God could NEVER convince me he exists. Weird...

AlmostAtheist

It just dawned on me, and I'm really a little put out over it. I'm not sure what to think.

I was reading AlanF's comments about Vinny and his willingness to sacrifice children if God told him to. Alan suggested any fundamentalist Christian should agree he would, and Vinny did in fact agree. (Following the example of Abraham)

So far, so good.

I thought, "I wonder what it would take for most Christians to do something terrible? A man's interpretation of a holy book probably wouldn't do it. No, for many if not most, it would take a direct contact by God, if even then." Which led me to, "What would *I* do if I had a direct contact from God?"

I realized that I would conclude I was hallucinating. I've hallucinated before, it seems very real. Completely real, in fact. So if I saw a guy claiming to be god, no matter what he told me, I'd conclude that *I* was crazy. Worse, anything he might do to prove he's a god -- miracles and what not -- would just make me all the more sure I was nuts. I'd probably call 911. (In the U.S., that's the emergency assistance number)

But, what if some entity REALLY DOES try to contact me? He hasn't got a chance. I've completely blocked his entry. The alternative is to not put up that barrier, and risk doing something terrible on the word of some entity that I really did dream up on my own. I think the risk of the latter is the greater one, so the wall stays up.

What do you think? Is there any way you'd be able to face some god and determine if he was really there, or if you were just hallucinating?

Dave of the "anti-Abraham" class

LittleToe

That's a slippery-slope fallacy. What are the odds that if God manifested Himself He would instantly command you to go murder someone? That aint exactly the kind of subject for first introductions, now, is it?

Kudra

Well, when most of the people who claim that "God told them to do something" or "the Lord commanded me to...", isn't it usually to do with some murder of an entire family?

What about mothers killing off their whole passel of kids cause "God wanted them protected from sin" or some crazy thing like that?

Why doesn't god ever tell people to donate their bank accounts to a women's shelter?

(and yeah, yeah, I know that the bible's commands to be charitable WOULD be like god telling someone to do that- but you know what I mean)

The folks who are hearing voices coming from god usually get told to commit crimes...

AlmostAtheist

It's not first-date material, granted. I'd need dinner and a movie before I'd even be willing to maim somebody -- and I'd get to pick the somebody!

But even if he just dropped by to say Hi, I'm sure I wouldn't buy it. I'm convinced (scary word -- "convinced" based on what, exactly?) that if I saw a guy that claimed to be a god, could perform miracles, all that stuff, that I wouldn't buy it. I would assume I was crazy.

Maybe if everybody else saw him too. And saw the miracles. But then, what good does that do me? That could all be hallucination too.

See what I mean? This brain in a jar just can't get out there and verify stuff like that.

LT -- You had a "revelation" of sorts, didn't you? How did you determine yours wasn't a baptism of bourbon, as it were?

Dave

AlmostAtheist

>>The folks who are hearing voices coming from god usually get told to commit crimes...

I think that, too. But on the other hand, if your neighbor had a "vision" in which he was told to cut down on saturated fats and exercise more, you'd never know. You only hear about the ones that make the news.

Again, I agree with you. But that other possibility exists.

Dave

jgnat

Sounds like a dare.

AlanF

LittleToe wrote:

: That's a slippery-slope fallacy. What are the odds that if God manifested Himself He would instantly command you to go murder someone? That aint exactly the kind of subject for first introductions, now, is it?

I'm not sure just which of AlmostAtheist's statements you're calling a "slippery-slope fallacy", LittleToe. He's questioning what his reaction might be if God (or perhaps, an entity pretending to be God) contacted him in some unspecified manner. Hopefully, any such introduction would be non-threatening, because surely such a powerful entity would understand such issues, and understand that an immediate demand to murder someone would almost certainly have the opposite effect from what he wanted. I think that such an entity might even want to see how a person would react to such a murderous demand, and judge the person's moral sense based on his reaction to a command to do something vile rather than on his reaction to blindly obey some powerful entity.

The question of what someone might do if such a powerful entity eventually asked him, in all seriousness, to do something like torture and kill babies for fun would come up ony after that entity established a great deal of trust in himself.

Biblically, this business of killing innocents is not mere supposition, since there are quite a number of OT examples where God demanded or smiled upon such things.

AlanF

Satanus

The thing is, god, if he exists, is on the other side, in another dimension, occult (hidden). If he existed, his business is over there, not here. If his business was here, he'ld be here. The claimed god never does anything directly here, anyway (it is claimed that it is done through people).

If there really was a god, and he came into our dimension, i imagine that he could break all physical laws and do all kinds of stuff. Superman and all those super heroes would be no match for him. If he wanted to prove himself to you, i think that he would eventually get through to you. Everybody else on the planet would start believing.

S

anewme

I would see a doctor immediately!

PinTail

Ha ha, maybe a bolt of lighting around your laurels would convince you ha ha ha. Just teasing. Shane

God could NEVER convince me he exists. Weird...

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