[Serious] Could an omnipotent and omniscient god prove that he was God?

[Objectivist]

I just was happy that you are willing to look, not that you have to accept it.  You may end up rejecting it yourself.  I realized after I linked to that series that it was starting where I had left off the last time I was listening to it.  You need to start with the first one Metaphysics:  axioms, causality, and the primacy of existence.  Because each one builds on the other.  Just listen to that lecture and then spend a lot of time looking at reality.  Are the points he makes true?  Do they hold up?  I predict if you do that you will be hungry to listen to the rest and to go further.  Have fun.

Cool. I think I probably will end up accepting it though; I've watched the first one 'What is Man?' and I'm hooked; he's a great speaker and it's all very clear, well reasoned, full of examples, and easy to follow, so it's been a joy to listen to and has indeed resonated with me quite a lot, especially because it seems not only philosophically insightful but also psychologically insightful. For instance I think I've generally accepted this reason-emotion dichotomy in life... that the two are generally in conflict... but never considered his perspective that emotions come from ideas, so the apparent conflict is instead the result of competing and sometimes contradictory or subconscious ideas. I thought that was very insightful and a whole new way of looking at things.

I said before that in this context I was not looking for a philosophy [to live by] but he talks about that inasmuch to say that everyone lives by a philosophy, whatever it may be, and whether it is a well thought out and reasoned philosophically or just a mish-mash of random accumulated ideas. I must admit mine has tended towards the latter, with the exception of Buddhism which has always appealed to me philosophically (not superstitious - my interest in it stops at reincarnation...but what it has to say about this life I think is pretty profound, and like your system based on the notion of not requiring faith; I think the Buddha put it something like 'nothing hidden in the closed fist of the teacher'; ie you don't... can't... take its ideas on faith, you have to see and understand them for yourself, through meditation etc, looking into your own mind). But we're not talking about Buddhism here, I'm just saying that's part of my philosophy in life as it stands, and this Objectivism feels similar... not in content but approach; both insightful, both introspective (maybe), both systematic, both for want of a better word, classifying, and both rigorously trying to prove themselves, point by point, which is great for me because I agree with your guy, you can't take philosophy on faith. So though I wasn't looking for a philosophy before, I think maybe I am now Or at least I understand its value more now.

Also, don't worry about the link, I didn't follow it directly because I was watching on a different device so had to look it up instead... so I watched from the first video in that playlist, 'What is Man?... the one you suggested I start with appears to be next.

Piekoff is a national treasure.  He was 17 years old when he was invited to go with a friend who knew Rand to visit and he was so nervous.  They were barely in the door when he blurted out this question about the Fountainhead having to do with the moral and the practical.  She proceeded to spend hours, just him and her discussing it and she was passionate and very concerned that he understood that the moral is the practical.  If you want to see more of him in action look up the 1984 debate on socialism vs. capitalism he had in Calgary.  You will see the most one-sided trouncing you are ever likely to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPC5lkpi1WI&t=6483s

I was really struck by how he and John Ridpath laid out their case systematically in terms of principles while the socialists never did address the question of the debate.  Instead, they wasted a lot of time and were totally concrete bound and anti-conceptual.  Ridpath called them out on it too. Their entire argument boiled down to "you're mean".  Sadly John Ridpath died this last year and Piekoff is 88 years old now and retired.