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Could you believe that God exists?

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  • Could you believe that God exists?

    So I've changed my mind at least once on the question of whether or not God exists. For two different kinds of reasons, one was mystical and not something I can adequately share with other people. The other was rational, basically going over the arguments, seeing how they made more sense than the alternative and becoming convinced by them.

    I'm speaking mostly to atheists, and I'll ask all theists here to post their answer. At any rate feel free to let me know your opinion, as I'm curious as to what stance you have. Shunya, no need to post, we still don't understand what exactly you believe.

    Mr Black I will politely ask you not to post here as you have a tendency to hijack and derail threads with aggressive Van Tillian styled apologetics, even when you say you don't intend to do so. Please avoid breaking your own word in this thread as well.
    19
    Yes
    78.95%
    15
    No
    21.05%
    4

  • #2
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

    Comment


    • #3
      Well, like you I have had both what you call "mystical"(not sure I would call it that personally, but oh well), and what I consider reason to believe. The former always leads to derail. I'll try to put it as simply as I can.

      "Nothing in existence makes sense except in the Light of God".

      I mean literally nothing makes sense, why there is something rather than nothing, why nature is mostly uniform, why we have the capacity to even reason at all. Without Him there would not even be any reason to trust my own senses in anything they perceive.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Leonhard View Post
        I'm speaking mostly to atheists, and I'll ask all theists here to post their answer. At any rate feel free to let me know your opinion, as I'm curious as to what stance you have.
        As a fully vested and unrepentant Platonic idealist, the possibility that God* does not exist is literally inconceivable.



        * whichever God you might be referring to, of course.

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        • #5
          I've been wrong about many things in the past and will very likely be wrong about things in the future, so I have little doubt that there currently are things that I think are true which are actually false, I just don't know which things they are. As such, learning is the process of taking in new true and false beliefs, reinforcing beliefs that I think are true, and weeding out beliefs that I wrongly thought were true. It's possible that I'm wrong about many of my beliefs, so it's important to be willing to test my beliefs, especially those that are most important to me. If I'm wrong about something, I want to know. I think the preponderance of evidence indicates that God exists, but it is always possible to misinterpret evidence, so I could be wrong, but it would take some convincing.
          "Faith is nothing less than the will to keep one's mind fixed precisely on what reason has discovered to it." - Edward Feser

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          • #6
            Originally posted by lao tzu View Post
            whichever God you might be referring to, of course.

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            • #7
              Like some others here, I have both 'mystical' and 'reasoned' reasons for believing that God exists. While I suppose it's possible I could change my mind, at this point I consider it unlikely to happen. TWeb is part of the reason for that.

              Having seen a lot of different atheist objections to God (etc) and evaluated as best I can the strength of those objections vs apologetic arguments, I feel the theist case is by far stronger. Theistic or theistic-compatible positions seem to me to have overall greater explanatory power and scope, in areas such as morality, the PoE, why there is something rather than nothing, why things are the way they are, the nature of the mind, and why people are the way we are.
              ...>>> Witty remark or snarky quote of another poster goes here <<<...

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              • #8
                Is it possible for you change your mind about God's existence?
                Yes, it is possible. But I would need to hear a reason that I have not already heard, and that seems very unlikely. I cannot remember the last time I heard an argument for God's existence that I had not previously encountered in some version.

                Comment


                • #9
                  For the atheists in general - what would it take for you to believe in God? What evidence would be compelling for you?
                  Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by seer View Post
                    For the atheists in general - what would it take for you to believe in God? What evidence would be compelling for you?
                    I really don't know. But if God is real, he knows what it would take and he knows how to make it happen. Whether he does make it happen is his decision.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Doug Shaver View Post
                      I really don't know. But if God is real, he knows what it would take and he knows how to make it happen. Whether he does make it happen is his decision.

                      I don't think that follows, I don't think God could make men freely love Him.
                      Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Doug Shaver View Post
                        I really don't know. But if God is real, he knows what it would take and he knows how to make it happen. Whether he does make it happen is his decision.
                        Just for the sake of argument, what if he made a baloney sandwich appear right in front of you as you are reading this post? Would that do it?
                        βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι᾿ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι, τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον·
                        ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους, τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην.

                        אָכֵ֕ן אַתָּ֖ה אֵ֣ל מִסְתַּתֵּ֑ר אֱלֹהֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מוֹשִֽׁיעַ׃

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by robrecht View Post
                          Just for the sake of argument, what if he made a baloney sandwich appear right in front of you as you are reading this post? Would that do it?
                          with butter and mustard?
                          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                            with butter and mustard?
                            No party tricks!
                            If it weren't for the Resurrection of Jesus, we'd all be in DEEP TROUBLE!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by robrecht View Post
                              Just for the sake of argument, what if he made a baloney sandwich appear right in front of you as you are reading this post? Would that do it?
                              I think Doug would conclude that God had bad taste in food, and who would want to worship such a God.
                              Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

                              Comment

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