Look at your eye in the mirror.
If that's not enough evidence then there is no helping you.
God already gave you all the evidence you need. He made the Sun.
The human body is so complex there is no way that it did not have an intelligent designer.
Guys, pro tip: if you think this is
evidence, try constructing a sound logical syllogism with it, i.e.:
P1: The eye exists
P2: ...
P3: ...
...
C: Therefore God exists
I don't think you can. The existence of my eye is not evidence of God. It's evidence of the existence of my eye. The existence of the sun is not evidence of God. It's evidence of the existence of the sun. Even if we didn't have a pretty darn clear idea of where these things came from (from cosmology and evolutionary biology, respectively), the default answer is not "god did it".
Did the Jewish leaders say "That's the proof we need! It's Him, the One we have been waiting for! Hallelujah!"
Uhhhhhhh.....no! Actually they conspired to kill Lazarus and became foaming at the mouth mad at Jesus.
And this is another reason I consider that story to be laughably implausible. Someone
rises from the dead, and the first thing these people think is, "Wow, we'd better cover it up and not change a single thing about our perceptions of the world!" It's like the story in Exodus, where God performs dozens of great and terrible miracles, visible to
everyone, leads the Hebrews out of Egypt, feeds them manna from heaven, and then when he and his prophet disappear for a few weeks, everyone turns around and says, "Eh, that god was nice, but let's make up a new god!" Does that sound like rational behavior to you? Does that sound even
remotely like the way humans would behave when faced with that sort of miraculous event? Christians often bring this up as evidence that nothing will convince the non-believer, but at this point I'm pretty sure it's better evidence that the story is not quite being honest about something.
Then there is the famous case of Lourdes and the French atheist/writer/philosopher, Emile Zola.
Lourdes has... problems. As usual, there's the typical issue of "how do we verify this". To my knowledge, there has never been a single, unambiguous, well-documented case of a disease going into remission that never does that on its own, and the actual rate of healing there is tiny, and has been sinking in clear correlation with our understanding of medicine. I can't confirm or deny the particular story of Mr. Zola. But here's what I can say. Let's assume that all of the reported cases
are accurate. How do we know what causes them?
This is, in my eyes, the biggest issue: supernatural causation. Assuming the truth of the miracle claims, we have something for which we currently have no good explanation. What's causing it? And how can we make any definitive statement about it? Even just within Christian theology, what if those visions leading to the spring were caused not by the Virgin Mary, but by Satan, who has taken the opportunity to infect a whole bunch of people with
Norovirus and other diseases? I don't know how we could possibly tell the difference.
But that's why I started this thread. Like I said, I don't even know what evidence for your specific God concept would look like. I'm not sure what evidence could convince me. But you know who
does know for sure? And could provide that evidence within seconds?
God. So the fact that he hasn't done so indicates that he either can't, or isn't interested in me believing.
Finally, I want to give you something to chew upon. I was, between the ages of 18 and 22, a self-professed atheist also. During that time, I had more than one conversation with Christians. Do you know why I turned away and argued against them so fiercely?
Because I knew in my heart of hearts that if I converted that was the end of drugs, free-wheeling sex with anyone, and drunken parties. There is a pithy saying which goes "All atheism starts below the belt" which was very true in my case. I'm not saying it necessarily is in yours, but examine yourself. Are you perhaps also afraid of the unknown, of the change which is inevitable if you do really open yourself to God's grace?
Not really. I'd miss the hookers and blow (
), but for me this really is about an honest search for the truth.
The "torment" described here and there is internal torment.
...Does that make it less of a torment?