Burden of Proof

The other thread on religion got me thinking. Atheists and agnostics of Wordforge, what kind of proof would be necessary from God in order to accept its existence?

I'm not sure what mine would be, there's the saying that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so I don't think a booming voice in the clouds would suffice, nor would God talking to me. I'll have to think about it.

If there's a god, he can satisfy whatever impossible standard of proof I'm as yet unable to define.

Straight out magical acts being performed by one of his apostles or some shit. Documented properly for all to see.

No, the bible doesn't count. It's unverifiable and comes from the age of greek gods and all that shit. Why would God be so fucking active 2000+ years ago and then suddenly shrivel up and hide? Did he die? Did people just stop believing new bullshit but were to married to legend to refuse to discount the old bullshit?

If he could bring my Mom and Dad around for a visit, I'd be favorably inclined to accept his claim to deityhood.

To know I've had an encounter with a rabbit, I'd have to first know what a rabbit was.
From descriptions, and/or photographs.

Religion hasn't even bothered to adequately define God in the first place.

I'd rather not know my ancestors are sitting on fluffy clouds watching me masturbate, if it's all the same to you.

Assuming I didn't already believe, I think the standard of proof would be the manifestation of something that our current science tells us is flatly impossible.

Remember the movie "Oh God!" with George Burns as God? In the courtroom scene, He turned day into night in the blink of an eye, and then back again. I think that might work for me.

he'd have to talk to me. not a problem for an omnipotent being, is it? as it stands, god is an invention of men, and organized religion is an invention of men who want to control others.

i'm open to any proof, though. if he's a good guy, he'll give a sign. you know, no belief, go to hell and he can't want that.

The only true way he can prove to me that he exists is to force himself to wink out of existence forever.

All that would prove is that you've got a being capable of turning day into night and back again. How would you know it was God and not Satan or God's kid brother?

Meh. Satan is a petulant child throwing a hissy fit. I've seen enough of them on Wordforge to recognize them when I see them.

Ceiling cat already ratted you out!

Satan is the most heroic character in all of literature.

Tom Waits says "there ain't no Devil, just God when he's drunk."

Anyway, if I wake up stranded on an island with nothing but beer and hot horny women, I will be convinced. Offer's on the table God, you know my simple demands.

You'd be dead of dehydration inside of three days with nothing but beer to drink, probably less than that, what with you acting like my chihuahua and trying to throw a hump into every single one of those women before they died. WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

That's what God wants you to think. Maybe the truth is that the Bible was written to elevate Yaweah from mere god of war among the semtic pantheon to all powerful supreme, one and only God. It's all a marketing ploy to make Yaweah look good while making Satan the bad guy.

Yeah, cuz throwing a screaming tantrum when you find out you're not as important as you thought you were is real heroic.

Y'know, it's odd. I've thought something very similar at times. Like a lot of the "God of the bible" stuff sounds like a local clown trying to impress the rubes, while the real guy keeps a sort of discreet distance.

If Q, Trelane, the Douwd, or any other fictional beings like them really existed, they'd have NO trouble successfully convinving multitudes of currently living humans they're this or that God(s). Which of course wouldn't be true. Anyway, once God or Gods revealed themselves & for argument's sake, they REALLY were that God or those Gods, then HOW they came about has to be anwered.

A way to look at & think of religion is the good or Holy guys/side are essentially Superman, He-Man, Batman, or Spider-Man, and the evil or Unholy guys/side is Lex Luthor, Skeletor, the Joker, or the Green Goblin. I know that was never the intent of & in any religion's founding and Good Books, but that's basically what it is.

You could call them the Good Comic Books!

I'd probably need God to rape Dayton.

Or at least slap him around.

According to a very one-sided argument.

Bring me Satan's Bible, then we can talk.

Rebellion against the creature described in the Bible is very heroic indeed. If only the humans in that particular fiction were not so craven.

Well, Async says he gets mental emails from God. Is that not enough for you?

Yeah, talk about stacking the deck. "You are my most perfect creation, but I've built in hubris to go with the perfection. Watch what happens now..."

Tangible, measurable evidence of God that cannot be evidence of anything other than God.

So a Cubs World Series?

And yet, if I remember correctly, you are one of the ones who suggested the most clearly that such a thing is necessarily a sign of mental illness, even when it systematically predicted the future correctly.

Which is a perfectly coherent position, given that Aurora isn't hearing him taking to her. A God that only speaks to a select few, while his communication with everyone would be supposedly extremely useful if not in fact necessary for his alleged plans, is implausible; thus, as long as only a few think they hear him, what they're hearing isn't God.

Compare:

If I stated that I see a uniquely numbered post 27b following your own post, in which you blaspheme against God at great length, and that merely looking at it convinces anyone that it is an accurate transcript of your thoughts, you would likely call me a liar or deluded. And yet the easiest imaginable way to prove this to you would be for you to see it yourself -- at which point you wouldn't be a liar for saying so, and probably not deluded if everyone else sees it too.

Only a select few of the billions of people on this planet have heard me, seen me, or even heard of me.

By your reasoning, then, I don't exist.

It's logic!

That's not the "logic" that Packard was using...