What the God debate is really about

[*Deidre*]

But going with your thread title, the idea of a god existing isn't objective reality for anyone.

I'm not so sure about that. If you wake up remembering a dream isn't it entirely likely that you did in fact just experience that dream? That doesn't mean anything in your dream is objectively true about the world outside but the dream itself is an objective fact about what it is you've experienced. I suspect those who experience the presence of God are in the same boat as the dreamer.

Even though dreams vary person to person, science accepts that dreaming during different phases of sleep is a real phenomenon. Belief in a Deity is not testable. Unless we start using opinion, and hearsay as the standard for what defines objective reality, the existence of a spiritual realm is not objective reality.

Many faith believers honestly feel that the existence of a god is part of objective reality. They are wide awake when they make these assertions.

If it's not testable in the scientific or historical sense or is not observable in the very real sense, by anyone, it's not objective reality.

That's just my understanding. :-)