Q about arguments for God's existence.

[Lek]

Some are real and some are not. What do think about three equally qualified scientists coming to different conclusions concerning the same scientific discoveries? Are two of them mentally ill?

You didn't answer the question. How are you sure that the 'presence' you're feeling is your Christian God and not another?

Also, a personal experience that is unique to an individual is nothing like scientific, so don't use that bad analogy.

I'm convinced that it is from God, but have some doubts from time to time. You're right that a personal experience of an individual is not scientific, so don't try to base your opinion on scientific principles. Science isn't equipped to come up with the answer.

[FatAndFaithless]

You didn't answer the question. How are you sure that the 'presence' you're feeling is your Christian God and not another?

Also, a personal experience that is unique to an individual is nothing like scientific, so don't use that bad analogy.

I'm convinced that it is from God, but have some doubts from time to time. You're right that a personal experience of an individual is not scientific, so don't try to base your opinion on scientific principles. Science isn't equipped to come up with the answer.

So don't bring up three scientists as an analogy. You started it.

Again, you haven't answered my question. I know you are convinced it's from your Christian God, I'm asking how you are convinced, and how you are convinced it's not the God of another faith.

[Cyberman]

It doesn't matter what individual scientists say or think. What matters, all that matters, is the work they produce. That's where peer review comes in, to eliminate personal bias as far as possible. If one person's experiments and data cannot be reproduced independently, let alone three of them, then the conclusions are questionable and may even lead to the original observation to be scrapped altogether; certainly refined.

If any god is defined as operating outside of reality that's fine, go on believing in them til the cows come home to roost. That way madness lies, but fill yer boots. Such an entity cannot be proven either way; it is unfalsifiable. The very second one of these gods is deemed to have any effect, however inconsequential, on the world, then that effect falls squarely under the purview of science by definition.

[JesusHChrist]

I'm convinced that it is from God, but have some doubts from time to time. You're right that a personal experience of an individual is not scientific, so don't try to base your opinion on scientific principles. Science isn't equipped to come up with the answer.

So don't bring up three scientists as an analogy. You started it.

Again, you haven't answered my question. I know you are convinced it's from your Christian God, I'm asking how you are convinced, and how you are convinced it's not the God of another faith.

Lek is convinced his feelings are from his particular god.

I'm just as convinced my dog is responsible. My dog has amazing powers!

---

The point being, being convinced isn't evidence for the rest of us.

[Mudhammam]

Lek is convinced his feelings are from his particular god.

I'm just as convinced my dog is responsible. My dog has amazing powers!

So long as you feel a religious devotion to your inclination I guess we'll all have to respect it.

[JesusHChrist]

Lek is convinced his feelings are from his particular god.

I'm just as convinced my dog is responsible. My dog has amazing powers!

So long as you feel a religious devotion to your inclination I guess we'll all have to respect it.

Actually, I feel SO strongly, that I think the edicts my dog makes shall be enshrined in law and everyone must kowtow to me, His dogly prophet!

[Jackalope]

"Thinking like a computer" = critical thinking

How do you distinguish between mental illness (visions, voices, sights) and feelings of Vishnu, Allah or Jesus?

Some are real and some are not.

That doesn't answer the question. HOW can you tell? What metrics, what heuristics do you use to identify what is, and what isn't a genuine experience of the Christian god?

What do think about three equally qualified scientists coming to different conclusions concerning the same scientific discoveries? Are two of them mentally ill?

Probably not, but all three of them can be wrong.

[Lek]

Again, you haven't answered my question. I know you are convinced it's from your Christian God, I'm asking how you are convinced, and how you are convinced it's not the God of another faith.

It's true that I was raised in a country in which christianity is the dominant faith and I was raised as a catholic. I'm not adverse to change if it's warranted. I became convinced that the catholic church held a number of mistaken doctrines and I left that religion. To be honest I haven't examined other faiths very much. I always thought that buddhists were very serene people, but found that to be false after a few years in the far east. What I like about christianity is the unfolding of the faith through history and the continuity of the story of salvation passed along by many different authors. Then there's the fulfilled prophecies which predicted Jesus' coming. If we were making up a story about God, how many people would make him become a man, be humiliated, and be executed as a criminal? Like I've said previously, I have some doubts, like most people, but I've committed myself to following Christ. If I wait until I can remove all doubt from my mind, like an atheist would do, I'll never make the move. And there's too much to gain from my choice to follow God and too much too lose by waiting.

[The Grand Nudger]

"My Koran is so beautiful"

[Mudhammam]

If we were making up a story about God, how many people would make him become a man, be humiliated, and be executed as a criminal?.

Apparently enough to make your religion the largest and most oppressive in the world for the last 1,500 years.