Philosophical Buddhist who is still an atheist

[Jeffonthenet]

I realize the point of this thread was not this, so forgive me if I am being rude. However, I am not sure about the rationality of this decision. I am by nature a very skeptical person, and I can't help but apply my skepticism to your decision here. Are you sure God has not revealed Himself to you, just in a way you aren't watching out for (perhaps by intuition, or perhaps it was your initial belief he gave you from childhood that you rejected later for possibly faulty reasons) And are you sure that if God existed he would be morally obligated to reveal himself to you at all? (say perhaps you have sinned against Him and he wouldn't be)

Kind regards,

- Jeff

If God tried to reveal himself to me and failed, she isn't all powerful. Or if she tried to reveal himself to me but I didn't understand it, she didn't communicate the message properly. That would be like me sending a television signal, expecting you to pick it up when all you have is a radio and then me sending you to hell because you didn't get the signal. Any God that is all knowing would know exactly what it would take to get through to me and any God that is all powerful is also able to meet the criteria of getting through to me.

No, if you're saying that God didn't know or God didn't care enough to send the message, you're talking about a God who is either not all powerful or is not all knowing. I guess I can't specifically disbelieve in the idea of a deity that created the universe, created the laws of the universe and then just left the universe on its own. I also don't see any reason to believe such a being exists, either. And if you're going to believe in some kind of 'hands off' God, something like the deist God many of our founding fathers believed in, why worship such a deity? She obviously doesn't care whether we worship her or not.

Perhaps it is not God that failed, perhaps you are the one who has sinned. Do you do all that you ought? Do you do all that you ought with regards to the masses of starving people in africa to whom your superfluous wealth (everyone who has a computer, has this) could certainly save lives. Not that I am not a sinner too, but I don't see why being a such sinners, God is under any obligation to reveal Himself to us.