Theists: would you view the truth?

[Crossless2.0]

And just how dismissive are you of the miracles attributed to Allah and other gods?

I find them fascinating. Even after one tacitly accepts a supernatural explanation, the difficulty of forming some kind of doctrine around such events remains. Was the entity that dictated the Koran to Mohammed truly an angel of God (versus a demonic entity, for example)? Hearing of the works associated with YHVH is it possible that is He a corrupted demiurge? Personally, I have a very ecumenical attitude towards other religions. The Divine cannot be comprehended, only conceived by limited creatures.

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I'm saying if I went back to Biblical times and God showed himself it would be far more plausible that it was an alien.

And so there you have it, folks!

There we have what, exactly? Oh, right. Your 'every atheist is a metaphysical naturalist' hobby horse.

Alasdair is simply stating that a natural explanation for his experience is more plausible than a supernatural one. Having never, to my knowledge, experienced the supernatural either, that strikes me as reasonable. Of course, that would be the start of the inquiry, not its terminus. Are you saying that 'supernatural' would be your go-to assumption before the inquiry began? Do you have first-hand experience with the divine, Chad? I don't mean to ask whether you have experienced a sense of the uncanny or quailed before the immensity of the cosmos or got the warm fuzzies while praying or reading the Bible. I mean, have you experienced your god in any way similar to what is often described in the OT? Is there some set of criteria one can use upfront to distinguish between 'this is highly unusual but probably natural' versus 'definitely a god'?

The funny thing, Chad, is that you seem to want to say that Hammy is unreasonable to prefer a possible natural explanation to a supernatural one. But if he had written instead, "I'm saying if I went back to Biblical times and 'God' showed himself, I would have trouble deciding if it was really God or Satan," you would probably find that eminently reasonable.