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Is there anything that could ever change the views you have now? Even the staunch anti-theist Christopher Hitchens admitted on 60 minutes that he wont say nthat there is nothing that could change his mind, but he has yet to see anything that could come close
I agree with Hitchens. I can't think of anything that would ever convince me again.
If God picked you up, shook you, and set you back down again, I'm sure you would be convinced. I think there are a lot of people who think that way. I can understand, to a large degree.
I am an atheist who acknowledges that since it cannot be proven that no god exists, it must be at least possible for a god(s) to exist. It just really looks to me that the concept of god is a man-made idea that has no real counterpart in existence.
So, you asked if there is anything that could change my mind. That would mean that I would go from thinking that there probably isn't a god in existence to thinking there probably is a god in existence.
Well, first things first, what are we talking about when we say "god"? Before I can tell you what might change my mind, I need to know what it is that I am supposed to be determining whether it is likely to existence or not. Am I looking for a corporal being, a force, an energy, what? I am not asking about the effects of god (the earth, life, a feeling during prayer), I am asking what god is.
If you tell me god is incomprehensible, then I can honestly answer that there is nothing that can change my mind, and it is not due to my stubbornness, it is because you have left me no options. If I can't comprehend god, then I can't comprehend god.
But, if god can be defined, even in part, in sufficient detail so that I know what I am looking for, then I can begin to formulate what it might take to convince me that a god probably does exist. But, until you define god, I can't tell you what it would take because I don't even know what it is I am supposed to be evaluating.
If God picked you up, shook you, and set you back down again, I'm sure you would be convinced.
No, I would not be convinced. What you have described is anecdotal evidence and I am very wary of thinking I have learned something about the nature of reality from my own personal experience.
Why? Because all I could know is that I had an experience in which I thought I was picked up, shook, and set down again. It could have been a hallucination for all I know. Even if I was reasonably sure that I really was picked up and shook, that proves nothing about how that happened or who did it. Maybe it was a magic trick, or someone pretended to be god and used a mechanical arm to shake me.
I can't assume that someone who can pick me up and shake me is god. I don't even know what god is. I would be looking for an explanation for my experience. Even if I found out what caused me to be picked up and shaken, and it was god, I wouldn't know it was god because I have no conception of what god is supposed to be. I literally would not know god if I found god because I don't know what I am supposed to be looking for.
PS - Should I call anything that can pick me up and shake me "god"? I guess that means most professional wrestlers, elephants, and gorillas should be called "god".
Last edited by Hueffenhardt; 06-18-2011 at 08:15 PM..
If God picked you up, shook you, and set you back down again, I'm sure you would be convinced. I think there are a lot of people who think that way. I can understand, to a large degree.
I doubt it. People have hallucinations all the time. If the event could not be corroborated, I wouldn't believe it.
And since billions and billions of people have been searching for a couple of thousand of years and have come up with absolutely nothing, I don't anticipate any break through's.
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