For unbelievers who ask for proof.?

Question

This is an honest question.

If God himself appeared next to you and explained every question that you had, would you or would you not run as fast as you could to nearest doctors office for meds because you would believe that you were delusional?

Paladin and Deke- LOL, nice.

J.P. - You have an open mind, I like how you think!

Disconbob. - You are like me, unfortunately for both of us, but maybe this is a wake up call. (I do not condescend people, you must have me confused with someone else.)

Answer 1

I wouldn't be asking questions. I'd be demanding proof.

Let us assume for a moment that an omniscient deity exists. He or she or it knows exactly what it must do for me to believe. I've actually got just the thing in mind, but that's for any hypothetical deities to know.

So... I'll just keep waiting over here.

Answer 2

I don't know. I think I'm curious enough that I'd keep asking questions, and become a believer pretty quickly.

Notice that nothing remotely like this ever happens. I strongly suspect that you're trying to imply that the reason that we don't believe in gods is that we're insistent on rejecting evidence. But notice that you have to tell a little hypothetical story to make the point - you can't point to any atheist rejecting any real evidence, because there isn't any real evidence for the existence of gods.

That means that you have exactly zero evidence that atheists would reject real evidence.

As a result, responses like Paulo's (below) are simply lies, and once again we have to ask why the fact that you have to lie so much about others to defend your beliefs doesn't make you question your beliefs. It's a clear lack of moral character in believers.

Answer 3

If 'God himself appeared next to you and explained every question...'... then it would no longer be a matter of 'belief'... would it?

This is the part that most people don't get... it has ENTIRELY to do with the concept of 'belief'. 'Belief' is stupid and irrelevant... it has absolutely nothing to do with reality... what IS... it has ONLY to do with with one's state of mind.

WHY is 'belief' irrelevant? Because even if by some huge accident your 'beliefs' DID happen to correspond to reality, there would be NO WAY to ascertain that, without FACTS. So, absent those FACTS, all that your 'belief' is, is the ILLUSION that you 'know'. Once you have facts, then you DO know... and belief is unneccessary. At this point, it is usually useful to mention that the reason that religion is based on 'faith' and 'belief' is because THERE ARE NO FACTS that support the idea that invisible, magical sky-fairies (gods) actually exist.

'Faith' (magical, wishful thinking) is a lame and pathetic substitute for 'evidence'.

Faith-based 'belief' (the internalized certainty that you are privy to the 'truth' pertaining to vital aspects of existence and reality) is a lame and pathetic substitute for 'knowledge'... in fact, it is the ILLUSION of knowledge.

Faith + belief ---> Self-delusion and willful ignorance.

'Belief' is an insidious mind-killer... it cuts one off from the open-minded and intellectually honest (willing to actively question and doubt one's own assumptions) consideration of alternative possibilities.

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance... it is the illusion of knowledge." ~ Daniel Boorstin
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Answer 4

I don't think so, I think i'd ask someone else if they could see them then accept that the person next to me knows an awful lot, even to the point of being all-knowing. But that doesn't lead on to the conclusion that he must be a god.

Answer 5

No of course not I'd join the church god told me was the correct one and then condescend to anyone that thinks differently than me and ask silly improbable questions on yahoo. In other words I'd be more like you. By the way what meds are you on?

Answer 6

Yea, I'd probably go to the doctor. I've heard lots of stories of people "seeing God" and then doing messed up things because they thought they were his messanger. The Aum cult in Japan is a good example. Their leader "saw God" and then he tried to speed the Apocolypse along by gassing the subway system (I assume you remember this incident, many people died.)

Answer 7

I would certainly want to rule out delusion. I wish Deanna Laney had gone to rule out the possibility of delusion before stoning two of her children to death when she thought God was speaking to her. I do believe in God, but I also know that it's far more likely that delusion was the cause.

Answer 8

Yes, I really would. You see, all our perceptions are interpreted in our brain cortex. If my brain started to show me that my processes of thinking and answering my questions were the result of God's explaining them it would be functioning against the rules of good sense...

Moreover I could become a danger for society, for I could start to think that I was his emissary... and we all know what God's emissaries have done throughout history...

Answer 9

Well, since the first question I would ask is: "How can you prove to me that you are really Yahweh, and not some other super powerful being or figment of my imagination?", I would likely be at ease.

Of course, It would be quite some time before I would finish asking questions.

Answer 10

of course I will, and not Just simple Meds, but shrinks, since it's would be a clear indication of my insanity.
The only fact that will make me feel a little better is the number of people in the past, who suffered from the same delusion, some of whom became very famous for that delusion.