Journal Entry # 250
November 11th, 2010
During my conversations I explain to people that the burden of proof is on the one making the claim. If you claim that your god is real I would like to see the proof. Now of course they try hard to give me some in the form of testimonials, miracles they have witnessed and even attempts at logical proofs. The bible is often quoted as the ultimate proof for god’s existence. This is circular logic which I have explained in other posts, when all this fails they quickly try to put the burden of prove back to me. I have no problem with this as I am aware that they really have no evidence.
Once we exhaust this approach the next tactic is ; what kind of evidence do you need to convince you that god exists? Here is my response.
First of all the evidence presented has to be testable and verifiable. This of course would only be a start.
I would accept examples of;
Pieces of Noah’s Ark that are verifiable. It does not have to be the entire ark just enough to prove it was real. Just like evolution cannot be demonstrated in its entirety but there is more than enough to verify it as credible.
Jesus or god showing up in front of me right now or anytime and then allowing me a way to verify to others and myself that they were actually there.
An amputee praying for his arm to grow back to god and then the arm growing back. This event must happen more than once and be verifiable by credible sources.
God showing up verifying he is god and then performing a verified miracle on a large scale.
Angels coming down and verifying they are angels.
Why should I accept anything else that is not verifiable or testable as evidence? If there is no proof then even though it might be true, based on all the evidence that disputes the claim there is no good reason to believe it as true.
Now so many others do not require this evidence. They will believe what fits into their desires to be true. This then leads to so many problems as now to keep up the charade and be eligible for the benefits the believer now has to follow the chosen rules of the religion. The books that are followed today, the bible, The Quran and others are dangerous. I urge those who follow religions to actually step back and require proper evidence the same way they do for everything else in their lives.
This list has been around awhile but is worth repeating. It requires exactly the opposite of what I look for in evidence
http://theagitatedatheist.blogspot.com/2007/10/top-ten-signs-that-you-are.html
Top Ten Signs That You Are An Unquestioning Christian:
10- You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of your god.
9- You feel insulted and ‘dehumanized’ when scientists say that people evolved from lesser life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
8- You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Trinity god.
7- Your face turns purple when you hear of the ‘atrocities’ attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in ‘Exodus’ and ordered the
elimination of entire ethnic groups in ‘Joshua’—including women, children, and animals!
6- You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about god sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who
got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
5- You are willing to spend your life looking for little loop-holes in the scientifically established age of the Earth (4.55 billion years), but you find
nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by pre-historic tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that the Earth is a couple of generations
old!
4- You believe that the entire population of this planet wi th the exception of those who share your beliefs—though excluding those in all rival
sects—will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet you consider your religion the most ‘tolerant’ and ‘loving’.
3- While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor, speaking in ‘tongues,’ may be all the evidence you need.
2- You define 0.01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
1- You actually know a lot less than many Atheists and Agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history—but still call yourself a “Christian.”
