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

[Jenny A]

---

Requiring some proof before belief does not require being devoid of faith in others, emotion, or love for that matter. I do have faith in others' love for me. But that faith is based on experience, and past a certain point, I would cease to believe in a particular person's love, were it contradicted with any regularity. And I wouldn't say someone who had faith in the love of an abusive partner had strength of mind, quite the contrary.

But, and it is a major but, I've never had to have faith in the existence of people who love me. I have plenty of evidence of their physical existence. I don't have faith in an imaginary friend's love.

---

Faith it is, nonetheless. Something you cannot know, only assess intellectually and emotionally. Sadly, to me, your understanding of the universe/ God is negative/ indifferent.

Frankly, nothing can be proved with absolute certainty except mathematical and logical propositions. Everything is a matter of intellectual or emotional assessment. Yes, when I believe in a person's good will, friendship, love, honesty, or ability, it is akin to faith because the decision is often more emotional than intellectual, though I do weigh real evidence intellectually in making those determinations. I submit that everyone does to some degree. My faith in my husbands love, my parents' love, the love of various friends, and my children's love, is based in large part on thousands of experiences over a long period of time. But I repeat, and this is important, I do not have to have faith in their existence. That is easily proven, unlike this god idea.

I'm not indifferent to the universe. I'm very much interested in understanding it, and in particular, the part of it I and other humans occupy. And I have an emotional attachment to much in the universe, awe even.

But, absent evidence that there is a god, I have indeed long since determined that there is no god. That is an intellectual, evidence based determination, not an emotional one. But I'm not indifferent to the idea of the Christian god. I find him to be a despicable character if he is anything like the god described in the Bible. And, I have become overtly hostile to some types of belief in such a character, as they lead to much pain and suffering in the world. I am interested in how and why people come to believe in god.