This one is a classic Sunday School answer. The God I was raised with doesn’t do that sort of thing very often because it defeats the purpose of faith, and knowledge of God is not the one simple requirement for many versions of heaven. It is necessary, they say, to learn to believe on your own. Those who are convinced by a manifestation alone will not remain faithful very long. There’s always another explanation. So yes, you’re right, God (assuming Mormonism is true for a moment, as your friend does) could do that, but it wouldn’t do the world much good in the end.
The God I was raised with doesn’t do that sort of thing very often because it defeats the purpose of faith...
Right, but hopefully this explains one of the reasons why I’m still an atheist. From my perspective, gods are no more real than 18th-level Wizards or Orcs or unicorns; I don’t say this to be insulting, but merely to bring things into perspective. There’s nothing special in my mind that separates a god (of any kind) from any other type of a fictional character, and, so far, theists have not supplied me with any reason to think otherwise.
In general, any god who a priori precludes any possibility of evidence for its existence is a very hard (in fact, nearly impossible) sell for me. If I were magically transported from our current world, where such a god exists, into a parallel world where the god does not exist, how would I tell the difference ? And if I can’t tell the difference, why should I care ?
And if I can’t tell the difference, why should I care ?
Well, if in one world, your disbelief results in you going to hell and being tormented eternally, I think that would be pretty relevant. Although I suppose you could say in that case you can tell the difference, but not until it’s too late.
This one is a classic Sunday School answer. The God I was raised with doesn’t do that sort of thing very often because it defeats the purpose of faith, and knowledge of God is not the one simple requirement for many versions of heaven. It is necessary, they say, to learn to believe on your own. Those who are convinced by a manifestation alone will not remain faithful very long. There’s always another explanation. So yes, you’re right, God (assuming Mormonism is true for a moment, as your friend does) could do that, but it wouldn’t do the world much good in the end.
The primary problem with this sort of thing is that apparently God was willing to do full-scale massive miracles in ancient times. So why the change?
Right, but hopefully this explains one of the reasons why I’m still an atheist. From my perspective, gods are no more real than 18th-level Wizards or Orcs or unicorns; I don’t say this to be insulting, but merely to bring things into perspective. There’s nothing special in my mind that separates a god (of any kind) from any other type of a fictional character, and, so far, theists have not supplied me with any reason to think otherwise.
In general, any god who a priori precludes any possibility of evidence for its existence is a very hard (in fact, nearly impossible) sell for me. If I were magically transported from our current world, where such a god exists, into a parallel world where the god does not exist, how would I tell the difference ? And if I can’t tell the difference, why should I care ?
Well, if in one world, your disbelief results in you going to hell and being tormented eternally, I think that would be pretty relevant. Although I suppose you could say in that case you can tell the difference, but not until it’s too late.
Indeed. I have only one of me available, so I can’t afford to waste this single resource on figuring things out by irrevocably dying.