What Would It Take To Make Me Believe In God?

So what would it take for me, a 7th degree black belt atheist, to believe in God? I've been thinking about this lately. Here's what I've come up with so far.

1. God would have to personally reveal himself to me and correctly answer every question I throw at him.

2. God would have to reveal himself to every person on Earth at the same time, in a way that doesn't make us all think we are suffering from some type of mass psychosis or delusion. Otherwise I might think I was just hallucinating.

3. God would have to demonstrate his power. He'd have to cure me and bring me to total health and fitness, end all suffering in the world instantly (after proclaiming to everyone that he would do so), end all wars, etc.

4. He would have to demonstrate his superior intelligence, and have an answer to every question that we have. He would have to have good answers for all of his stupid past behavior.

5. He would have to predict the future, in rigorous scientific experiments, with 100% accuracy.

6. He would have to bend the laws of physics and the natural world, but only in rigorous scientific experiments.

As you can see, I still won't have blind faith. I would require testable, repeatable evidence in massive quantities to believe. In this sense, I wouldn't "believe" so much as accept the evidence that would be available.

Now, if I believed in him, would I worship him? That's a separate issue. I don't think so, not the god of the bible. He's a hateful, childish, vengeful, jealous, petty god with anger issues. I think I'd say thanks but no thanks. I require more godliness and love to actually worship anything. I also require a god that actually does good and not harm.

So what are your thoughts? I know my list isn't complete. What else would you require to believe in God? And if you believed in him, what would it take for you to worship him?

10 comments:

  1. anti_supernaturalistApril 25, 2010 at 9:09 AM

    Given its purported attributes, the 1-god of the Big-3 monster theisms cannot exist. (There cannot exist a "god" which is all-knowing, all-good, and all powerful.) What other "gods" do you have in mind? Your rights under the Constitution are untouched whether gods exist or not:

    Notice to believers, especially fundies
    National Day of Pious Ventriloquism (18/04/2010)

    Who’s pulling your strings, dummy?

    I expect my rights to disbelief and freedom from religion under the Constitution to be respected by all in this secular state from which you benefit more than I. And that includes my right to free speech against your nonexistent deities on the air, on the internet, in other media including political cartoons, billboards, bus and subway advertising.

    If you imagine that the anti_supernaturalist enjoys "freedom of conscience" think again. Look at the back of any dollar bill — “In God we trust” — that’s an insult to 16% of the US population and a lighted match at the corner of the US Constitution. (Same with NDoPrayer — declared unconstitutional by a Wisconsin federal judge on 13 April.*)

    Even if the morally disgusting, vicious, paternalistic 1-god of the Big-3 monster theisms could be proven to exist, even if old Tom Paine’s white-washed deistic divinity could be established by Reason — I have the sovereign right to reject any claim that it must be acknowledged, accepted, or worshiped. The existence of gods is irrelevant to my right to be a member of a secular, open society.

    Faith, the trusting suspension of disbelief, has always been theater of the absurd. As a skeptic, belief in your 1-god is beneath me. The de-deification of western culture is our task for the next 100 years.

    the anti_supernaturalist



    * http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/16/AR2010041604626.html


    Article VI. Section 3. The senators and representatives before-mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

    Amendment I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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  2. I can tell you what has failed to cause me to "believe".
    1) Scripture (of any stripe); All of these are clearly the product of Human thought and are subject to the significant biases and agendas of the men who wrote them.
    2) Belief by others, whether individuals who I might otherwise respect for their opinions or historical/traditional groups past or present.
    3) Observed reality/scientific knowledge, which has universally impressed me with the extreme unlikelihood of the existance of a creator.
    4) The much larger question of whether a "creator", even if one actually existed, would care about/be aware of/require worship from any individual human beings.

    I sincerely doubt that any Deity could ever respond to your "reasons" to allow you to "believe".

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  3. I'd expand it to anything supernatural. For me to believe in it, I would require repeatable, demonstrable evidence (like you said above). For me to believe any one interpretation of any supernatural phenomena, the evidence would have to be consistent with legends (probably as close to scientific predictions as we can get, given the nature of the supernatural). On religion, I'd be very inclined if the proven-supernatural was shown to be affected by it.

    Example: If vampires could be proven to exist and warded off with crucifixes, I'd be inclined to give catholicism a second look.

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  4. It might be as well to ask this hypothetical entity why it allowed those professing adherence to its religion to perpertrate so many evils; and indeed from there to ask if it's so good to explain the purpose of evil, suffering and torment.

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  5. I'm not sure what all of this has to do with my post. I suspect a copy/paste rant.

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  6. Well, I agree with you. There are definitely a lot of good reasons to Not believe in any gods. I certainly don't.

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  7. Yes, I agree, this applies to all supernatural phenomena.

    Good points, BamBam.

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  8. That's a great question, and one I'd definitely ask. And it would probably be a good reason not to worship that god even if it did exist.

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  9. Have a vagina, too, at least!

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