How Do I Know If There's A God?

[Anomaly]

How do you know?

Lillabettt has a very clear response. You don't and can't "know". But either way, you can decide how you behave and what is important and meaningful in your present existence.

We all choose what's important to us and order our lives accordingly. Atheists and Theists. The question for both is why your current existence matters now, as well as after your death, and choose your actions accordingly. Not all Theists are fanatics waging holy war, and not all Atheists are narccisicsist anarchists.
Would your behavior with family and neighbors be really that different if you did or didn't believe or know factually of God's existence. If so, why?

[Not The Philosopher]

I just ask because I want some perspectives. I don't necessarily believe in a personal God. I believe that the universe is so incredibly complex that there must be a higher consciousness that comes of it—like our complex brains forms us as persons. Beyond that, I've yet to be convinced.

 

It's worth pointing out that the idea of God as a higher power/consciousness is actually pretty foreign to Catholic/Orthodox theology. God isn't the greatest thing that exists - he's not even in the set of all existing things. He's rather that transcendent reality which makes it possible for there to be things that exist in the first place.

 

The willingness to accept that such a reality must exist depends in part on some of your philosophical presuppositions. If you think that the universe is, at heart, ultimately inexplicable, then it's pretty easy to just say that the existence of things is a brute fact, or that the chain of explanations just goes backwards into infinity (which is just another way of saying that it's ultimately inexplicable). But if you think that the universe is in principle intelligible through and through, then you have to terminate your explanation of it in some sort of necessary truth. Some people, ala Spinoza, like to say that the universe exists necessarily, but I don't find that convincing, since I see no reason for why the universe somehow must exist. So it seems more likely that the explanation has to ultimately take us outside of the universe/multiverse/whatever. Something that must somehow exist necessarily becomes the 'ground' of all contingent existences. It then becomes a question of whether you want to call that reality God, and start assigning the divine attributes to it, which again falls back on other philosophical questions.

[Golden Years]

What would it take for you to believe in God? 

 

I've often wondered why the Lord doesn't manifest himself in some showy display of miracles so that everyone is converted.  I think the reason he doesn't is because it wouldn't convince most unbelievers.  During my stint of atheism, had I seen a video showing the sky turned purple and spewed yellow sparkly polka dots on the streets of New York on Easter morning in the shape of a gigantic cross, complete with angels playing harps and trumpets, I wouldn't have believed it.  I would have thought it was some kind of contrived stunt engineered to promote a new movie or something.  Actually God has worked miracles in the sky, and we still do not believe.  (For example, Fatima 1917.)  Just as there are those who refuse to believe in the Holocaust, or that man walked on the moon, or even that the earth is round, for Heaven's sake.  We have become a cynical, skeptical people.  We trust in Snopes and Wikipedia and ignore the whisperings of our own souls. 

 

As for me personally, over the years I have tried every religion, and no religion, and ultimately the Catholic Church and the person of Jesus Christ is the only thing that gives me peace and joy. 

 

And then there's always Pascal's Wager, which I find quite compelling in its own right. 

 

May He reveal Himself to you and to all those who seek Him!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fidei Defensor]

Lillabettt has a very clear response. You don't and can't "know". But either way, you can decide how you behave and what is important and meaningful in your present existence.

We all choose what's important to us and order our lives accordingly. Atheists and Theists. The question for both is why your current existence matters now, as well as after your death, and choose your actions accordingly. Not all Theists are fanatics waging holy war, and not all Atheists are narccisicsist anarchists.
Would your behavior with family and neighbors be really that different if you did or didn't believe or know factually of God's existence. If so, why?

My behavior wouldn't change if I suddenly began believing in God again.

[Fidei Defensor]

What would it take for you to believe in God? 

 

I've often wondered why the Lord doesn't manifest himself in some showy display of miracles so that everyone is converted.  I think the reason he doesn't is because it wouldn't convince most unbelievers.  During my stint of atheism, had I seen a video showing the sky turned purple and spewed yellow sparkly polka dots on the streets of New York on Easter morning in the shape of a gigantic cross, complete with angels playing harps and trumpets, I wouldn't have believed it.  I would have thought it was some kind of contrived stunt engineered to promote a new movie or something.  Actually God has worked miracles in the sky, and we still do not believe.  (For example, Fatima 1917.)  Just as there are those who refuse to believe in the Holocaust, or that man walked on the moon, or even that the earth is round, for Heaven's sake.  We have become a cynical, skeptical people.  We trust in Snopes and Wikipedia and ignore the whisperings of our own souls. 

 

As for me personally, over the years I have tried every religion, and no religion, and ultimately the Catholic Church and the person of Jesus Christ is the only thing that gives me peace and joy. 

 

And then there's always Pascal's Wager, which I find quite compelling in its own right. 

 

May He reveal Himself to you and to all those who seek Him!

Honestly, I would be fairly convinced of the divine if I prayed to St. Therese and received roses in response. I've always envied those who have prayed to her and received a sign.

[Not The Philosopher]

It seems more like you're asking about how you can know that Christianity is true, as opposed to whether God exists. Obviously the former implies the latter, but it's a separate thing.

[Anomaly]

My behavior wouldn't change if I suddenly began believing in God again.

I would like to think I wouldn't change either, but it would depend upon "who" God is if I suddenly knew "It" as a real entity. There are lots of versions of God.

[PhuturePriest]

Saying your behavior won't change if you believe in a God is kind of like saying you won't change if you get married. Invariably, because you love your spouse, you will become willing to change, and even if you're not, you will change in different aspects without realizing it. It's much the same with God, at least in my experience. When I first became very religious I didn't think there was much to change in me because I thought I was pretty perfect. However, looking back, I am so ridiculously different now than I was then that it's incomprehensible. Some of this is due of course to the fact that I'm getting older, but I don't think I would be the way I am now without my belief in God.

[Fidei Defensor]

Saying your behavior won't change if you believe in a God is kind of like saying you won't change if you get married. Invariably, because you love your spouse, you will become willing to change, and even if you're not, you will change in different aspects without realizing it. It's much the same with God, at least in my experience. When I first became very religious I didn't think there was much to change in me because I thought I was pretty perfect. However, looking back, I am so ridiculously different now than I was then that it's incomprehensible. Some of this is due of course to the fact that I'm getting older, but I don't think I would be the way I am now without my belief in God.

This is a valid point. However, my morals were formed mostly when I was in my "super-catholic" stage, so I haven't really lost them. I just don't believe in God.

[Anastasia13]

I feel like a creator is easier to comprehend than an infinite slew of things existing infinitely back further into infinity.

 

In a world that breaks down and dies, it seems reasonable to me that some force creates life for life to continue to grow and form and new species to have come into existence since the dawn of time.

 

I would rather believe in something comforting that gives hope for the life after than just that everything is so unfair and alone, and if there is doubt, I would rather choose faith however imperfectly I can than live without hope for something better or without hope of simply being loved.

 

All the stars and the good in this world came into play from what was set in motion millions of years ago. I think that sometimes, things like that are a reminder that we are special and we matter.

 

If there isn't an afterlife, then life is even more cruel and inhumane than previously imagined.

 

From Hebrews: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

[CatholicsAreKewl]

This is really interesting and I agree with Lillabeth. I think what you might be wishing for is some sort of miracle, though what we consider miraculous changes over time. Take the example of near-death experiences, which can now be replicated in a lab setting. There are definitely many miracles that are unexplainable, but it's hard to take them as undeniable proof of a divine creator. It all boils down to personal experience methinks.

Edited March 19, 2014 by CatholicsAreKewl

[Guest]

From what I understand aspects of the near death experience can be replicated...Although there are some near death experiences I've heard about that it seems as if something really legit happened...Only God knows no pun intended...As far as if God exist or not I think it's very interesting in debates I am hearing atheist say that it's seems highly unlikely that life came about by chance...So if not by chance then what ? I think the logical answer is God...If one hasn't had an experience with God I can see how a person may be hesitant to attribute consciousness and the laws of the universe to God...On the other hand I've had experiences with this entity so I'm convinced He's real...It adds to my confidence when I even here atheist in debates now saying that life most likely isn't by luck of the draw...They have theories that perhaps there may be "tons" of universes and this was the lucky one that hit the lottery and got life since the odds are so slim of everything working out perfectly...But the atheist I hear no longer say that life just happened "because" or we got llucy...Science is providing more and more evidence of design and intelligence. ..So then the question becomes what is this intelligence?

Edited March 19, 2014 by Guest

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I was confronted by a guy i bummed a smoke off today and in gratitude i said "Thanks, God is good." He piped up and said there was no God because he had died and been revived and that there was nothing afterwards. It got me to thinking ' well if he remembers nothing than he was concious in the conscience sense and that that nothing was actually something. Purgatory perhaps.' I have a theory that purgatory is a kind of nothing, absolute silence except your own conscience, i don't know. But this guy in trying to disprove life after death actually proved it, go figure. And tardis Jesus says "blessed are those whom believe and have not seen." Unsure if everyone should need great signs and wonders although honestly i have had a few. He speaks to us in various ways, even that virtue actually exists (and abounds) in this chaotic scenario of life is evidence of Good but where has that good come from, how and why does it manifest itself? I have heard survival instinct, but why do we have the need to survive, do we have a higher purpose to survive for, and what is that higher purpose and if we survive due to some kind of higher purpose where does that higher purpose come from, why does it manifest so frequently in many virtues?

Edited March 19, 2014 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye

[Fidei Defensor]

I am always so convicted. I am a man of science. I am used to using my senses to discover things. God is beyond senses and it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that something could exist and be completely inaccessible to the senses and mind that I use on a daily basis.

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

So the mind is a sense and what i have spoken is sound knowledge as far as my understanding of what knowledge is goes. It may not be a scientific equation but it is life knowledge from experience, but knowledge is not enough right we need action. So knowing what virtue is isn't enough there needs to be action to prove that knowledge, and again where does that knowledge initially come from and why the need to prove it?

Edited March 19, 2014 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye