Ok theists, I want you to submit any evidence that there is a god(s). I don't want posts that say:"well scientists don't know how this works therefore its god". I want any empirical evidence that you have to submit.
The universe is 13.7 billion years old according to science. If the universe was 0.01% younger, us intelligent humans wouldn't be here and the world would be a boring place. If the universe was 0.01% older, humans would be redundant as we would have invented artificial intelligence. Instead, we've been placed at a remarkable period in history. Incredibly remarkable. We have nuclear weapons able to wipe out humanity, we are on the verge of spreading democracy across the globe, and we've just had the internet give everyone a voice in the global debate so we can discuss our differences and chart a course for the future.
It's too damned neat.
It's far more likely that the extra 0.01% of history (ie 1 million years from now) has already happened, and our "descendants" have fantastic computer technology available to them, and they are running a computer simulation of which we are now a part. The interesting things they have packed into our timeframe probably didn't happen in such a short space in theirs.
OR THE EQUIVALENT - ie there are no "descendants", there's another way these computer simulations are being created.
Regardless, the overwhelming evidence as I see it is that this is a gigantic setup. We've been given a challenge of creating a free world without human rights abuses in our lifetimes.
Then there are all those fine-tuned parameters that make the universe as something that is capable of supporting life instead of just one large black hole.
Then if you look hard enough and with certain assumptions there is a verifiable miracle.
So this is why I am a theist, but I have an atheistic mindset as I was a long time atheist.
After giving me proof that there is a god(s), then you must give me evidence that your god is the true god.
I don't have proof of a particular god. It could be a 3rd grader running this computer simulation, just as 3rd graders here would run "Sim City".
I speculate what is most logical. You can see the results of my speculation here:
http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/religious-debates/127205-proposals-cycle-life.html
If anyone can do this, I will convert to their faith and spend the rest of my life worshiping. This "evidence" will also change the world forever.
To me the world is changed forever with the computer simulation model. I now attempt to derive the rules of the current simulation and try to decide what I'd prefer the rules to be. You can post on the above thread if you like.
Note that even in the "worst" case where this isn't a computer simulation after all, we can still expect that in a short time (0.01% or whatever) we will have the ability to create artificial universes and download our brains onto silicon so that we can join those universes, so we need to determine what we want the rules to be anyway, for preparation of when we (or our descendants) are gods ourselves. But like I said, I doubt that we'll be the very very first to create AI. And given that according to science intelligence was created just by accident in evolution, I doubt that it'll take us a whopping 0.01% to create it deliberately with all our technology. More like 0.000001% (137 years).
