When I come across an atheist, I sometimes ask them, if the conversation leads a certain way, if they will honestly answer two easy questions. I'm not tying to get them to convert or whatever, just wanted them to be open to the possibility of the existence of God. These questions at least gets them on an agnostic level. I draw a circle or a box, and tell them it represents all the knowledge in the universe. I then ask them... 1. Do you have all the knowledge in the world? They say no. I then draw an area within the circle or box, and tell them this represents all the unknown knowledge that they do not possess. I then I ask them... 2. In the part that is unknown to you, could there be a God? They say yes. And that's it. Never got into an argument. They can still believe what they want, but just using those questions might get them to think.
Flabengal, in regards to your posts on proof of God's existence... When we get an e-mail from our boss - we think we know it was him, but without doing all the testing you mentioned, we don't know for sure. Thus, if anything you listed in regards to God did happen, simply seeing them wouldn't be enough because we could still chose to belief it or not. There will never be true proof of God's existence - it's based on faith, why haven't you conceded that? It really is futile to argue about God's existence because there's no proof for either position. The only thing the other person can hope for is somebody to admit there is a possibility for either belief to be true.
i have been over this a couple times, but nevertheless. belief is not a choice. you cant "choose" to believe in something. you could offer me a billion dollars to believe in astrology, and i cant, even if i really really wanted to. its not my choice, because i am sane and rational. i could spend the rest of my life trying to believe something, and if doesnt seem true to me, i cant do it. i cant trick myself. i have not chosen to not have faith, any more than you have chosen to believe in gravity. gravity is apparent to you, you are gonna believe in it, whether you want to or not. reality is reality. i cant force myself to be crazy, at least not yet.
thats fine but nobody here is denying god exists. in fact the only people claiming to have absolute knowledge are the believers. of course i know god could exist. i know basically anything could be true. i think the vast majority of atheists only deny the existence of god as he is described by most believers. and maybe it takes a tiny bit of faith to deny that god exists, but it certainly takes a hell of a lot more faith to believe in the god described by almost all believers, who has all sorts of interesting and mysteriously well-understood characteristics.
i have been reading lots of articles about this new skull they found in indonesia, "flores man". there is a lot of talk regarding the thing and us and our common ancestors and such. suprisingly, no mention of the great wizard casting the spell that made humans. maybe i should contact the scientists and remind them they are wasting their time figuring out human ancestry. humans aint from no dang apes.
So some human mated with an ape thousands of years ago and produced a freak, ala "The Island of Dr. Moreau" That is simply disgusting. oh, sorry, is there room for any other theories?
you should add: 3. could the box of unknowns contain an orange monkey with two heads who lives on pluto and created the universe? oh boy i bet that would make them rethink their atheism. your questions are so smart. i just read another story in the news about the debate over intelligent design and evolution in kansas schools. i still have never heard of an intelligent design advocate that was not religious. curious.
