What is your best argument for the existence of God?

[Jim B]

A serious atheist?

Dead serious.

I know you're trying for a little levity. Is this more to your liking? I didn't believe in the existence of God. I was raised in the Jewish faith and was Bar Mitzvah at age 13. My life was filled with misery and anger. I prayed often to Go to change things but nothing happened, so I came to the conclusion that He didn't exist.

 

[Gottservant]

Part of the argument from personal experience, is that even if you can't work out whether God exists on your own, the question remains the same.

Some days you feel like you are sure, that God exists, other days you doubt it, that God exists - but throughout it, the question itself remains unchanged.

If there was no God, you would be as certain one day as you were the next.

And the end will come suddenly, you can ask God "can I question your existence forever?" the answer will be an emphatic "NO".

 

[Mr E]

I know you're trying for a little levity. Is this more to your liking? I didn't believe in the existence of God. I was raised in the Jewish faith and was Bar Mitzvah at age 13. My life was filled with misery and anger. I prayed often to Go to change things but nothing happened, so I came to the conclusion that He didn't exist.

An even greater rarity. A Jewish atheist. I doubt that a more serious case could be found!

A man went to the doctor because his son could NOT stop laughing. No matter what the doctor did, nothing seemed to help.

He said he’d never seen a more serious case.

All kidding aside, your experience (lack thereof) is precisely that of the video advocate. He abandoned his wavering faith because he had no personal experience to inform his beliefs.

How can such people then diminish the testimony of those who have actually had personal, spiritual experiences and who have personal relationships with God?

It is only the atheist who speaks from ignorance of things they do not know.

Your personal testimony is the thing that shakes them to their core.

 

[St. SteVen]

No argument can win over experience.

I think we are arriving at the same conclusion.
The Argument from Personal Experience is most convincing when the personal experience is your own.

I think we can confidently say to an atheist that if they really want to know if God exists, He will reveal Himself to them.

 

[St. SteVen]

And the end will come suddenly, you can ask God "can I question your existence forever?" the answer will be an emphatic "NO".

I would say that there is nothing more convincing than a face-to-face encounter.

 

[Gottservant]

I would say that there is nothing more convincing than a face-to-face encounter.

You are right: no one dies to God, without God first revealing Himself to them.

Our job as believers, is to make sure they are ready to face Him!

 

[amadeus]

.


They might like to ask you a similar question in return:

"Does reality align with religious fanatics rather than science and empirical
evidence"
_

If we are living by faith, are we supposed to prove men's errors to them or do we rather trust God to accomplish His purposes?

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

 

[Webers_Home]

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Re: What is your best argument for the existence of God?

Most of the folks contributing to this topic have shared their best argument
for proving the existence of God to themselves while lacking an argument for
proving the existence of God to John Que and Jane Doe.
_

 

[rockytopva]

For me the carpal pad of a dogs paw alone is enough for me to know that there is a God. Someone had to reason things like that out.

 

[amadeus]

.
Some years ago an individual on a different site informed me that he knew
God was real because he talked with Him just that morning.

So I asked this person: what was the timbre of God's voice; was it basso,
bass, baritone, or tenor? Did He speak loud, medium, or soft? Were His
words rapid fire or slow enough that you could keep up? Did He speak
with an accent?

Well; the man scorned me as an unbeliever and a wise guy.

Others have informed that they hear God in their minds as a still small voice
when they pray. Well; I have to suggest to those folk that they consult a
mental health professional because hearing voices in one's head is a
symptom of schizophrenia; but more often it's likely just people's
imaginations running away with them.

Too many religious fanatics spout clichés and ridiculous statements without
stopping to consider how demented they sound to the folks who hear them.
_

You may indeed be correct about many, but in the end who knows for sure but God Himself and of course the ones to whom He has revealed what He revealed? Should we scorn those we do not understand? Were we not also some of those before we met the Master... if we did?

Consider what Mary, the mother of Jesus, did with things she did not yet understand:

Lu 2:18	And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
Lu 2:19	But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

Lu 2:50	And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.
Lu 2:51	And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

 

[amadeus]

.
Re: What is your best argument for the existence of God?

Most of the folks contributing to this topic have shared their best argument
for proving the existence of God to themselves while lacking an argument for
proving the existence of God to John Que and Jane Doe.
_

Do we not start with belief and go on from there?

Heb 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

If a person asks me a question, such as why I believe in God and I have an answer and God wants me provide the answer I do. Should I be one leading myself? Do the words penned by Jeremiah no longer apply?

Jer 10:23

O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Who but God by the Holy Spirit should be my Director, my Leader?

 

[Webers_Home]

.

Do we not start with belief and go on from there?

In proving the existence of God; where would you start with bright folks like
theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, astrophysicist/cosmologist Carl Sagan,
astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson, and astronomer Michelle Thaller, along
with John Que and Jane Doe regular people on the street?
_

 

[Wrangler]

where would you start with bright folks

The best place to begin with scientists is their native language of mathematics. One of the most amazing thing about God's Creation is that it is knowable. How do they explain how perfectly mathematics explains and predicts the observable universe? The Periodic Table of Elements. Gravity. Speed of light. Universal Constants. Activation Energy. Thermodynamics. Laws of Mechanics. 4D info in DNA.

Regarding quanta levels in quantum mechanics, that F = ma at discreet quanta, it is amazing that such discreet functions do not apply to what we generally observe at the macroscopic level.

Their ability to derive all the above contrasts with their inability to explain the divergence of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, their yet ongoing quest for the Theory of Everything, points to an Intelligent Designer - that they are blessed to understand God's Creation better than most DUE TO THEIR INTELLIGENCE. And don't get me going about the God particle ...

 

[amadeus]

.


In proving the existence of God; where would you start with bright folks like
theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, astrophysicist/cosmologist Carl Sagan,
astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson, and astronomer Michelle Thaller, along
with John Que and Jane Doe regular people on the street?
_

I do not know anyone like that. If I did and God wanted me prove His existence to them would He not provide me with the words or other means to do so? Why speculate? I do not know those people.

 

[ScottA]

.
Re: What is your best argument for the existence of God?

Most of the folks contributing to this topic have shared their best argument
for proving the existence of God to themselves while lacking an argument for
proving the existence of God to John Que and Jane Doe.
_

The proof of God is evident in the world. But one either believes that life is more than what is seen or not. And it is personal, one who knows there is a God cannot share their evidence as anything more than something or someone else to believe or not--because that is not how it works. Proof does not come from unbelief, it comes from belief...even if it is only by a thread of hope. One who hopes will likely hang onto hope until the end, and if they let go, it is not God letting go, but them. Yet if that hope grows into seeking, God has promised they shall find Him.

 

[atpollard]

.
Re: What is your best argument for the existence of God?

Most of the folks contributing to this topic have shared their best argument
for proving the existence of God to themselves while lacking an argument for
proving the existence of God to John Que and Jane Doe.
_

Is it our responsibility to prove that God exists (which Romans 1 claims is self-evident)?
Is it our responsibility to proclaim who God has revealed Himself to be to others (as God has revealed that same information to us)?

 

[Webers_Home]

.
• Rom 1:19-20 . . For the truth about God is known to them instinctively.
God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was
created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They
can clearly see his invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature.

The way I see it: the best and the brightest among us have to agree at the
very least the possibility of intelligent design and the existence of a
supreme being because there will come a time, if not already, when they
look up, they'll get hit with it.

• Ps 19:1-4 . .The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his
marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after
night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their
voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to all the world.

The cosmos is like music: there's no language barrier.
_

 

[St. SteVen]

The cosmos is like music: there's no language barrier.

So true. Nicely stated, thanks.

 

[Gottservant]

I think having offered the change of Man's character as evidence of God, it stands to reason that the constancy of God despite change is also evidence.

As the saying goes "if I had the power of God, there are many things I would change; but if I had the Wisdom of God, I wouldn't change a thing".

God is above change, even if He empowers the Devil to change his relationship to God, God Himself can only reaffirm that He alone has the Power of God.

Therefore, if you discover the Power of God, you are forever free, to be who you like - would Man know to like himself if nothing in his life stayed the same? It is not Man that objectifies who he is meant to be?

 

[St. SteVen]

As the saying goes "if I had the power of God, there are many things I would change; but if I had the Wisdom of God, I wouldn't change a thing".

That's a gem, right there. Thanks.