Evidence for Believing

[TaraJo]

I've been asked a zillion times in this forum to give evidence for why I believe in God and each time the questioner comes back and tells me that's not real evidence.   Here's the situation.  We have a being who is supernatural.  He/She/It can exist without the need to obey any natural laws and therefore, cannot be understood or explained by natural or scientific means.  

I always reply that I believe because God has directly impressed me with the awareness of his existence.  I list supporting factors as the witness of other believers, evidence of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena, etc.  A very conservative estimate of the number of people in the world today who believe in God, in this scientific age, is five billion.  These people are from every profession and walk of life.

If God directly illuminates me through supernatural means which cannot be tested by any natural means, how can I give you any other solid evidence other than to relate my experience?  You might say I'm suffering from a delusion, but I have no other history of delusions and billions of others who have no history of delusions also believe in God.  Billions of these people are moderately or well-educated and realize that the earth revolves around the sun, as you do.

Why don't you accept this as evidence for God?

No, I don't consider it good evidence of god.

Fact is, if god is as all knowing as the bible says she is, she would know exactly what it would take to convince me and everyone else of her existence.  If she were all powerful, then whatever criteria that is could easily be achieved by god.  If she were all loving and not believing in her would send me to hell, she would want me to believe and would give me a better reason to believe than a book written by sun baked goat herders from 2000 years ago; besides which, if she can't get us into heaven without believing in her, doesn't that kinda take away her claim to be all powerful? 

At very least that's my argument for the specific god of the bible.  I'd have to imagine I could make similar claims against any kind of monotheistic, all powerful deity.  After all, if a perfect being creates such a flawed world as this with people as flawed as some of us are, that certainly questions that gods perfection.

So, omnipotence, omnibenevolence or omnipresence: at least one has to go.  If you want to go with some kind of not-quite-perfect god, ok, I suppose that's plausible, but we'd have to discuss the dimensions of such a being before we can discuss her existence.