CHALLENGE: Provide a Single Piece of Evidence that God Exists

[Wotan]

When was the last time you went outside and could see billions of stars?
There still was no comparison to what you visually could see!

4K yrs ago in desert? You really think they didn't see a great deal more than you can now see today from Hollywood and Vine?

 

[Commoner]

When was the last time you went outside and could see billions of stars?
There still was no comparison to what you visually could see!

I'm pretty sure a billion stars visible to the naked eye would result in the sudden onset of "seeing nothing" and possibly a mild case of "not living" .

 

[Smoke]

"The covenant with Abraham said that God would make him many nations, and
that he would always protect his seed which would number like the stars of
heaven or the sands by the sea. "

As a matter of simple fact this is NOT true. The TOTAL human population of the earth is less than the sand on one small island, less than the number of stars within 10 light years, less than the number of single celled organisms in a small pond, less the number of cells in one human body.

Maybe it just hasn't been fulfilled yet. Next time a missionary tells you about the Second Coming, tell him it can't possibly occur until the number of descendants of Abraham exceeds 10 sextillion.

 

[Peacewise]

There seem to be 12 stars within 10 light years of earth. Not actually that many and certainly not more than the total human population of earth.

 

[Walkntune]

4K yrs ago in desert? You really think they didn't see a great deal more than you can now see today from Hollywood and Vine?

I said stars, not hookers!

 

[Theosophist]

I am an Athiest.

I have never believed in a personal God as worshipped by any of the Abrahamic Religions.

Throughout my life, I have not encountered a single piece of evidence that supports the claim that such a God exists.

Need, desire, desperation, or fear are NOT factors when I am deciding if God exists, nor is the threat that I’ll “burn in hell if I don’t”. Also, I cannot accept “because I said so” as a valid argument for anything.

Bottom line, I am unable to exclude my belief in God from the same level of critical-thinking that I use to believe anything else in my life, and therefore, I have come to the conclusion that God does not exist.

So I say again, I have never encountered a single piece of evidence that supports the claim that an Abrahamic God exists, and I invite anyone to help me “see the light” by providing any such evidence.

Regarding Non-Abrahamic Gods, I’d like to keep those a separate consideration for the time being.

Dear sonofskeptish,

To begin to reply, please allow me some clarification on terms that sometimes become confused in these debates.

I am a Theist. What is more, I am a Bible-believing Theist. As a Christian, I also believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God who sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world as fully God and fully man to die for the sins of mankind and to be resurrected from the dead physically and be seen by over 500 witnesses on the third day after his death as revealed in the Bible. This is the God in whom I believe.

I have at times shared your sentiment, however, concerning the nature of evidence. In fact, there are times when I look at what is declared to be evidence and I can do nothing more than scratch my head in disbelief. Your exclusions are seemingly valid. If one were to believe in God merely out of need, desire, desperation, or threat, one would be going contrary to the logic which I believe God has given us to help us in discerning the truth.

There are at least two methods of approaching this argument which I believe show some validity.

First, I would like to point out that the search for evidence in support of God is a complicated search. The complication comes in at the outset, because any believer in God will always interpret all evidence in his favor. Anything that does not seem to fit into the believer’s framework (i.e. the problem of evil) will be interpreted in such a way as to jive with the system. By the same token, a believer in non-God (i.e. an unbeliever) will always interpret evidences in such a way so that they make sense.

Any appeal to evidence is therefore somewhat of a subjective appeal, because evidence relies upon interpretation for it to make any sense whatsoever. I could point to design in nature and say that God designed it. But you would say that evolution made it happen by chance. The arguments resulting could be endless. On these grounds, I will rather defer to something beyond evidence which may help you to “see the light.”

Second, the logical examination of the existence of non-God is problematic. In order to exclude God from the realm of possibility, one would need to know the two logical categories of everything included in non-God and everything included in God. By definition, everything that is non-God cannot be known by any one human. I am sure that you would not presume to know every single fact and event. I would not do so either. However, in order for you to exclude God logically, you would need to know all the facts. That would make you omniscient. That would make you God. Or you could say that all humans together know all facts. However, there are so many facts that we just don’t know, even when you think about collective science and how many discoveries have been made in the past century. There is yet much to learn.

I do not presume to know all the facts. That is why I believe that one can come to know God only by faith. By the same token, the only real way that an atheist can come to know non-God is by faith.

So where does faith come from? It comes from a human encounter with truth. If there is a God, the only way that one would be able to know him is if He has chosen to show himself. Thus, one can come to the knowledge of God only through revelation. We can only believe because of what God says in the Bible.

At this point, you will probably object that the Bible is a human book with many errors. The believer, however, will find a way to interpret these apparent contradictions and to have them be consistent with his views. In the end, the only way that one can account for belief is that God himself does a work in the heart of a believer to bring about faith. It can be explained to some degree, but not proven. If one were to prove God, God would have no raison d’être. He needs no proof.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

God is within you. If you look properly, you need no other proof except this.

 

[prometheuspan]

cross challenge;

be responsible for this information and then get back to me;
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General
1.Psychology is the study of the human mind. Most specifically the psyche, most generally All of human behavior.
2. The human Brain is composed of between 40 and 70 different organs, depending upon
how you define differences. These are called brodmanns brain areas. Each brain area
is responsible for specific types of brain processes and mental functions.
3. The human mind has four main operational conditions, they are beta brainwave states, alpha brainwave states, delta brainwave states, and theta brainwave states. Each of these might be further subdivided into waking or sleeping states of consciousness.
4. Beta brainwave states are those in which the dominant area of the brain is the frontal lobes. Alpha brainwave states are those in which the dominant area of the brain is the Mammalian brain or Occipital lobes, and Delta brainwaves states are those where the brain is dominated by the Reptilian Brain or brain stem. Theta brain wave states are
a second waking condition in which the body is healed, or, in which the normal flow of
dominance from top of brain to bottom of brain is reversed, and the bottom of the brain
loads information into the top, which is then experienced as dreams.
5. We have instincts which compel us to seek out gratification of our needs. All behavior is motivated by a conscious or unconscious belief that said behavior will get some need met.
6. Psychology involves first an instinct, which compels a thought process, and then a planning or strategizing session in which the individual uses their maps of reality and belief systems as well as learned knowledge and social conditioning to arrive at an end
product of doing something to get what you want. Schema are maps of reality which we
use as tools to meet our needs .Social Conditioning and personal experience and learning
play vital roles in helping the mind to think up tactics to meet needs.
7. Criminal behavior is behavior which that person believes will get their needs met. Punishment was well demonstrated to have little or no effect on learning curve. What is required for a person to change their behavior is a functional tactic that does work to get their needs met.
8. Groupthink is a social phenomenon of psychology where a group uses false
consensus process to end up behaving stupidly as a group. Groupthink occurs when
people cave into social pressures, where propaganda replaces knowledge or facts, and where group identity is created out of participation in group delusions, lies, codependency, or criminality. Groupthink is how a mob drifts to the lowest common denominator, and why a mob is potentially vicious, evil, and sociopathic. Group
authority ameliorates and dissolves personal conscience, and by having their emotions
manipulated and their social identity threatened, people give up their own better judgment and accept the judgment of the most psychopathic member of the group.
9. Pack Psychology is the psychology exhibited primarily by mammals in small groups
in which 3 primary roles are assumed by social participants. The roles are Alpha- the leader, Beta- the followers, and Delta- the orbiters. In human society that translates in a super-simplified way into bullies, cliques, and nerds.
10. Problem solving psychology must contend against groupthink and pack psychology in the arena of opinion. Problem solving psychology is emotionally neutral and uses the mind and logic to look at all aspects of a problem and try to come up with a viable problem solving process. Problem solving psychology is the worst enemy of both
Rightist and Leftist Dogmatists. True problem solving psychology comes from the place of the radical middle. It takes in all sides and all viewpoints, and it gives each its fair dues
And attention in creating a problem solving process that works from the big picture down through into the nano details.

You are only allowed to post URLs to other sites after you have made 15 posts or more.

never mind... you can't manage unless you run google on your own dime for like what? 10 more posts? maybe i will come back later.

or maybe i have other things to do...
lol