Evidence for Believing

[Simon Moon]

And yet, you have never been able to provide an accurate method for telling the difference between:

1. someone who claims to have had a god reveal his existence to them, but misidentified an unusual, but otherwise natural experience as a god
2. someone who claims to have had a god reveal his existence to them, but they were actually delusional
3. someone who claims to have had a god reveal his existence to them, but had some malicious aliens cause him to have this experience
4. someone who claims to have had a god reveal his existence to them, and it was actually a god

I  can't make that call for someone else. I  may not really love my wife, but could just think I do because I want to be married, or it might just be an illusion.  I can't prove to you or anyone else that I love her,  but I know I do. I'm not going to leave her and come back if I  manage to prove it by some other means. .

But at least you should understand, that when people tell us they have had a god reveal himself to them, why we don't consider that good evidence.

At least there is some sort of demonstrable evidence that you love your wife. Hypothetically speaking, I would be able to see you acting in certain ways that are typical of someone in love: doing things for her, acting affectionate toward her, supporting her in bad times, raising children with her, buying her presents, etc, etc.

Sure, you could be acting out all those behaviors without really being in love, but at least there is some evidence that you are. From an outsiders point of view, I could make a rational, evidence based argument, that you are really in love with your wife.

If you told me you were in love with your wife, but I have never met her (she always seems to be out of town), I don't see any woman's clothes in your closet, I don't see any wedding pictures, etc, etc, I would be a lot less likely to believe you.

As atheists, our position is much more like the latter, you are telling us you love your wife, but we see no evidence that you are married. At least in the first example, at a minimum, you actually have a wife.

What kind of case could one make, that even approaches the level of evidence of you being in love with your wife, that a god has revealed himself to you? What kind of case could you make that rises to that level? Obviously, you continue to fail to make it.