What would you do if you found out God existed

[Catholic_Lady]

When I'm telling my kid to do something, a lot of times, I'm looking on a very large scale. Building good habits that will serve her well in life 15 years down the road. Meanwhile, she can't really comprehend not being the age that she is. So for her everything is very short term. By the time she reaches the age where what I'm telling her makes sense, she probably won't remember that I ever even told her.

If there's a God, and this existing stuff is going to last for eternity. That's like billions of years not even qualifying as a beginning. And a being that exists in a way we can't comprehend. Aren't we like a child in that situation. With our super tiny perspective of reality, where 70 years is a lifetime. Where our experiences are everything, not just an infinitesimal fraction of something bigger that we can't even understand.

I think the idea of God is silly wishful thinking. But if there was one, the attitude of "There's no way God could convince me of ... " just seems goofy. That everything you could know about the universe and existence gets changed in ways that you can't comprehend, but you're fairly certain nothing in that infinite amount of unknown could possibly justify the things you don't like based on what you've come up with living in a tiny little box for a couple decades.

I just don't get it. I don't understand the unjustified certainty people have in their own opinions, that even in a hypothetical where everything they've thought has been shaken in ways they can't conceive, they're still almost positive they couldn't be mistaken about a bunch of stuff.

This is exactly what I've tried to explain in another thread. If there is a God, He can see the big picture... the entire universe and all of time. All we can see is an unbelievably tiny glimpse of a tiny part of it. Saying "well God cant exist because if He did He would do this and wouldnt do that, and it doesn't make sense that He'd do things this way, or allow that other thing to happen." I mean, how would we know? We can't see the big picture. How can we know what would or would not make sense?

[Whateverist]

If there is a God, He can see the big picture... the entire universe and all of time. All we can see is an unbelievably tiny glimpse of a tiny part of it. Saying "well God cant exist because if He did He would do this and wouldnt do that, and it doesn't make sense that He'd do things this way, or allow that other thing to happen." I mean, how would we know? We can't see the big picture. How can we know what would or would not make sense?

This is what I'll never understand. How do you get from the recognition of our own inadequacy to see and know everything -> to the position of knowing that there is something you call God which can do so? There would seem to be lots of room between seeing and knowing more than we can to all, omni- everything? How can any human being know that? Of course you can all agree that the God you all worship is the ultimate, know-everything, mega/omni-most being of beings if you like. But it will always beg the question: how do you know any such thing exists? Well, you don't .. but you've decided to have faith on it.

I don't think xtians are any where near humble enough in the claims you make.

[Amarok]

That is the lamest excuse for theism ever and we would never accept this elsewhere.

[JackRussell]

Why doesn't god talk to me?

If sinner Saul was good enough for direct revelation, Joshua, Noah, Moses, all flawed people.....she can't be bothered to talk to me though. I didn't think I had been that much of a dick.

Even my kids, when they are naughty, don't deserve me totally ignoring and failing to communicate with them.

[Shell B]

Interestingly enough, within the grand scheme of things, little things happen. These smaller events may not be so grand as seeing all of space and time, but they have an impact on the so-called children god supposedly loves so much. There is no big picture that would excuse the rape of infants, cancer in small children, innocents starving to death, women in the bush getting raped with rifles so hard their anuses and vaginas become a single hole, etc. These are all things that indisputably happen on this planet. It would seem your god is ignoring the "little" picture. I think you're a kind and thoughtful person, CL, but dismissing atheist arguments as being simply unable to understand how all-knowing god is is doesn't cut it.

[Captain_Nemo]

[henryp]

Interestingly enough, within the grand scheme of things, little things happen. These smaller events may not be so grand as seeing all of space and time, but they have an impact on the so-called children god supposedly loves so much. There is no big picture that would excuse the rape of infants, cancer in small children, innocents starving to death, women in the bush getting raped with rifles so hard their anuses and vaginas become a single hole, etc. These are all things that indisputably happen on this planet. It would seem your god is ignoring the "little" picture. I think you're a kind and thoughtful person, CL, but dismissing atheist arguments as being simply unable to understand how all-knowing god is is doesn't cut it.

You can excuse those things without God with little difficulty by simply not believing people are inherently important.


The trick is reconciling God who allegedly believes people are inherently important and the actions.  I can't do it.  But I can't do a lot of things.  And that's in the real world, let alone a hypothetical world involving infinite amounts of things I can't know.

---

is it searching for truth then ok, if not then please get out slave, cause nothing else can help You to be free) 

This is the big joke at the end of the rainbow.  The truth, like everything else, doesn't mean shit.  You do not get bonus extra points on your deathbed if you spent your life seeking the truth rather than believing nonsense.

[The Valkyrie]

I'd turn him into a newt!

[Shell B]

Interestingly enough, within the grand scheme of things, little things happen. These smaller events may not be so grand as seeing all of space and time, but they have an impact on the so-called children god supposedly loves so much. There is no big picture that would excuse the rape of infants, cancer in small children, innocents starving to death, women in the bush getting raped with rifles so hard their anuses and vaginas become a single hole, etc. These are all things that indisputably happen on this planet. It would seem your god is ignoring the "little" picture. I think you're a kind and thoughtful person, CL, but dismissing atheist arguments as being simply unable to understand how all-knowing god is is doesn't cut it.

You can excuse those things without God with little difficulty by simply not believing people are inherently important.


The trick is reconciling God who allegedly believes people are inherently important and the actions.  I can't do it.  But I can't do a lot of things.  And that's in the real world, let alone a hypothetical world involving infinite amounts of things I can't know.

Yeah, that's the problem. The bible irrefutably sets people apart as important. I don't personally believe people are important in the grand scheme, but people are important to me. People are also important to the Abrahamic god. Therefore, it would make sense that he would care about their suffering even on the "small" scale, if you can believe the horrors on this planet are small potatoes. It's never going to set right with me, and that's not even the core of my disbelief in god. I don't believe because it isn't true. I write fiction. I know what it looks like.

[Whateverist]