RE: Are all atheists this ill-informed about religion?
October 21, 2015 at 1:40 am
(This post was last modified: October 21, 2015 at 1:45 am by robvalue.)
If it takes "faith" to believe God even exists, that is an admission that there isn't credible evidence.
God could just appear, as a person, all over the place. He could have multiple conversations with several people at a time, all easily viewable, audible and recordable. He could appear on demand to anyone wishing to talk to him, as a new version each time. Then no sane person would deny that this "being" exists. It could be easily testable that this is multiple incarnations of the same "being" beyond reasonable doubt.
What it would not mean is that this being in any way correlates with any description given to us about "God". It would almost certainly make them all look like ridiculous guesswork and nothing more.
Of course, people keep their "definition" of god (those that even make the effort to try and define it) so vague that they could point to basically anything powerful enough that turned up and say, "I meant that!" The problem is that they'd either have to agree that this thing was the God they meant (in which case they could easily be proved wrong) or else risk accusing this thing of being an imposter when it was actually "God".
I'd love to know what the criteria would be for any theist, if "God" actually showed up, because I don't think they have a clue. How do you distinguish "God" from an arbitrarily powerful non-God? How do you know there isn't more of whatever the being is, either as powerful, or more powerful?
"You'd just know." Right. Then any being powerful enough to manipulate your feelings could fool you into thinking it was God.
God could just appear, as a person, all over the place. He could have multiple conversations with several people at a time, all easily viewable, audible and recordable. He could appear on demand to anyone wishing to talk to him, as a new version each time. Then no sane person would deny that this "being" exists. It could be easily testable that this is multiple incarnations of the same "being" beyond reasonable doubt.
What it would not mean is that this being in any way correlates with any description given to us about "God". It would almost certainly make them all look like ridiculous guesswork and nothing more.
Of course, people keep their "definition" of god (those that even make the effort to try and define it) so vague that they could point to basically anything powerful enough that turned up and say, "I meant that!" The problem is that they'd either have to agree that this thing was the God they meant (in which case they could easily be proved wrong) or else risk accusing this thing of being an imposter when it was actually "God".
I'd love to know what the criteria would be for any theist, if "God" actually showed up, because I don't think they have a clue. How do you distinguish "God" from an arbitrarily powerful non-God? How do you know there isn't more of whatever the being is, either as powerful, or more powerful?
"You'd just know." Right. Then any being powerful enough to manipulate your feelings could fool you into thinking it was God.
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum