What would it take for you to believe in a god or gods?

[Renegnicat]

Somebodies had a little bit too much righteousness for today, methinks.

[grandiose]

nothing can make me believe in such a vague fallacy thingy like the idea of a "God"



...and even if HE did exists, I will surely not follow Him because of his unethical, irrational ways.

"The only difference between God and Adolph Hitler is that God is more proficient at genocide."   --Anonymous

[Ellainix]

Well... let's start with a more basic question... what exactly is a God?

[Whitney]

skeptic griggsy, I don't know why a picture was attached to your post....so I deleted it.  If it was your picture, make it your avatar.

[Whitney]

Well... let's start with a more basic question... what exactly is a God?

When I see "God" I think Judeo-Christian deity since they are the only group I know of who refers to their deity as God instead of some other name.

So, God is a god but a god may not be God....not sure if anyone else makes that distinction.

[LoneMateria]

Well... let's start with a more basic question... what exactly is a God?

When I see "God" I think Judeo-Christian deity since they are the only group I know of who refers to their deity as God instead of some other name.

So, God is a god but a god may not be God....not sure if anyone else makes that distinction.

Thats usually how I distinguish it though i've been complained too referring to God as God.  To make it easier we can call the Judeo-Christian god YHWH (or any of its other spellings).  

If the question asked is what exactly is a god (lowercase) then i'd answer an imaginary being or beings thought up to control the weak minded masses.  Or if i'm in a nicer mood i'll use this definition, a fictional being used to justify mass murder and barbarism.  ^_^

[Renegnicat]

How about a definition of god as, "whatever it is you worship". When you think about it, the connotations of the word "god" originally came from the word "lord" as in, human lord. Hence the phrase, you can not serve two masters(lords).

It makes sense, then, to define god as whatever you dedicate your entire being towards. For some people, that's money. For others, it's solving problems. For yet others, it's simply themselves. What's more, the "god" doesn't have to be real objectively, so long as it's real to the person serving it.

Would that be a good definition?

[skeptic griggsy]

Renegicat, god, yes, poetically. :raised:

[curiosityandthecat]

Kill the Buddha.

 

It doesn't mean what you think it means.

[fiendmf]

For the sky to split open, with a smack to the face. Otherwise, I'll continue being the skeptic that I am. By skeptic I mean, one who finds the idea of a man in the clouds to be ridiculous & sad. By sad I mean, actual intelligent adults buying into it. If that's not a sad state of affairs, I don't know what is. Either way, there's my two cents.

[dogsmycopilot]

(keeping their methods a secret, of course)

That's right, because keeping knowledge secret = power.

There are still the issues of omnipotence and omnipresence, but otherwise, these people from the future are nothing short of divine.

Um, those are some big issues. Without OP I see no point in the classification of godhood.

So, if someone came up to you claiming to be a god, and did things that you could not explain, that seemed miraculous, would you believe him/her? Why? Remember, if a miracle is nothing but something unexplainable, and any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, then how do you know that this 'god' isn't just a higher, more intelligent species? And if it turns out that it is, in fact, a higher species, does that make them worth worshiping?

What do you think? What would you do?

I await your responds with bated breath.  

Wouldn't do anything. Being a higher species is not on my list of what makes something worship-able. I think this goes to the heart of the theist/atheist problem. They come at us atheists always as though they simply have to convince us god exists. I can believe he exists I just can't bring myself to think highly of him. That's a whole different ball game they seem unable to address.