guy fawkes wrote:
And in my sarccasm, I point to the real response you will get. As you know, there is not gods, the thing Theist then use for this is something they call "Faith", the ability to believe in things that do not exist.
That is not a fair definition of faith. according to
Merriam-Webster faith is:
2 a (1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1):
firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2): complete trust
Using this definition it is easy to see why a theist cannot provide adequate proof for their claims. Eventually, it all leads back to faith.
You have now asked them to describe their God and supply evidence for it, something in contradiction with their Faith dogma. If they had evidence, "faith" would not exist. You ask for something they can not provide, 1, because it does not exist, 2. because if, there faith would vanish.
I agree that there would no longer be faith if there was actual proof. Still a broader question remains: whether or not someone actually needs faith in order to be "saved." It seems to me that there are plenty of theists here that believe they do in fact have concrete evidence (a transcendental experience, historical documentation...etc.). Let's assume for a minute that they DO have concrete evidence...even if that concrete evidence is only something that they can know...bear with me. If they do have concrete evidence for their belief, they no longer have faith. Faith is lack of proof. A proof only to themselves is still a proof. I am sure no theist would argue that their personal proof of the existence of God is going to prevent them from going to heaven.
If no faith is needed to get into heaven, then why do theists make such a big fuss about faith? Why would anyone need it?
Basically, you ask something that we all always asked the theist, and never gotten an response for. It is a good question, and if an honest theist would try to answer it, he would become atheist or deist of some kind as he would know that his religion is ridicolous. You will not get a proper answer Confused, thats all I am saying.
I think it is a reasonable question to ask, but I am not sure it is a fair question. If everything eventually reverts back to faith then it would seem the only way to truly find "God" is through reason. If God is beyond even that...then we can't rationally postulate whether or not he even exists.