What Would It Take To Be Convinced?

[Clueless Morgan]

An interesting question to ponder is what would qualify as substantial enough evidence to convince atheists like us of the existence of something greater?

I believe the Earth exists and it's "greater" than me in size.  I believe that Stephen Hawking exists and that he's "greater" than me in terms of knowledge about physics.  I believe that crocodiles exist and are "greater" than me in terms of jaw strength, and that lions exist and are "greater" hunters than I am.  I believe fruit flies exist and are "greater" than me at flying.  In what way, exactly, are we to define "greater"?

If the very simplistic scenario of a big man with a white beard appearing before us was contemplated, most of us would probably still believe it to be more rational to attribute this to some sort of hallucination

Because that is the more probable explanation for that event.  Millions upon millions of people hallucinate or have psychotic breaks, so to have a dude simply appear in front of you and conclude upon that evidence alone that it's anything other than a hallucination or psychotic break is unreasonable - pending further investigation.  If, upon further investigation you are able to demonstrate that that dude is an actual physical person (you can touch him, draw blood from him, take pictures of him, other people are able to see him, touch him, draw blood, take pictures etc.) then the most reasonable explanation of his sudden appearance is that he is some kind of magician akin to Chris Angel or Penn and Teller because it's resoundingly more probable that this guy is a magician than that he's a deity.  (Again, there are millions of magicians in the world, and even some not so great ones could probably pull off an appearing/disappearing act if the viewer isn't prepared for it.)  And so on and so forth...

You have to go down the entire list of possible explanations for this dude's actions, behavior and knowledge before it's at all even remotely reasonable to think that he might possibly be some kind of deity-like entity.

thus, this leads to the question: what would be enough to convince us non-believers? I think it's a difficult but interesting thought.

The same sorts of things it would take to convince me that unicorns exist.  Or that ghosts exist.  Or dragons, or leprechauns, or the chupacabra.