(September 30, 2014 at 1:14 pm)rtfguy Wrote: There is nothing any Christian can say to any atheist to make them believe in God... NOTHING!!! But, are you a chicken atheist or a true atheist? If you are a true atheist, do you really want to know if God exists? If so, ask Him! In all honesty, just say something like "Jesus, I really don't believe in you. I don't believe you exist but, if you do... prove it to me! Because I REALLY DO WANT TO KNOW!"
If I really had any concern at all about the existence of a god willing and able to torture me for eternity if I didn't acknowledge his existence, don't you think ignoring him would be rather brave? Foolhardy, but brave.
The thing is I'm not worried or brave, because I'm pretty darn sure that the Christian god doesn't exist simply because of all the contradictions and other problems with the Biblical account of him. I'm not quite as sure, but still convinced that there is no god of any kind. So not looking for god isn't particularly brave on my part.
But if you like I'll ask right now. "Um? Hello out there. If you exist God, please send me a sign because it sure would be nice to know." ---Nada. Happy?
Thought not. I'm not going to make you happy by trying harder. I did that once without success. I'm lucky I didn't fool myself. The thing is humans are pretty good at fooling themselves, so your method strikes me a trip to delusion land. People have used it to convince themselves of all sorts of things including ESP, the efficacy of tarot cards, seances.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
