No one can come to know whether their particular flavor of "god" is a reality until they have tried him/her/it to the very limit. They can't know until they have done or tried to do everything their god asks of them with all their mind, might, and heart. So many people say they know something is true when they don't really know and this is especially true on the subject of God. People will insist that they know all about what God is like and will speak authoritatively on the subject when they really don't know anything at all.Rhetoric.Power wrote: ↑April 24th, 2017, 9:59 am I considered myself a Christian and Mormon for most of my life. However, I now consider myself an Agnostic Atheist. The reason being this: There is no evidence to support the existence of a god, let alone the "Christian God". Agree or disagree? Let me hear your thoughts and supporting evidence.
Malachi 3:10
If I were a mechanic and confident in my skills, I could say to you "prove me herewith" or give my services a try to see if I am really a good mechanic or not. If I were not a good mechanic but claimed to be, I would be inwardly fearful of you testing me and trying me. If you thought me a bad mechanic but I was really good, then I would also be happy for the opportunity to prove myself to you. If I were a perfect mechanic, you could throw any number of curve balls at me trying to prove how bad I was and I would be able to confidently take care of them.Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
I tested the god I was brought up to believe in to the very limits. When I had done everything I could possibly do to fulfill what he asked of me, I waited for the promised return. I waited one year and then two. During that time I endured agony beyond anything I ever have and beyond anything I could describe to others. I waited as patiently as possible for release from these pains. After about two years the proverbial "straw" broke the camel's back. The god I believed in didn't exist.
I felt betrayed and at the same time I was terribly aware of the irony of feeling betrayed by a being that didn't exist in the first place. After some weeks of turmoil, I sat myself down and asked myself if I really didn't believe in God. As I thought about it, I remembered the miracles that had taken place in my life, many, many miracles: instantaneous healings, slower healings that defied explanation, medicine and gasoline not wasting away, spiritual guidance to places and people that I needed, and so on and so forth. When I was done, I realized I didn't believe in God, I knew God existed. What was wrong was that I didn't really know who or what God was. The concepts that I'd held on to as true were not necessarily true.
I had to change my approach. I had to stop insisting that I knew God and open myself to learning about God. I had to clean my slate of all preconceived notions and open myself to accept truth. Before, God was a man with long white hair and a beard who wore a white robe and hung out in a heavenly place looking down on the earth and granted "blessings" on his personal whim which I was supposed to blindly trust was fair. Now I acknowledge that God is not someone or something I am capable of seeing right now, that I don't really know what God looks like, but that I can "feel" God and if I pay attention to those feelings and experiment with them, I can understand truth.
So here I am, proving God. Or more accurately, exploring God. I no longer do something and expect a certain outcome and then get mad because things don't work the way I expect. If things don't work how I expect, I accept that I lack understanding. I feel like one of the blind men feeling up the elephant, exploring curves and textures, making new discoveries as I continue seeking. I don't argue with the other blind men anymore because I don't know if they know something I don't. I've quit slamming myself against walls insisting that they conform to what I want to be true and accept the boundaries as they are. I try to learn where the walls are and what they are like and accept them.
In my explorations, I'm seeing even more miracles. Now I'm noticing that these miracles follow certain laws. Instead of insisting everything happen the way I think it should, I seek to fulfill the laws. As I'm learning to follow the law of God, I see consistent results. If I want a miraculous healing, I need to follow the laws that result in healing. If I want prosperity, I need to follow the laws that result in prosperity.
As I've explored, I've formed a new concept of God, one that I am currently testing and trying out. I believe that there is a being that exists that loves me and wants to be with me just because I'm me. He doesn't need me to change or conform to certain molds in order to want to be with me. He doesn't need me to serve him but loves to serve me and wants me to allow him to serve me. Even though he loves being with me he is also totally willing to let go of me if I find something I want more than him. He just wants me to be happy and so if I'm happy, then he is happy for me. So far, as I've explored this new concept of God, which came to me through spiritual means, it's proven to bring me happiness and fill my soul with love. As long as the "fruits" remain good, I will continue to seek this God.
So anyway, to answer your question definitively, I would disagree. There is evidence that God exists. By that I mean, there is evidence that something exists outside of the world as perceived through our five senses. That I know without question. But what that is, I cannot say with any certainty at this point. I'm pretty certain that most religious depictions of God are false. Currently, I'm having a wonderful time figuring God out. For the most part, the agony and pains are gone. They were the result of me throwing myself against the walls of truth. When I encounter pain these days, I stop slamming myself against the wall and start exploring.