ATHEISTS/AGNOSTICS: what would convince you that there is a God?

Question

I bet a lot of people would want scientific evidence and such... anything else?

*Curious*

Answer 1

Scientific evidence? All I'd want is an appearance from a god. That's all. But does it ever happen? Nope.

We atheists are not demanding anything unusual. I don't need "scientific evidence" to convince me that trees and cars and snow exist, or that France exists, or that the wind or air exists, or that love exists. Those things make themselves pretty danged obvious.

"God" is nothing like that. There's no sign whatsoever that there is any such thing as a "god". I draw the obvious conclusion.

We've got thousands of years of excuse-making, rudeness, name-calling (see the "whore" comment above), reliance on authority, made-up claims and outright invalid arguments from believers, but not one whit of evidence for those claims. Zero. At least 3/4ths of the reasons that believers give for believing in god are the kinds of things that would lead any decent intelligent person to be even more sure that there isn't any such thing as a god. That's right - I'd be far more likely to believe in gods if no-one had ever tried to convince me that there were any.

There's a test described in the Bible involving Ezekiel, I believe, and some folks described as "prophets of Baal". Both sides were to build and altar and then pray, and the true God would send down fire to consume the altar. If believers were willing to put their beliefs to that test, I'd be happy to help set it up. Whenever I suggest that, though, the very same people who claim to believe the Bible suddenly become very uninterested in what the Bible says, and pretend not to have heard me.
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Evonne (below) writes:

"I believe that if God appeared to those unbelievers, it still would not make a difference because they would still be rebellious. They would still deny God and would rather live their sinful lives"

Based on what?

See what I mean? There's a narrow-minded, deliberately insulting comment from a believer, one who can't possibly be in a position to have any basis at all for that belief. I'd be just as justified in saying that I believe that if Evonne were alone with a drug dealer, she'd prostitute herself to him for a half an ounce of pot. And Evonne is far from the first believer to make that claim.

Answer 2

I consider "God" as is typically meant by theists (i.e., creator of the Universe, personally involved in people's lives, operator of an afterlife, etc.) to be a facially absurd concept.

Therefore, I will no longer be entertaining any "evidence" such a being exists, for much the same reason I won't be looking at evidence there is a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc.

Answer 3

As an Agnostic I truly envy both Athiests and those with firm religeous convictions. They have the convenience of knowing
the answers to all questions. They are told what to beliveve and
why and have the arrogance to feel their's is the only 'real' way.
Something is responsible for this wonderful world,but then,who
knows where the universe begins ?

Answer 4

>ATHEISTS/AGNOSTICS: what would convince you that there is a God?

It's hard to say. For one thing, keep in mind that 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'. In other words, even if a giant bearded face appears in the clouds and tells me to believe in him, it could be some technologically advanced aliens messing with the Earth's atmosphere, or directly with my brain. Considering that, it seems very difficult indeed to demonstrate that God exists. All I can say right now is 'I'll know it when I see it.'

Answer 5

I think that is pretty much what they are asking for.

What I am curious to know is if an Atheist would believe in GOD if they encountered GOD's presence, but had no evidence to show the world after the encounter took place. Did the encounter ever happen if there is no evidence to support it? Would the atheist convince him/herself that it was a dream/hallucination and not the real deal? Or would s/he be converted and frustrated that a very real face to face encounter with GOD contradicts their need to rely on tangible and objective evidence.

Answer 6

no longer something could desire to convince me. whether some guy floating in the sky shot lightning some ft from me, making a pig with the voice of BB King come out of the hollow and make me memorize the heritage of the Pacific Ocean. i could desire to head solipsist or i might basically be loopy. Or, lots extra probably, the two. EDIT: Holy sh-t Adeel! Did you basically write the Encyclopedia Britannica?

Answer 7

There are many many things that would make Atheists think again about God , they are quite open minded , this guy YouTube gives a nice 15 Minute presentation about the sorts of things we are looking for :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qmcOG-na4E

Answer 8

Blunt force trauma to the head would sure help. At this point, nothing short of God coming to me and telling me of his existence would be enough proof for me as the evidence has been heavily stacked against the existence of God. It wouldn't take much to make me agnostic, but to become a theist, I would need some pretty hard evidence.

Answer 9

The same as would convince me of the realty of UFO's. A magical appearance on the White House lawn would be a start.

Answer 10

If not scientific evidence (objective, verifiable, validatable), a personal experience that leave no doubt would do.

A god appearing in front of me and showing me his powers would do.