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5 Ways The World Could Be That Would Be Convincing Of A God

5. If all of nature was clearly designed for us. Example: Plants that actually grow into houses that have doors that react to human contact and grow foods that contain everything we need.

4. Words written in a universal language across the sky, or contained in our heads. By "in our heads" I don't mean a wishy-washy Jiminy Cricket kind of conscience, but clear and precisely worded do's and don't that all people (not the majority, not certain cultures) agreed upon not just these rules in general, but the exact wording and interpretation of.

3. The complete absence of mental handicaps that lead people to do wrong things: sociopaths, pedophiles, et cetera.

2. If all the species of the world did not evolve through a brutal process that has led to the extinction of most things that have ever existed. This seems monstrous, if there is a God who actually authorized it. To quote Stendhal, "God's only excuse is that he doesn't exist."

1. If direct manifestations of God (to all people) were mundane. This is the most obvious, but why shouldn't we want/expect this if God exists?

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Comment by Jack Phillips on February 10, 2010 at 2:07pm: Tom,
You bring up a good point with each remark: that in any of these cases we could still express sincere skepticism. Point well taken.

Prog Rock Girl,

If we are morally responsible for our actions, then yes. I agree with you whole-heartily.

Comment by Prog Rock Girl on February 10, 2010 at 11:13am: If people actually got what they deserved.

Comment by Loren Miller on February 10, 2010 at 11:04am: Ya know, enough with the secondary proofs.

How about if the guy just came out and said, "Hey-YO! Here I am! Sorry about all the misunderstandings, and yeah, yeah, I been a lousy absentee landlord. Let's patch things up and start fresh, eh?"

And on that day, the cows WILL come home in a Cadillac!

Comment by Tom Thompson on February 10, 2010 at 10:34am: I enjoy considering proofs of the existence of a being powerful enough to create the universe. None of your proofs do it for me though and I have not yet discovered a proof that does.

5. Nature being suited for our bodies, or our bodies being suited to the available nature via evolution. You would have to disprove the latter.

4. Even if there were a universal language, how would you prove that words in the sky were not placed there by an entity which is of the universe?

3. The absence of mental handicaps would not be missed. You might equally argue that the absence of a disease that causes white bigots to explode in the presence of dark skinned person would be a proof but since we've never seen that phenomenon it isn't a proof we'd accept.

2. Evolution is a compelling argument for how we got it but it isn't the only possible explanation and does not prove anything either way. Perhaps we, and all the extinct species, were placed here long ago by an unearthly entity.

1. This is the most obvious proof but also difficult to verify. Any being with technology sufficiently more advanced than our own would see god-like to us.

It seems like any proof of god would have to involve contravening the natural laws of the universe. Falsifying a demonstration of such a phenomenon is the trick. We don't yet understand how gravity works. If a being came along that seemingly had the ability to defy gravity how would we know for certain that natural laws were being broken?

Comment by Jack Phillips on February 9, 2010 at 4:42pm: I think I'd rather live in the world without pedophiles rather than having ones with marks on their heads. That's just me though.

Comment by Jack Phillips on February 9, 2010 at 3:39pm: "1. If Solomon was given the ability to test for DNA, or use deductive reasoning based on carefully gathered evidence, rather than the clever trick of terrifying a mother with the threat of killing her child in a simple custody dispute."

You, sir, have the premise for an ancient Hebrew CSI program.

Comment by Howard S. Dunn on February 9, 2010 at 3:23pm: 1. If Solomon was given the ability to test for DNA, or use deductive reasoning based on carefully gathered evidence, rather than the clever trick of terrifying a mother with the threat of killing her child in a simple custody dispute.

2. If we could regenerate limbs the way starfish can.

3. If his holy book was filled with things like - 'use the brain I gave you - it's not just a replacement for another person's brain in case they die' and 'love and compassion mean actually doing things to make the world safer and more beautiful for everyone rather than just asking for my frikkin' help all the time' and 'if your on your knees, it better be because your cleaning up a mess, hugging your kid, or pleasuring your lover.'