What will it take to convert you?

[Spooky]

To any religion? Short of god himself descending from heaven in front of you (even hardcore believers aren't holding their breath).

For myself I'd say god has his/her work cut out. It would probably require altering my ability to exercise free will. Most religions have too many hypocritical practices and texts for me to buy into the bs.

There is a further question if you're a theist. We'll give your intelligence the benifet of the doubt and ask why you still believe with all the evidence against the bible/torah/whatever?

With all the "proof" and "case" threads going on that are either trolls or actually trying convert a few of us, I'm curious.

[Faith No More]

A lobotomy.

[Crossless2.0]

A lobotomy.

Damn, beat me to it.

[robvalue]

You know, I made almost exactly the same post a while back. This question has troubled me. I really don't know what it would take. Given any single incident, I would almost certainly think it's more likely I was dreaming or hallucinating than it actually happened. It would have to be some sort of permanent shift, some way I could confirm for myself, whenever I want, that the religion is real.

I don't know how that would work, or what would be needed before I was convinced. Obviously God could fuck with my brain and just make me convinced, that would work.

Also, if God is as powerful as he is hyped up to be, he should know exactly what would convince me to convert on the spot. So he could do that. If he doesn't, then he's making me rely on my brain, so I stand by my decisions.

I know my memories are unreliable, and I know people are very good at making shit up. So until something really amazing happens, I'll stick to the scientific method.

[Elskidor]

There is nothing that could convince me to follow one of these mainstream organized religions. A non-theistic spiritually is about the only thing I might be able to fall into, however still highly unlikely.

[Spooky]

Didn't realized you had already asked the question. Sorry about that.

[robvalue]

Ah no, I wasn't complaining! I was happy, as I think it's really interesting. I have more to say than before I think as well. The site discourages digging up old threads anyhow.

Well it's tricky because... If the bible is true for example, and Yahweh is anything close to how he is described, I would never willingly worship him. I don't care if I am persuaded he is real, he could show up in front of me. If he's like in that book, he can fuck off.

It's virtually impossible he will be, for many reasons. So instead, I become convinced there is some sort of creator. Sure, that could happen, somehow. I'm happy to thank him, if appropriate, but I'm not going to worship him.

Why would I worship anything? The only reason I can think of is completely selfish: that by worshipping I will be treated better, or will avoid worse treatment. That's not real worship, and the Creator would presumably know that. So no thanks.

I might find it appropriate to "do his work" somehow, if I felt it just, but that would mean his power was actually very limited. It's a possible scenario. But still, no need for worship.

Say he's the programmer of our reality, and he can only communicate with me and not influence reality any other way. He convinces me that a certain person is in fact a virus which will soon wipe out reality, and that I have to kill that person.

You see how much that sounds like severe mental illness though? Yeah. Other God claims sound no more sane to me than this scenario.

[abaris]

Seeing what the Abrahamic religions are capable of and what their dogmas and holy books are like, I wouldn't convert to any of them even if a legion of angels came down to blow a Halleluia on their buttflutes. They are directly opposed to every fibre of my being and morality.

When it comes to deism, things are not so clear cut. As long as there's tolerance, enjoyment of life and openess to the wonderful things science has to offer, my opposition isn't that strong. Basically I'm saying that being an atheist doesn't exclude any kind of spirituality, It's mainly the inhumane rule books I'm opposed to and believing without any shred of evidence, thereby suspending knowledge.

[Thackerie]

This god character knows everything, right? Then, it would know just what to do to make me believe. The fact that it hasn't done anything implies that, if it exists, it does NOT want me to believe in it. Who am I to go against the will of a god?

[thesummerqueen]

There is nothing that could convince me to follow one of these mainstream organized religions. A non-theistic spiritually is about the only thing I might be able to fall into, however still highly unlikely.

I might have to agree with this. I used to think a god could just fly down and 'prove' itself and I might convert, but honestly, how does a god prove that it has supernatural powers? If god appears on earth and testing proves that he/she/it is using powers as claimed, doesn't that make those powers natural, and perhaps eventually understandable? I dunno.

Converting seems mostly to be an act of ascribing spirituality to something or other, and actively participating in worship rituals. You can do that with just about anything - you don't have to involve god into it.