Hgq: Let’s say, what if god or reincarnation is real and—
Answer: But there is no evidence of god or reincarnation being real.
Hgq: That’s why i said what if. You know, let’s say you had eggs for breakfast.
Answer: But I didn’t have eggs for breakfast. I had bacon.
anyways.
I now understand why hypothetical questions about god such as “what if this” and “what if that” don’t typically get answered by some people.
Because 1, they are just hypothetical and
2 because IF there is a god, there’s only two choices a human being can do in the presence of such thing:
submit to that god or divine process (or whatever it is theists believe in)
question that god or divine process (or whatever it is theists believe in)
and according to most theists, they claim number 2 wouldn’t go so well on people. which would lead to more questions if number 1 is even worth it at all, considering this deity might be acting like a dictator.
I think quite often, believers use contrived hypotheticals to “prime the pump” so to speak, to get people fantasizing / imagining and talking and some non-believers understand this and just don’t want to go down that road. Why even start a discussion unless it can be evidenced that there’s something to discuss? Also why put yourself on your opponents game board and play even provisionally by their rules?
By doing that you’re also giving them an opportunity to “cold read” you to see if you can be manipulated. Do you seem like the anxious or guilt-ridden type of person? Do you on some level wish the holy BS were true? Do you have angst around any of the Great Questions / unknowns? These are all places they can stick a shim and start prying. What they are looking for is need, insecurity and/or desire. And they believe it’s there, even if the “mark” acts like it’s not. Their belief system doesn’t allow for skeptics. Skepticism simply doesn’t compute; it’s outside their limited repertoire.
I would imagine that those folks who come in here with some imagined “gotcha” argument only to discover we’re impervious to it, that it’s not some novel thing we haven’t already thought through or heard a hundred times before, must be quite the bucket of cold water in their face. So it gets rationalized as denial on our part – denial of that imagined “god-shaped vacuum” we surely must have.
I think if someone claimed to be god, most people would initially think it’s nuts, even Christians.
If he/she were of non white skin, and were attempting to come into or live in USA, the MAGAs would lock him/her up and throw them out the country.
Most other people would be asking for evidence.
If he/she did a magic trick such as get you to guess a number, or pick a card or guess which cup the ball is in, most people would say they’ve seen that trick before.
If he/she did some unique trick, perhaps we would get Penn and Teller to watch the trick and try to explain it.
But let’s say they did something pretty amazing and showed that they have some pretty “special” powers. I think we would need to put them in a controlled environment, and get them to do something similar but different, with cameras rolling, and such.
We would then need further experiments, try to work out how this power works, Does it create magnetism, does it change the room temperature, does it impact gravity/time etc.
We might even conclude that we don’t know how on earth it is happening, and then conclude that the person has some trick or has some special power.
This still would not prove it is a god. We would then need to refer to the definition of a god, Oh, there isn’t one. Whoops.
Even if I accepted it as a god, I’d be fascinated at the powers, but that wouldn’t tell me much about the god/person. Is it kind, is it likable, is it looking to take over, is it mean? I think there would be much reason to be scared of it.
Would we try to use it to get world peace, to end cancer, to end rape. Is it just passing through, does it even care about humans? Does it want to help? What does it want.
I don’t think that there would be any point where I would consider, should I worship it or submit to it.
I have no idea, specifically, what would change my mind about the existence of a god. But if there is such a being as a god, then one would think that god knows exacly what would change my mind, and should be capable of taking the action to present the case that would change my mind. And this hasn’t happened. Which means that either this god does not exist, or this god doesn’t want me to know that he exists. Yet. Either way, it’s not my problem.
Let’s just say that a god exists. I presume here when he says “change my mind” he means with regards to believing that this god exists. Why do we assume a god cares whether people believe it exists or not? Why would a god care about people at all?
I mean, us humans are pretty much gods in comparison to ants. Do we care if ants believe in us? Do we watch them to see if they are good to each other, like stare at each ant and reward it if it is kind and good to the other ants?
