Any Theists on AF, I Challenge You to a Debate on the Existence of God

[Jenny A]

Theists don't come to belief through proof of existence. They "believe in God". Not through any physical evidence. This is the basic mistake the title makes. The op seems to have started off by barking up completely the wrong tree.

I agree absolutely that most theists don't come to belief in god through physical evidence. It would be shocking if they did, since there doesn't appear to be any. Typically, faith without proof in the form of miracles, is rewarded more highly by Jesus than belief with proof. And despite the miracles in both the OT and NT, much of the Bible is concerned with dealing with doubt.

To the extent there is any proof, the OP rightly did away with it by removing anecdotal tales. And I know a couple of people who believe sorta vaguely in god for reasons like that. But most people who believe claim an inner confirmation of some kind which they feel is god.

I suspect it is the serious doubters that are interested in outside proof. They need to bolster their belief. And once a belief is formed, people tend to be willing to continue to believe on much less substantial evidence then they ever would have accepted before belief. Having accepted that less than satisfactory proof to bolster their faith, they come full circle and think they can prove god. What they haven't done consider what that evidence would look like to those who aren't trying desperately to hang onto faith. If they did that, they might lose their faith altogether.

If the OT gets any takers, it's going to be doubters who have propped up their faith with less than adequate evidence. I think we have a few of those here.