what would you say to convince me there is a god? trying to frighten me with warnings of hell wont work.?

Question

and neither will promises of gods love. i want either evidence or a convincing philosophical view point.

Answer 1

The "proof," so they say, "is in the pudding." (AKA, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" take your pick)

The evidence of God's existence is the fact that lives have been radically changed for the better when people have had an encounter with God.

In my OWN case, for instance, I was at a low point in my life, living a self-destructive lifestyle of drug abuse, booze, et cetera.

(Parenthetical backflash here). When I grew up, I was always taught that Jesus was a liar, possibly a lunatic, and above all else, very definitely dead. I was NOT raised in any kind of "Christian" environment.

(Back to the storyline). At this low point in my life, after several years of drug abuse, someone asked if they could pray for me. I thought it was a rather stupid notion, but, hey, if that's what rocks their boat, why not. Besides, what can POSSIBLY happen by talking to a dead man?

So, Bryan prayed, and (lo and behold) God actually answered! I had what you might call (for lack of a better term) a "revelation" that Jesus really IS alive and He really IS the Son of God!!!! My whole being reverberated in every cell in my body with that message like 110 volts charging every cell!

When I finally got over the shock of this "news", all I could say was, "uh - oh - uh - ok". When I DID say "ok", the power of God came down and washed me clean of all the drugs, booze, cigs, et cetera. I actually FELT forgiveness, and peace and joy like I never felt before. I literally felt the drugs leave my body. All this took place in an instant of time (wellllll, maybe 3 seconds).

I have never once desired drugs again since that moment. My life has NEVER been the same, and that was something like 35 or so years ago!

Now, understand, I'm not the ONLY one who can testify to what God has done in their lives. Go visit any Teen Challenge center across the United States and talk to anyone who is nearing completion of the program to get similar stories.

Now, if only one person gives you a "testimony" like this, you could be skeptical about it.

If two, three, or even four people tell you something like this, you might think it's a "conspiracy".

But when literally THOUSANDS of people around the world that never even KNEW each other can give you similar accounts of God's work in their lives, you can no longer discount it as mass hallucination or brain washing, but as a viable witness to God working in lives!

Now, I know that you can tell me that people can be helped from their drug addictions without God, but that only proves my point - that there IS help. Some WITH God, and some withOUT God's help. Those that receive help from God does NOT disprove that others received help with OUT God; and likewise, those who receive help without God does not disprove the fact that others DID receive help from God. It just goes to substantiate that help IS possible.

The other thing I truly hope you DON'T disillusion yourself with, please don't say that it was a drug-induced hallucination, because there is no drug (LSD was my preferred drug, laced with speed, et cetera), but there is absolutely NO drug that can remove itself from your system completely, both the drug, the affects, as well as the cravings and desires, via a drug-induced hallucination. Drugs don't cure drug addiction, so please don't even go there!

Like I said at the start, "the proof is in the pudding", and the evidence of God's existence is the fact that literally MILLIONS of people (since Jesus first lived) will testify that God has delivered them from such addictions and cravings as alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual abuse, sex addictions, cigarettes, depression, self-loathing, suicidal tendencies, and the list goes on.

One additional comment:

Please don't point to those who have done wicked things in the name of Christianity as evidence that it doesn't work. Please don't talk about people who abuse their religion for evil. Again, that only proves that it is real. Nobody EVER counterfeits a $3.00 bill. You will ONLY find counterfeits of money that there is a legitimate bill in which to forge in the first place.

Answer 2

If you really want to know, here's what I would say....

First, recognize the confines of language. "God" usually denotes a gigantic old white man with a beard and either a smile or thunderbolts depending on your own disposition. Rather, these images are mostly the product of human understand God through a metaphor that makes him into a human. This is how the brain physically acquires new information and we would have no way of communicating or sharing this experience without these metaphors. But all metaphors have limitations. You are hitting the confines of the barriers that language places on thought.

Second, let go of the confines of the idea that the whole story is about man because man is the highest animal because of our self-awareness and capacity for rational thought. Rational thought is a survival tool that developed in humans over time and continued via evolutionary selection. But it is still a tool that is designed to access the physical world, it is no more a tool for accessing God than are eyebrows or eustacion tubes. We simpy cannot expect the supernatural to be completely subject to the natural and get any meaninful result. Additionally, humans have themselves as the reason for the universe and everything in it - God is essentially portrayed as a feature of our world rather than us inhabiting the world like al other animals and humans being more important to other humans, as they should be.

Third, realize that your Ego, those things that you usually define as yourself - preferences, memories, and such - are physically stored in your brain and are finite. What you call ME exists, but it is temporal.

Fourth, meditate and see if you can't find that energy within yourself that is linked to everything else. Underneath your individual identity, your Ego, there is a Self much more stable, an energy that is connected to all things. That energy is Soul, it is the divine in you that senses the divine out of you and in others.

Fifth, if you are able to access this energy, in order to pursue it and share it with others you will need to find a language game with which you can convey your experience. That's called religion.

At least this is the way I and other people have experienced it!

Answer 3

I understand how you might feel. I could also be asking you to
give me the same 100 percent proof that there is no god. Can
you do this? Believers believe, everyone else is skepetical. What works for me is to believe there must be someone with
a very supernatural gift to create al the planets,thousands of
species of birds insects sunsets stars etc etc etc.Depending
on ones man made religious beliefs God comes in many
flavors. I myself do not believe in any thing man made when it
has to do with religion. The bible is dear to me but very con
fussing. The best part is the simple yet complex 10 commandments. Clear to understand advise. I belive there
is a supreme being who masterminded all of these things.
Some belive it was someone from another planet. Not heaven. Life is totally a mystery. We will never find evidence.
It is within our own souls what we wish to believe.I do know
from my own personal experiences in life that i feel very
happy and energized each day when i meditate or pray to
my personal God. I have to thank him for my journey of learning her for a short time. It makes me feel great to believe. Life to me would look very bleak if i thought we were
created for nothing and wew are just blood and dust. I love
the study of live. If you start to really examine everything
around you and everything you see and everyone you meet
and ask why this or that happens maybe you will see what I
See.

Answer 4

I would say that the natural world is the most compelling evidence of God's existence. Science can explain how one creature turned into another (though there is no evidence of one type of animal slowly evolving step by step in the fossil record into another type of animal, which one would expect if it took millions of years and hundreds of thousands of generations for such changes to occur), but it cannot explain how life started. Cells can reproduce more cells, but where did the first cell come from? The only difference between Precambrian rock and Cambrian rock is that Cambrian rock is teeming with life and Pre-cambrian rock has none. They call it the Cambrian explosion. Life suddenly started, in great complexity, with all animals fully formed and fully functional. Does that sound more like what the evolution model would predict from the fossil record, or the creation model?

Answer 5

It is something you need to find for yourself. I don't try to convince anyone that there is a God. I may witness to others, but only when it comes from my heart, my personal experience with God. I believe in my heart and I will share from my heart. If there is a passage that really sums up the way I feel then I may quote the Bible. Not to convince someone or because I think it will MAKE them believe. Close your eyes and ask God to be in your life. To show you what to do. Ask questions of God, and then try to be alert during the day for the answers. God always answers my questions, it is my choice to listen for the answers.

Answer 6

faith is something not to be argues about. However I will try, let me know if you are convinced.
1. Every action needs a force behind. What is the force that drives the world?
2. Each corrective action needs error signal, decision to correct & force to correct. Who does this?
3. Did it ever happened to you that you were in helpless condition & an unexpected help came from unexpected source? Who managed that?
Now it's left to you.

Answer 7

Do you really want to believe? If you do then send me a email.
If i don't here from you then I will know that all you really wanted to do was try to get under the skin of the Believers in Jesus this morning, there is nothing wrong with that mind you because everyone has a right to there own opinion. and from the way you have worded you question I really think that you wont believe anything we tell you.

It your choice email me and we'll talk or continue down your own enlightened path.

Thank you

Answer 8

Nobody here can do it; Your belief is your own. While faithlessness saddens me, I can only try to be an ambassador of God's Love through my thoughts and deeds.

Other than that, pick up a bible and read with an open heart. Sadly, Critics, cynics, and the highly educated will often never come to God because they cannot bring themselves to believe.

Answer 9

One idea might be to start with concepts. We all interpret the world around by means of concepts. They may be moral: justice. They may be psychological, e.g. love and anger. Where do all these concepts originate? Yes, we see them around us; but where does this STANDARD come from? If one were to think of God not as a PERSON [for all religious language is metaphorical to an extent] then we might call God the source of all these attributes in their 'good' or 'positive form' So why is God portrayed as having love, anger etc. in religious texts? Because to explain the Divine source of these concepts, one has to somehow PORTRAY God as being party to love or anger. Of course, in an absolute sense, God is not subject to emotions; yet we say that he loves us because from our limited human perspective, it is the way it appears to us, as the Divine Unity is the source of all these good qualities, such as Love. In other words, God blesses us, but he does not, of course, FEEL love as we would understand it; he IS love itself. Hope this helps. Peace to you.

Answer 10

It is really as simple as this. There is a physical universe. That universe either created itself or someone created it. To me, it is easier to accept the latter. A being that is not of the physical universe and therefore, not bound by it's laws makes more sense to me than a universe that violates it's own laws.