Atheos It's My Life, Dammit, Part 2

Feelings are my guide to truth.

Select an ideal response for:

I had a personal experience of God revealing knowledge to me.

How do you know it was God & not an alien or another unexplained phenomenon?

Surely you don't expect your experience to be accepted as good reason for others to believe.

Doesn't that sound just like the claims of many schizophrenics?

I can't imagine how one could be sure of something like that. How could one differentiate that from an illusion?

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I have a built in 'God Sensor.' I can sense God.

How did you confirm that this sensation is caused by an actual deity?

Eek! A cyborg!

How can you know this isn't the work of a demon, for example, who's trying to fool you into believing in the wrong God? And how do you test your sensor to make sure it's correctly attuned?

My friend has 'Gay-dar.' She says that she can sense a person's sexual preferences. Is your 'God Sensor' similar?

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I have a gut feeling that God exists.

People of other religions have similar gut feelings, most of which contradict each other. Mustn't some gut feelings be wrong?

Trusting your gut doesn't do it for me.

I have a gut feeling that He doesn't.

Are gut feelings reliable guides to reality? Can people be incorrect about their gut feelings?

If you had a gut feeling that if you jumped off a cliff that you'd bounce harmlessly off the ground, would you jump?

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I have a personal relationship with God/Jesus.

Can you explain what convinced you that this feeling you have corresponds to an actual, existing person/entity?

Then why don't you ask him to come over for dinner tonight? My treat!

Don't they call this 'having an imaginary friend'?

Is it possible that you've misinterpreted evidence to reach this conclusion? How can you be absolutely sure?

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I have seen the work of the hand of God in my life. Many things have happened that are beyond random chance.

How can one say what is or isn't random chance? How do unexplained phenomena prove the existence of God?

You only accept that explanation because you want desperately to believe.

Which God was responsible? How can you be sure?

Nothing is beyond random chance—that is the essence of random chance. Your belief otherwise makes you an outlier.

You don’t understand mathematics & probability. How do you think chance works?

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I know that angels exist because of dreams & visions I’ve had.

People of other faiths have similar experiences. How did you determine that your own dreams/visions are genuine?

Why do you think dreams mean anything at all?

Are you aware that people have hallucinated a great deal of things that weren't in any way part of reality?

If someone had dreams & visions about pixies & were positive their visions were true, how would you respond?

If you understood the human brain & its ability to bridge the gaps of our understanding with imaginary facts then you’d not believe that.

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I now know in my heart that God exists.

I thought hearts mostly just pumped blood around. How would one 'know in one's heart?'

Why don’t you interpret what you feel as nothing more than mental & physical changes within your body that are explained by neuroscience?

Many believers claim special knowledge of God but it’s not possible that all of the different faith claims are true. How do they know they're not mistaken?

Can you please explain what you mean by 'know in my heart'?

Much as I feel in my soul that he doesn't exist, though I'm not sure I believe in a soul, so where does that leave us?

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I used to be an atheist, too, until I opened my heart to God.

Is your theism grounded in your heart alone, or do you also have evidence for the truth of your beliefs?

What do hearts have to do with anything? I use my brain to know what I know!

How did you know which God to open your heart to? Have you tried opening your heart to [insert another God]?

Why do so many people who once did that later realize it was unjustified?

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Jesus revealed himself to me, so I know the doctrines of Christianity & the Bible are true.

A thought experiment: How could you know that your experience wasn't caused by a trickster God deliberately hoping to deceive you?

Have you ever been absolutely certain of something, but later discovered that you were mistaken?

Revealed himself as have many priests to altar boys?

How can one delusion validate another?

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My faith is integral to my identity.

Is it because you were indoctrinated in your faith?

Why couldn't you adopt an attitude of skepticism toward your tradition's truth claims while remaining a part of its community?

Why is grounding one's identity in under-evidenced beliefs good?

Building identity from shared beliefs are certainly nice, but are they really worth sacrificing an objectively justifiable view of reality?

How stable can an identity grounded in guesswork possibly be?

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My father died when I was 36. I’ve heard his voice tell me I’ll be with him when I die. I’m ready & happy to die.

So should one believe all the thoughts they hear inside their head at times of sadness & stress?

Sounds to me like maybe you should seek psychiatric help.

Aren't human brains prone to misinterpretation & error? Don't those explanations for your experience seem at least equally probable?

That sounds more like evidence for ghosts than evidence for Gods.

Does it matter to you whether it's true that you'll see him when you die, or do you just prefer to believe, regardless?

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My mother had a near-death experience & saw a bright light. My mother wouldn't lie to me.

How could she possibly be aware she was near death & not just dreaming?

The presence of a bright light could be either the bleaching process of your retinas, or simply imaginary, but certainly not real.

Your mother is mistaken. How does her experience show that a God exists?

Is that sufficient evidence of another world? Is it possible that there is another explanation that didn't involve the supernatural?

I've no doubt that your mother experienced something, but couldn't there be another explanation besides a God or afterlife?

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One day I asked for a sign that God exists & three birds flew by in that instant. There were no other birds anywhere.

Ok, do it again, then. Oh, that's right—you can't. If God were there, why wouldn't He give a clear sign?

Would you feel the same if it were four birds? Why?

And so you decided to avenge your murdered parents as... Birdman!

Unless you were able to recreate this phenomenon, what makes you think it was anything more than a coincidence?

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Sometimes the Devil tries to talk to me, but I can always discern his voice from that of God & shut it down.

How does one get to be so delusional?

Perhaps you should seek some psychological help.

How do you know it wasn't an alien?

You should always go with what the Devil says on your shoulder. It's more fun.

How can you be sure you're able to differentiate properly between the two? Or that no other possible explanation exists?

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The book 'Proof of Heaven' by Dr. Alexander proved to me that my faith is true. There is a Heaven & a real neurosurgeon proved it!

Don't many religions claim the existence of Heavenly places? And don't many adherents to these different faith traditions also bring unequivocal testimony of their experience of the afterlife?

What kind of observations or measurements does Dr. Alexander cite as evidence of Heaven?

If that’s true, don’t you think it’s odd that so few people have accepted Dr. Alexander’s claims?

I've never heard of Dr. Alexander or his book. Why aren't his findings all over the news?

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What about New York Times best sellers 'Heaven is for Real' & 'Proof of Heaven'?

There have been many best selling fictional books. Have you read any?

Do all near death experiences imply a God exists? Is it likely people are 'primed' for this experience by cultural religious instruction?

So now the New York Times best seller list is the determiner of the truth behind our universe?

What about the testimony of a yogin who claim to have died & reentered the human womb? Can every account of this kind be correct?