What would it take for you to believe in God?

[The Valkyrie]

Because he is an atheist. hock:

That doesn't at all answer the question. There are a lot of atheists who have never heard of this site and if they did wouldn't come.

Yes there are. There are also many atheists who would be here in a moment if they heard of this board.

You see, something that keeps many people going to church, even when they've stopped believing in any deities, is the sense of community that churches create.

Sites like this and others are communities in themselves. They also help those who have been aliebated from or kicked out of their families because the become atheists. Something that happens a lot, unfortunately.

[JuliaL]

What would get me to believe?
First I would need a coherent, testable definition of God.
The Christian god fails in this regard. If reason and logic are not required, then no argumentation can be used to prove anything because anything can be considered true: e.g. God simultaneously is and is not. If logic is required the the Christian omniscient god is incoherent.

Commonly that god is supposed to know anything which can be known. But God cannot know unknown unknowns. If he knows them, then they are not unknowns. If he doesn't know them, then he is not omniscient. Unknown unknowns are unknown even to gods and Donald Rumsfeld.

I also could not be convinced by evidence except under one very special condition. With my limited mental powers, I cannot know, and therefor not trust, that I am not being deceived by Descartes' malicious demon. The only way that evidence of the divine would be impossible for me to deny would be if I were elevated in power to parity with the god in question and could no longer be so deceived. I'd settle for that.

The argument by Sye Ten what's-his-name that his knowledge of the divine has been imposed on him by his supposed all-knowing, all-powerful being fails for the incompleteness argument above. Either the being could be lying and Sye couldn't tell or that being cannot know that it is all knowing and could be inadvertently be misinforming him.

[SteelCurtain]

What do you think my purposes are for being here?

You claim you are here to find out why people are atheists, but you immediately begin questioning those reasons when they tell you. Which is absolutely fine for discussion, but it belies your stated purpose.

You are here to proselytize or convert, or at the very least debate.

[Cyberman]

Because he is an atheist. hock:

That doesn't at all answer the question. There are a lot of atheists who have never heard of this site and if they did wouldn't come.

Yes it does. You didn't ask lots of atheists who have never heard of the site, you asked Min. Asked and answered.

Any chance of you answering the questions I've asked?

[truthBtold]

What would it take for me to believe? The bare minimum would be anything at all that might suggest such things as gods exist. Realistically, it will never happen because I don't really do "belief". if I suspect something, I will go an find out what the deal is and see if the thing I suspect to be true may indeed be true, but at the point where I confirm that suspicion it's not belief but knowledge.
As it stands, I suspected there were no gods, so I did my research looking for proof of gods, reasons there might be gods, reasons people might invent gods, why people would want to believe in gods if they didn't exist, etc., so I don't "believe" there are no gods, I "know" there are no gods as much as I "know" I am writing this crap to you. And that's leaving space there for the possibility that I might be dreaming right now, or similar mad reasons I might not actually be writing this. Too small to count for anything.

I think we all "do belief" to a certain extent. The theory of evolution is just that, a theory. It like most of Christianity is believed through faith.

"Believe" not belief. And how about u run along and learn something before coming on here and stating dumb ass things.. read a book.

[Darkstar]

In your mind, is your primary reason for not believing in God moral, scientific, or something completely different?

Scientific, mostly. But really, it is just that there isn't any solid evidence in favor of such a concept. What evidence would it take exactly? I don't know, but if a god were to exist he/she would know, and apparently refuses to let me see it. If your god doesn't care if I believe, why should you? If your god does care (and exist), then why does he refuse to let all of these atheists know that he's real? The only response I recall getting to this question is something along the lines of the revelation infringing on our free will, but that makes no sense. If anything, his refusal to grant us evidence would be an infringement of our wills.

[te1148]

That doesn't at all answer the question. There are a lot of atheists who have never heard of this site and if they did wouldn't come.

Yes there are. There are also many atheists who would be here in a moment if they heard of this board.

You see, something that keeps many people going to church, even when they've stopped believing in any deities, is the sense of community that churches create.

Sites like this and others are communities in themselves. They also help those who have been aliebated from or kicked out of their families because the become atheists. Something that happens a lot, unfortunately.

That is unfortunate. What has been your general experience relating to Christians on the subject of the existence of God?

[truthBtold]

Yes there are. There are also many atheists who would be here in a moment if they heard of this board.

You see, something that keeps many people going to church, even when they've stopped believing in any deities, is the sense of community that churches create.

Sites like this and others are communities in themselves. They also help those who have been aliebated from or kicked out of their families because the become atheists. Something that happens a lot, unfortunately.

That is unfortunate. What has been your general experience relating to Christians on the subject of the existence of God?

Obviously ur bored and do not wanna learn anything..

[SteelCurtain]

"Believe" not belief. And how about u run along and learn something before coming on here and stating dumb ass things.. read a book.

Technically he was right. And correcting someone's grammar with textspeak is a little ridiculous.

[Cyberman]

More poetic than ridiculous.