Proving The Existence of Your God to Others

[SalixIncendium]

This is inspired by a thread where a theist posted a video that has a biochemist arguing the existence of God.

Do you find it necessary to prove to atheists or theists who believe in other gods than your own that your god exists?

Why or why not?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

No. (To be honest, I have yet to 'prove' such things to myself.)

I suspect that those who try have a lower standard of proof than I am willing to consider.

 

[viole]

Do you find it necessary to prove to atheists or theists who believe in other gods than your own that your god exists?

If they had proof? Of course.

Alas, they do not have any. I mean, proof is a big word when they do not even the smallest shred of evidence. All of them.

Ciao

- viole

 

[SalixIncendium]

If they had proof? Of course.

It's cute that presume to speak for all theists.

I know many theists that have no interest in proving their god to anyone. For many, their god and their relationship with that god are very personal and kept private.

 

[viole]

It's cute that you think you presume to speak for all theists.

I know many theists that have no interest in proving their god to anyone. For many, their god and their relationship with that god are very personal and kept private.

OK. I am not presuming to speak for all theists. In fact, I am speaking for no possibly existing theist, since I claimed they should publish their proof if they had any.

And the set of all people who have proof of God, is the empty set.

Ciao

- viole

 

[SalixIncendium]

OK. I am not presuming to speak for all theists. In fact, I am speaking for no possibly existing theist, since I claimed they should publish their proof if they had any.

And the set of all people who have proof of God, is the empty set.

Ciao

- viole

So you're admitting to attempting to derail the thread and making it an argument of whether or not god(s) exists?

 

[Rival]

No. God is outside such boundaries, so the question a non-starter.

 

[PureX]

This is inspired by a thread where a theist posted a video that has a biochemist arguing the existence of God.

Do you find it necessary to prove to atheists or theists who believe in other gods than your own that your god exists?

Why or why not?

No. Mostly because the existence of God is self-evident to anyone with a brain that they're willing to use. The issue has never been that God may not exist, but HOW does God exist? In what form or manifestation? And what does this mean to us? And I think we each will have to answer those questions for ourselves. So I see no reason why I should be trying to convince anyone else to accept my understanding on the matter.

 

[Quintessence]

No, because:

• Duh? The gods I worship are so self-evident and obvious in terms of their existence - even by stricter and narrower standards of what it means to exist - it is rather pointless to waste time proving the self-evidently obvious.
• La la la. It's rather pointless to waste time trying to educate others on theological diversity and the obviousness of the existence of various gods when most will just stick their fingers in their ears and sing "la la la" to their own tune.
• Do. What goes on inside someone's head is irrelevant compared to what they actually do. There aren't that many contemporary Pagans, but there sure are a lot of people who in action more or less worship the same gods I worship by respecting nature. I don't care if you use the title "god" for Sun if you grasp that going outside without sunscreen is a stupid idea sometimes.
• Duh? Did I mention how catastrophically obvious it is that the gods that I worship exist? Not sure if I said that one already...

 

[metis]

This is inspired by a thread where a theist posted a video that has a biochemist arguing the existence of God.

Do you find it necessary to prove to atheists or theists who believe in other gods than your own that your god exists?

Why or why not?

I think it's impossible to prove whether there's a god or gods or not.

 

[ratiocinator]

Mostly because the existence of God is self-evident to anyone with a brain that they're willing to use.

So I see no reason why I should be trying to convince anyone else to accept my understanding on the matter.

But you're forever lecturing the rest of us about what we should or shouldn't believe. You've just done it again above.

 

[Link]

I believe if anyone is going to assert anything philosophically on how to live they ought to prove it.

 

[Rival]

I believe if anyone is going to assert anything philosophically on how to live they ought to prove it.

The problem is you can't really 'prove' abstracts in the common understanding of 'prove'. You can't prove numbers, justice or grammar exist.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I believe if anyone is going to assert anything philosophically on how to live they ought to prove it.

Why?

If I told you that the god I worship brings me peace, and that it helps me to live without anxiety and depression, would I have to prove to you the existence of that god? If so, why?

 

[PureX]

But you're forever lecturing the rest of us about what we should or shouldn't believe. You've just done it again above.

I try to explain to people why they should refrain from believing anything. But you don't read to understand. You only read to argue.

 

[wellwisher]

This is inspired by a thread where a theist posted a video that has a biochemist arguing the existence of God.

Do you find it necessary to prove to atheists or theists who believe in other gods than your own that your god exists?

Why or why not?

This is the same for most complicated topics, including science. Unless you are an expert in a field, we tend to depend on the word of others; experts, and not our own personal inference and deduction from the base raw data. I remember deriving E=MC2 from the basic math used by Einstein by following his math. From scratch gives one a better appreciation, than if you depend only on the prestige of others to accept with faith.

The BB theory is accepted by any Atheist, due to the prestige of science, but not due to each person proving it to themself from scratch. Religion works the same way. One can relate their own experiences but that is not enough to convince others, especially if they are close minded skeptical. You will also use faith in others; experts, such as spiritual leaders of each religion. Does the faith element of the layman, in science, make science a type of infallible religion to them?

When I went to college I started my freshman year by questioning everything I was taught. I would pick things apart. But that was time consuming and did not help with tests. So, after a few weeks, I decided to just accept and memorize to save time and to get better grades. This was a good practical choice and more relaxing.

It was not until later, after I graduated, that I started to question what I believed, since so much was memorized and accepted via prestige; collective prestige. It was not hard to find flaws in things that were memorized and accepted but never questioned. I decided to start fresh due to conceptual flaws in many science designs. I lack any prestige, so even solid theory, may not pass the faith test of science.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I tell people they should refrain from believing anything.

Why do you feel the need to tell people what they should do?

 

[ratiocinator]

I try to explain to people why they should refrain from believing anything.

Right, so saying "the existence of God is self-evident to anyone with a brain that they're willing to use" actually means "don't believe anything about god" in PureX-eses?

You only read to argue.

 

[JustGeorge]

This is inspired by a thread where a theist posted a video that has a biochemist arguing the existence of God.

Do you find it necessary to prove to atheists or theists who believe in other gods than your own that your god exists?

Why or why not?

No.

what other people believe isn't my business.

 

[PureX]

Why do you feel the need to tell people what they should do?

I can only tell others why it's dishonest and counter-productive to believe in things that we can't actually know to be so, as opposed to simply choosing to provisionally trust in them, with skepticism, and then see what comes of it. We are a collective cooperative species. We learn mostly from each other. So this sharing of each other's understanding is important.