@paul1967 Scottish. But send Liam Neeseon, too.

@Spinliesel I don't know can you handle both of them?

@paul1967 I would loe a chance to find out!

@Spinliesel Oh, you are someone I would love to meet 🙂 fearless and strong.

@paul1967 fearless and strong and crazy and old. But thanks.

0

Nothing, because if god is immortal, but all powerful, and I asked it to kill itself without coming back from the dead; if it doesn't do it, it can't be all powerful, and it does achieve, it can't be immortal

I might be missing something so excuse my question but could he still be all powerful and not agree to your terms? And most educated theist don't use the term "all" anymore because of the obvious logical inconsistencies. They instead refer to God as being maximally powerful. He can do anything within the framework of logical possibilities.

There should be no logic for god

Why would you challenge God to die for you? Jesus died for your sins. Perhaps going backward in time he died as you wanted him to, and in the "Second Coming of Christ" when he comes to show you the proof of his resurrection, I hope he tells you, "Now it is your turn to prove if you are immortal or mortal and let us see if you know how to resurrect or not, just for the Hell of it."

Jesus died on a Friday and rose on a Sunday, so he give up his weekend; what was my sin; if god can do anything, then he would not mind the test, without resurrecting himself; in the words of Christopher Hitchens, I did not ask for him to die for my sins; why punish someone for what two people did,that sounds like North Korea to me

3

If Satan allows me to sign a contract to get my money, women, and Trump in a Mexican Jail.

To believe in Satan is to believe in God

Exactly.

@Major8 - I think this was a joke.......

4

When he knocks on my door & when I open it, he gives me the things I prayed for when I was religious. He would also give me the things I chanted for when I was a Buddhist. He would apologize for taking so long to get to me & he would actually show me heaven without me having to believe, have faith or be dead. Then he would bring me home here in Montana & we would have a discussion about the important things he has done nothing to help; the environment, overpopulation, christians who would kill women for having an abortion or kill gay people just for being gay. He would eliminate all those types of idiots. I could go on but I think you get my drift.

I enjoyed reading that. It starts off with me confused as to what you're saying, and the more I read, the more evident your point became. That was very well done.

Yes, yes, yes

When (?) he knocks on my door he'll get it slammed in his face, and no doubt all the Jews who died in the holocaust will too - as one of them said "If there is a god, he will have a lot of explaining to do. I wouldn't waste my mind speaking to him.

2

Nothing! as I am very happy never ever having had one - I also have never ever owned a mobile phone and i hate them with a vengeance and will never have one.

I was born into an atheist family and I never believed. I am curious why do you not like mobile phones? I felt the same way about them at one time but I've turned to the dark side and now I have one. Besides they don't make payphones any more

@paul1967 I saw a cartoon once that said it all - a man was on his mobile and his partner was saying if I strapped my phone to my head I could believe you were looking at me. I don't like them because I feel they take peopel away from this moment - I know you can switch them off but I know so many people who are addicted to answering the phones and I do think - "Well am I not enough company here? we came out together and now your with your invisible friend ! Its probably an age thing too I am 70 yrs old and I do know many proficient users who are in their eighties - but I just like to be with whoever I am with.

1

"It" would have to appear in a visible form to me. Then I would believe "it" exists but I'd have quite a few more questions and complaints.

How could you distinguish between a God and a being with more advanced abilities to humankind?

John Nash saw and talked to a lot of people who weren't there.

@paul1967 You have a good point. If the being clearly had some higher abilities than humankind it would depend I guess on what abilities they showed. Even then, God is a man made word. There is no true test for what is or is not a god other than using perhaps humankind as the baseline for abilities.

3

I say all he/she has to do is just speak up! This is what I always ask my religious friends . If God created everything is all powerfull ect. ect. Why can't he just say hello?

Marko Level 1 Nov 13, 2017

He keep sending us powerful hurricanes because we keep masturbating. Can't you hear the howling? 😀

The problem is, he DOES speak to an awful lot of people. The fact that they are all insane doesn't stop them believing, but it certainly stops me.

1

Depends on what you mean by "god". If we are talking about that which brought about life we have to ask we think life came about. Or do we really know how life came about? We have theories.

Abiogenesis has a couple of noteworthy hypotheses, such as "The RNA World" hypothesis which you should look into. A great explanation for this is at Stated Clearly. This channel on youtube is among the best I've seen for people interested in science.

A scientific THEORY is a provable truth. Like gravity, which we all can agree is real, science has proven that life on earth started in what is known as primordial soup and evolved from there.

18

If 'god' exists, it would know exactly what would convince me. Either it is unable to, unwilling, doesn't care, or simply does not exist.

That's a Mattism but worth repeating as you have done.

I agree with your every word. In fact, this god would know what it would take to make any person believe and that would be the evidence god would have provided. Scripture says god does not want anyone to perish, so why the lack of evidence? It can't be about "faith." Did the 500 people who saw the risen Jesus have faith? No, they did not need it. Paul wanted to convince everyone, but we might ask if Jesus even knew 500 people. If he did, how would they know him? Was he floating in the air or did he show them all his hands that will now remain nail scarred forever? For the record, I no longer believe the Goat and Sheep Herders Guide to the Galaxy. Too much nonsense.

5

There's an important difference between belief and worship at play here. If I saw a god appear in the sky, and so did everyone else, and there were no other logical explanation, then I would accept that this god existed. If this god were anything like the God of the Bible or the Qur'an, then that God does not deserve to be worshiped.

Dylan Level 5 Oct 7, 2017

Agreed

There is no possible "logical" explanation for seeing "a god appear in the sky" - just because you see something doesn't mean it exists - the mind plays many tricks, as many people can confirm they have already "seen" and spoken to god. That would not be evidence for me.

0

An interview conducted by me with the so-called diety. I can spot a liar a mile away. My real thought is that a creature of such immense power would exude Godness that couldn't be denied. Why would such a powerful entity mess around with hints and signs and prophets? I believe it's desires would be unavoidable. Conformity would be unanimous and unquestioned.

Concur. The only thing I would add is that I need a couple of people that are present with me while that observation/interview is transpiring.

Yeah I am leary of flashbacks

1

Complete physical, irrefutable proof.

Just curious why are there 3 or 4 people with the same picture of you. Are you all twins or something?

It's the default picture.

1

Visually from a safe spaceship, watch "GOD" create another "universe" in 6 days.

He will not a rest? I'd go with that god 😀

1

Hmm. Well, whatever it is it would certainly have to happen while I was 100% sober .. and awake ...

My friend who invited me here always brags that he holds the absolute true spirit in his hand and the spirit is in a bottle 😀

1

I think I could believe in God easier than a religion but not God as we know it. Do our pets think of us as Gods?

Ignorant pets do. My dog thinks he's a god, barks at me when I don't serve him. I think he came from that Dog Star 😀

0

Short of God walking up to me and introducing himself and then proving it not much...

Concur, but would also like to have a handful of witnesses that were also present during that event just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

1

I couldn't care less if God came down from the heavens, and professed to be the second coming of Jesus. I would only ask him, 'if you truly are a benevolent god, then why did you create beings who have to feed on other living beings (your creation) to survive?"

Isn't it a shame that Gods creation is smarter than God lol?

1

As most have said: evidence. However, just because god proved to me he/she/it existed, doesn't mean I would want any part in following/worshipping him/her/it. There's a lot of evil in this world that god would have to explain before I even considered supporting such a being.

Said almost this exact thing at work last week. My co-workers face when I called their god evil... Priceless!

3

I would believe in a god if it presented itself to me in no uncertain terms. Like I believe in gravity.

Behold, god stands at the door and knocks. If you open the door and let him in, then he will not do all those bad things he's going to do to you if you do not open the door. Sorry. That's how religion works.

0

Excellent question! I am not sure how I would be able to differentiate between an actual deity and some superhuman alien being that was trying to convince me it was a deity. I have thought about this in the past: maybe an actual deity can surprise me by coming up with an answer to a question that no alien, no matter how superbly intelligent, would be able to answer. Back when I was a creationist and ID advocate, I read in an essay from William Demski which suggested a way to distinguish between a divine being and a merely superhuman one: ask a question whose answer takes more information and resources to answer than available in the known universe. An answer to a question that no supercomputer can come up with, no matter how advanced. I don't know if Demski was right about this but this is the best that I have been able to come up with.

So , what's the question?

4

Nothing - there can't be proof of something that does not exist.

Very true! You cannot prove a negative.

0

First god would have to perform a miracle. Like getting those Trumpty Dumpty voters to admit their egregious error in casting that vote. Then god would have to eliminate suffering. Then god would have to reduce overpopulation of the "virus with shoes." Then god would have to make me a nice lady.

LMAO those would be an indication that a miracle did happen, all except making you a nice lady, that I'm sure you already are.

0

Seeing God with my own two eyes would make me believe.

2

Maybe a stroke or brain cancer. My late wife had a brain tumor but her atheism had been ingrained since childhood and she sent a message of "no tears and no prayers.
This is the real world and there is no magic or supernaturalism!

I respect your wife for having her mental power and the world is lessened without her in it. She and other's like her are inspiration to me.

1

Verifiable proof there is no sufficient evidence to even support the smallest belief in god not one shred. For thousands of years people have made these wild and completely unsubstantiated claims with the only evidence being claims made in a holy book. That is not evidence that is a story and if this was a court case they would have lost easily.

I can't disagree with logic and facts

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