Prove god exists.

[Norman Humann]

Don't you think though that it would be a bit boring of God to make Himself obvious enough that His existence could be proved with the scientific method? For there to be a question regarding His existence makes it a lot more interesting.

If by "interesting" you mean that there are hypothetically billions of people going or hell for believing the wrong god or disbelieving altogether simply because god is a bored dipshit, then yes. Absolutely.

[Chad32]

What are you talking about? No it wouldn't be boring, especially for religions that believe you'll be tortured for eternity if you get it wrong.

Life doesn't always have to be like a good story, filled with mystery and danger, with buildup and a dramatic climax at the end. I can't imagine a worse relationship with someone if I'm never sure if the person is actually real.

[tfree]

Well firstly I don't believe that an infinitely just and loving God would send people to hell for not believing in the right religion. It doesn't make sense. He would surely be more likely to reward people at least in a way for following their sense of logic and reason. (About the right/wrong religion thing, in my opinion all the great religions are true in a relative sense, and agree on the most fundamental teachings regarding how one should behave: be kind, generous, love people as you would like to be loved, etc, the only differences between them are in the social teachings which are specialised for the time/place in which the religions appeared.)

Chad: good point that if you were always unsure of His existence then that wouldn't be a good relationship. However in my opinion this is because (I assume) you don't follow the teachings of any religion. The way that God interacts with humans is through the channel of religion, and if one is not open to that channel then one is not open to God Himself and it is no surprise if one does not believe in Him. Activities such as reading holy writings, prayer and meditation are like the oxygen to the flame of faith, and without them it is not surprising for that flame to go out.

[Chad32]

Most people don't require you to be in a certain mindset before you can start having a proper conversation with them. I suppose a spiritual being wouldn't be like most people around here,m but if he's having problems communicating with me then that's something he needs to work on. There's nothing I can do about it.

[tfree]

Yeah that's true, He certainly is pretty different from most people. And well, there is something you can do about it if you want. But it seems you don't want to. Fair enough. He's given you the power of free will with which to make that decision.

[dyresand]

Its not even that on a certain level and this is coming from science mind you our own free will doesn't truly exist.
And even if god supposedly gave humanity free will he should have done something to better the human condition and put a end to
suffering but no he doesn't god isn't good.

[tfree]

I think free will is another thing which is impossible to either prove or disprove. To better the human condition, God has been sending prophets/messengers since at least the dawn of recorded history to teach us how to improve the world and reduce suffering: He has sent us Krishna, Moses, the Buddha, Jesus, etc etc. and the fact that civilisations have been built on the teachings of these great spiritual teachers shows how effective their teachings have been for building unity and concord among people.

[Chad32]

Yeah that's true, He certainly is pretty different from most people. And well, there is something you can do about it if you want. But it seems you don't want to. Fair enough. He's given you the power of free will with which to make that decision.

What? Read the bible? Been there, and done that. It wasn't very compelling, once I took a hard look at it, and some external sources regarding biblical and pre-biblical times.

[Mudhammam]

Don't you think though that it would be a bit boring of God to make Himself obvious enough that His existence could be proved with the scientific method? For there to be a question regarding His existence makes it a lot more interesting. Can you imagine if there was a scientific test for determining compatibility of partners, how terrible love stories would suddenly become? "And then we did the test, and it matched, so we married." The whole thing about a good story is that it has mystery, intrigue, highs and lows, twists and turns. For a theist, our relationship with God is the most fundamental relationship in our life, so it has got to be a good story really, hasn't it. Hence the need for there to be doubt regarding His existence, and for the often subtle, personal experiences which lead people to believe in God.

Well, whether or not you're a theist who believes God selects his chosen lot for an everlasting state of sensual and intellectual bliss, based on their complete lack of cogency on earth, or on their moral character, don't you think there is some instrinsically deceitful and unjust element in your God's.... shall we say, "mind game"? If you think that God has a point to this truly cruel joke that life must be in his hands, and that he simply doesn't want to express it while demanding that I behave a certain way in circumstances he has orchestrated like a puppeteer, isn't he no better than a household managed by a tyrant?

[ManMachine]

"The argument goes something like this:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED"

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic." ~ Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.