Let's cut to the chase. Do you have any evidence?

[no evidence no belief]

I feel like we've been beating around the bush for... 6000 years!

Can you please either provide some evidence for your supernatural beliefs, or admit that you have no evidence?

If you believe there once was a talking donkey (Numbers 22) could you please provide evidence?

If you believe there once was a zombie invasion in Jerusalem (Mat 27) could you please provide evidence?

If you believe in the flying horse (Islam) could you please provide evidence?

Walking on water, virgin births, radioactive spiders who give you superpowers, turning water into wine, turning iron into gold, demons, goblins, ghosts, hobbits, elves, angels, unicorns and Santa.

Can you PLEASE provide evidence?

[Danmark]

[Replying to post 1 by no evidence no belief]

What sort of evidence would you like? Would you like God to appear to you? talk to you? And even then how could you know for sure if it is God and not your imagination or an evil spirit deceiving you?

I would be impressed if the literary quality of the Bible or Quran greatly exceeded the works of mere mortals like Shakespeare, Shelly, Keats, E E Cummings, William Blake and so forth.
Mere mortals wrote the Bible inspired by God. Literary quality is unimportant.
I'd be impressed if there was dramatically less crime in States and countries that have a more religious population. Instead there's more crime in religious localities.
Never looked at the stats for that one....i wonder if you can believe them? Besides..religion doesn't make one a good person....
I'd be impressed if the Bible was consistent with what science teaches us, instead of simply reflecting the scientific understanding of the time and place where it was written.
Be a little more specific...when you say science are you refering to Big Bang, abiogenesis, evolution?? You know all those things that science can not prove.
I'd be impressed if the gospel accounts were written in the language of the people who supposedly viewed the events, and those accounts were published contemporaneously with the events they purport to represent.
You will have to learn Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic for that one.
I'd be impressed if the miracles that believers were promised they could perform, were actually performed.
Such as?
And yes, I'd be impressed if God actually communicated with us clearly and explained that 90% or so of those who claim to speak for Him are full of chowder and completely misrepresent God.
Probably at least 90%.
I am impressed when those who defend the faith do so with 'gentleness and respect.'

How was i being disrespectful and ungentle? [font=Impact][/font]

Where did I accuse you of disrespect and ungentle behavior or writing. If I did I retract that. I was simply making a general statement of what would impress me. It was not aimed at you.

[Sir Hamilton]

[Replying to post 2485 by Danmark]

I wasn't sure if you were refering to me....no retraction necessary.

[olavisjo]

.

What, what? Are you saying we are only capable of imagining things that exist? Absurd.

If you did not exist, would you be capable of imagining that you exist?

[Tired of the Nonsense]

[Replying to WinePusher]

I notice that somehow two lines of my original text seem to have dropped out when I was transferring them from my word processor to DC&R. Because I had saved my original document, and through the magic of cut and paste, I can recreate them.

The garbled text:
I'm simply pointing out that the parameters of what is possible in this universe unmistakably allow for the possibility of our sort of existence. And because the universe is unimaginably vast in terms of both time and have simply postulated an extra step you see, and then declared it to be true. I on the other hand am working within the limits of what we can observe to be true. No make believe required.

The restored text:
I'm simply pointing out that the parameters of what is possible in this universe unmistakably allow for the possibility of our sort of existence. And because the universe is unimaginably vast in terms of both time and physical possibilities, sentient creatures such as us have become extent at least once, here in our little corner of the universe. We exist because we are possible, which we clearly are. You have simply postulated an extra step you see, and then declared it to be true. I on the other hand am working within the limits of what we can observe to be true. No make believe required.

[olavisjo]

.

We exist because we are possible, which we clearly are.

I think the hidden assumption here is that 'it is possible for us to exist by chance'. Which is an assumption that you have not demonstrated to be true. It is the holy grail of assumptions and has eluded proof by many brilliant minds.

[99percentatheism]

I feel like we've been beating around the bush for... 6000 years!

Can you please either provide some evidence for your supernatural beliefs, or admit that you have no evidence?

If you believe there once was a talking donkey (Numbers 22) could you please provide evidence?

If you believe there once was a zombie invasion in Jerusalem (Mat 27) could you please provide evidence?

If you believe in the flying horse (Islam) could you please provide evidence?

Walking on water, virgin births, radioactive spiders who give you superpowers, turning water into wine, turning iron into gold, demons, goblins, ghosts, hobbits, elves, angels, unicorns and Santa.

Can you PLEASE provide evidence?

It makes more sense that religious descriptions have (or may have) occured, than looking at things in a laboratory and demanding that everything there created itself.

If there is no first cause, then the universe is like a great chain with many links; each link is held up by the link above it, but the whole chain is held up by nothing.

If there is no first cause, then the universe is like a railroad train moving without an engine. Each car's motion is explained proximately by the motion of the car in front of it: the caboose moves because the boxcar pulls it, the boxcar moves because the cattle car pulls it, et cetera. But there is no engine to pull the first car and the whole train. That would be impossible, of course. But that is what the universe is like if there is no first cause: impossible.

http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/first-cause.htm

If you believe that anything can come from nothing, will you please provide evidence?

[help3434]

[Replying to post 2487 by olavisjo]

You said

Rather, because you can, in the abstract, imagine the perfect thing existing, you can know that the perfect thing does exist.

[instantc]

I feel like we've been beating around the bush for... 6000 years!

Can you please either provide some evidence for your supernatural beliefs, or admit that you have no evidence?

If you believe there once was a talking donkey (Numbers 22) could you please provide evidence?

If you believe there once was a zombie invasion in Jerusalem (Mat 27) could you please provide evidence?

If you believe in the flying horse (Islam) could you please provide evidence?

Walking on water, virgin births, radioactive spiders who give you superpowers, turning water into wine, turning iron into gold, demons, goblins, ghosts, hobbits, elves, angels, unicorns and Santa.

Can you PLEASE provide evidence?

It makes more sense that religious descriptions have (or may have) occured, than looking at things in a laboratory and demanding that everything there created itself.

At first glance no doubt, that's why religion has always been around. I think a deeper conversation is required to make any meaningful sense of the issue, human intuition doesn't have a good track record in solving mysteries about the world. Often upon closer examination the answer that seemed to make most sense turns out to be dead wrong.

[Dantalion]

[Replying to post 2490 by 99percentatheism]

Again with the atheism= something from nothing strawman. You've been doing this for nearly 2 years now, could you please stop it ?

[Danmark]

[Replying to post 2490 by 99percentatheism]

Again with the atheism= something from nothing strawman. You've been doing this for nearly 2 years now, could you please stop it ?

99% claims "If you believe that anything can come from nothing, will you please provide evidence?" What is amusing is that this is exactly what he claims for God, yet no evidence is needed if the name 'God' is invoked.

Th alternative is that "God has always been." If that is the case, then it is equally possible that the universe has always been.

For some reason pasting the label "God" on a process makes it possible, whereas these folks claim it is impossible for exactly the same phenomenon to occur if it is labeled anything but the God of their choice.