How To Prove The Existence Of God

[ermitonto]

I thought this was pretty funny. It turns out the Bible contains an example of a very simple experiment any Christian could perform to prove the existence of their deity. Biblegod doesn't really hide his existence like so many of his followers claim; in his own book it shows how he sent a very clear message confirming his existence to unbelievers, in an objective experiment whose results could easily be reproduced if indeed there is such a being. Any Christians willing to try it out for me?

http://www.jcnot4me.com/Items/eviden...20of%20God.htm

ermitonto Reviewed by ermitonto on 10-24-2005. How To Prove The Existence Of God I thought this was pretty funny. It turns out the Bible contains an example of a very simple experiment any Christian could perform to prove the existence of their deity. Biblegod doesn't really hide his existence like so many of his followers claim; in his own book it shows how he sent a very clear message confirming his existence to unbelievers, in an objective experiment whose results could easily be reproduced if indeed there is such a being. Any Christians willing to try it out for me? Rating: 5

[ermitonto]

...

[STDzRus]

Tonight, I'm going to smoke some sage and see if I can't wander in the heavens with the Gods.

[acidtrip]

Hey man, I am currently doin' philosophy and religion in college and we've been doing arguments to prove the existance of God. I'll give you some brief explanations simply to give myself some revision..

Actually - its 4 AM here. I'm fucked and need some sleep. If anyone is interested I'll post some shit tomorrow.

[slipknotpsycho]

THEN all the Atheists, per pre-signed agreements, will convert on the spot to Christians and burn their Atheistic books.

i'd ask him why he's speaking for me (on the slight chance it did happen) but yea...you me and everyone else know that it woudln't happen so we'd be safe...i really doubt the christians would hold up to their end tho...they'd have some excuse ready to fire (no pun intended) back at you....

[acidtrip]

Motion
In the universe, there are objects in motion, each object in motion must have been caused to move by something else. Because nothing is infinite, there must have been a first motion or "prime mover" which was unmoved, this prime mover began all movement without bieng moved, Aquinas stated that the "prime mover" must have been God.

Causes
Nothing can be the cause of it's self, as it would have to 'exist' before bieng caused. This of course is impossible, so like with motion there must have been a first "un caused" cause, that started a chain of causes. This is God.

Contingency
There must have been a time when nothing existed, the cause of the universe would have to be outside of the universe and must have always existed. There muse have been something to cause the universe to exist, this is God.

Of course, this can also be applied to the big bang. So you could say

God = the Big Bang.

[ermitonto]

Motion
In the universe, there are objects in motion, each object in motion must have been caused to move by something else. Because nothing is infinite, there must have been a first motion or "prime mover" which was unmoved, this prime mover began all movement without bieng moved, Aquinas stated that the "prime mover" must have been God.

Causes
Nothing can be the cause of it's self, as it would have to 'exist' before bieng caused. This of course is impossible, so like with motion there must have been a first "un caused" cause, that started a chain of causes. This is God.

These are really two different forms of the same argument. And they're easily refuted, since, as you said yourself, everything requires a cause and nothing can be the cause of itself. Therefore, if there is a God, what caused God if God cannot possibly be the cause of himself? And if we're willing to allow a single exception to such a rule, why postulate the existence of a God? Why not simplify things and just say that the universe was the cause of itself, rather than saying some big invisible undetectable creature was the cause of itself, which then started the whole universe thing?

And why could the chain of causation not extend back forever? I know it's hard for us humans to imagine, since we only ever experience finite amounts of time, but there's no scientific reason it couldn't be the case.

Contingency
There must have been a time when nothing existed,

Says who?

the cause of the universe would have to be outside of the universe and must have always existed. There muse have been something to cause the universe to exist, this is God.

Of course, this can also be applied to the big bang. So you could say

God = the Big Bang.

But that's misleading. Nobody prays to the Big Bang, nobody worships the Big Bang, and there is objective data to support the idea that there was a Big Bang. Plus, the Big Bang is no longer around. So why call it God?

[slipknotpsycho]

....if nothing ever existed, nothing could form and exist.....i can't think of a way to explain it better in my head..but i know what i'm trying to say....there must have always been something....how could a planet have ever formed if there wasn't space for it to form and dust to produce the material needed to form a planet. how could the dust have formed if there wasn't a planet to explode, or a meteorite/astroid to hit a planet and well we all know what happens when they're big enough....

[beachguy in thongs]

Gases in space mixed together when there was nothing, but there was air/space/nothing. They somehow created a super novae, and that somehow created stars, I don't know.

[mrdevious]

....if nothing ever existed, nothing could form and exist.....i can't think of a way to explain it better in my head..but i know what i'm trying to say....there must have always been something....how could a planet have ever formed if there wasn't space for it to form and dust to produce the material needed to form a planet. how could the dust have formed if there wasn't a planet to explode, or a meteorite/astroid to hit a planet and well we all know what happens when they're big enough....

actually, something can theoretically come out of nothing. Stephen Hawking explained something about space-time fluxuations (or something with space-time) caused the 1/1000th of a second simultaneous occurance of matter and anti-matter particles which destroy each other as quickly as they appear. however, some factor caused them not to wipe each other out again, causing the first matter. but, I havne't read it in years so you'd have to read his works your self unfortunately.