Hi everyone :)

[robvalue]

@robvalue
-The most recent one which interested me though is, "What would it take for me to believe a god exists?" The only answer I have at the moment is "nothing". Even if I appeared to suddenly be directly experiencing god or some kind of higher power, I would come to the most likely conclusion that I am dreaming/hallucinating, particularly because of the stark contrast to every other experience I have had up to that point.
That is a revelation on a personal level. But let's say that this god has revealed himself in public, and everyone is aware of the presence of this higher power, including you. Would this be good enough to change your mind?

-I'd be interested to know other people's answer to this question.
Empirical evidence of a deity would most definitely change my mind to believe in this deity. If I will worship it is an entirely different question.
Also, welcome. Enjoy the forums!

Thanks very much everybody

Yeah this is the problem I have, even if everyone was experiencing it, I would still think it is more likely that I am hallucinating and that the other people's reactions are part of my hallucination. Especially if it was a one-time thing. So I suppose it would have to be some form of continued change accompanying the revelation, or frequent revelations to persuade me that it is actually happening. But again, some of my dreams seem to follow such a pattern of continuing experience. So I would think it likely to be a dream (although if it's a dream, thinking it's just a dream is probably just part of the dream. Dreams are interesting!)

That's a good answer that empirical evidence would suffice, but I wonder how any kind of evidence could be collected or data measured. If something is meant to be in some way supernatural (not complying with our laws of nature or however you'd define it), then it seems to me we either can't measure it at all, or can only measure any natural aspects of it. Would we have to be made supernatural ourselves to be able to measure or even experience it?

If it's not supernatural, then it's basically just some cool alien or something and not a god after all. I guess this is semantics to some extent. Can something be natural, completely within the universe yet be in control of it?

Also, even if I could be convinced it was supernatural in some way, it would be a huge leap from this to any sort of deity, let alone some sort of all-powerful god. I don't know what kind of demonstration something could do that would convince me of that. And I'd want to know why he felt the need to hide from me for so long, and to make me so I didn't think he existed. And why the world sucks.

PS: Of course, several definitions of what a god is are self contradictory, so it's going to be some watered down half-god type guy anyhow. I don't even know if there is an accepted proper definition of what a "deity" is other than something "more powerful". And all this stuff is of course my opinion Wow, I got really into it really fast... I'm sure you see why I have trouble finding people to talk to about this stuff!