Evidence that would make you worship

[Zacharine]

In the spirit of all the religious threads, I'm making this one. But, as with my earlier threads, there is some mandatory thinking involved on your part.

Some background: Many atheists don't believe in a god, because they have not been presented with sufficient evidence, ie lack of evidence leads them to adopt a stance of non-belief.

I myself am one of these atheists. I also happen to be agnostic and believe that we can never truly have definitive evidence for or against the existance of an omnipotent god. Now, many atheists who I know also say that they would believe should sufficient evidence be presented. I am also somewhat of a strange non-believer according to some, because even if such evidence were to be presented, I might not begin to worship said god. Believe, yes, but not necessarily worship. And this is contrary to what many others would do.

I am talking of worship as going to the dedicated chruch of said god in certain days, saying prayers/doing comparable rituals at pre-defined intervals or events etc etc. I mean something that takes conscious effort and at least a small bit of time to complete and is done on at least semi-frequent basis.

The actual question:

Assume an omnipotent god exists and this god is one that no person on this planet yet worships or believes in. Note that we don't know if this god is 'good' or 'evil' as we humans define the terms, or if he/she/it is omnipresent etc. We only know that he is omnipotent and has suddenly decided to reveal himself to us.

What kind of evidence would you require to
A)switch from your current religion/belief/non-belief into believing in this god?
and B) begin to worship this god of your own free will?

Please give me your thoughts, fellow Escapists.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I'd need this deity to prove to me that they're worth worshipping.

Because they might be omnipotent, butt hey could still be an arsehole.

 

[Lord_Panzer]

He'd have to come down and make me some heavenly french toast.

And it'd had better be pretty damn heavenly.

 

[Hazy]

I'd need this deity to prove to me that they're worth worshipping.

Because they might be omnipotent, butt hey could still be an arsehole.

Something like this. Also a Friday at the grounds of worship where they, oh I don't know, serve cake and pie couldn't hurt either.

 

[Skreeee]

I don't think anything could convince me, to be honest. Just because some otherwordly force decided to perform a few feats beyond natural law does not mean it would be a benevolent being, and any sudden appearance would probably only serve to make me more skeptical and suspicious of it.

In a way the question's already moot, as those who believe see our/the world's very existance as something miraculous enough to never question a divine force's presence, and those who don't believe would demand greater and greater miracles to 'double check' and make sure that they weren't about to be roped into something that's a crock of shit.

 

[Zacharine]

In a way the question's already moot, as those who believe see our/the world's very existance as something miraculous enough to never question a divine force's presence, and those who don't believe would demand greater and greater miracles to 'double check' and make sure that they weren't about to be roped into something that's a crock of shit.

And yet this is partly why I made the thread: to see what people would consider to be enough of evidence, to see what feat would be fabulous and miraculous enough.

For me, a good start into making me believe in him would be curing all the worlds diseases forever after announcing his intentions to do so.

But even that would not be enough to make me worship that deity.

I fact, as with evidence regarding the existance of gods, even with such a god existing (assuming he isn't omniscient) I doubt there would be anything that would make me worship him of my own free will.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

No matter how onmipotant anyone/thing is, I'd rather die and go to hell before worshiping it. Isn't religion supposed to be your about believing in it? That you can show loyalty even without proof? That your faith is strong enough to see you through the doubt?

Meh, I'm agnostic, I don't realy care for a God because I like to believe I'm in control of my own life and I'm going to spend my life how I see fit until it is taken away one-day.

 

[Gooble]

Evidence: God appearing to me, in front of many other witnesses-that many people can't be hallucinating. And he has to do something physically impossible for a human to do/make/create the illusion of.

However, I would still not worship him, for if he is real then he is certainly not good, and I refuse to worship something out of fear.

 

[Gladion]

If there was any evidence, it wouldn't be a belief, it'd be knowledge. Worshipping this god would then be like worshipping a king and I don't see much of a point in that.

But... I'd say this god would have to make people die for no apparent reason for me to believe the omnipotens of it.

 

[fix-the-spade]

What kind of evidence would you require to
A)switch from your current religion/belief/non-belief into believing in this god? If it genuinely was omnipotent then you would already be worshipping it. Regardless of the name/s given if you worship a creating being and it is the creating being then you are worshipping it.

and B) begin to worship this god of your own free will? Nothing, such a being would not demand worship (or rather, does not demand worship if we are assuming it's existence), it is already there and omnipotent, so you have to assume such things as mortal worship are trivial to it. If it controls access to an afterlife it would more than likely judge on actions and not worship, rewarding it's best creations rather than it's most sycophantic.

.

There's my thoughts, maybe not original but they're mine.

 

[KeiraZodiac]

My opinion of higher beings is thus: they are entirely beyond our comprehension, just as we are beyond the comprehension of Ants. They think and act in ways that are completely beyond our ability of understanding - as such I think that all interpretation of God or Gods is completely misguided.

Thus I would not worship any sort of religious being whatsoever.

 

[Manbro]

I think god revealing himself would make me believe and worship in him. This is because he is omnipotent after all. So not worshiping him would probably land me a quick ticket to whatever hell he has decided to create, or some other such punishment.

 

[Skreeee]

In a way the question's already moot, as those who believe see our/the world's very existance as something miraculous enough to never question a divine force's presence, and those who don't believe would demand greater and greater miracles to 'double check' and make sure that they weren't about to be roped into something that's a crock of shit.

And yet this is partly why I made the thread: to see what people would consider to be enough of evidence, to see what feat would be fabulous and miraculous enough.

For me, a good start into making me believe in him would be curing all the worlds diseases forever after announcing his intentions to do so.

But even that would not be enough to make me worship that deity.

I fact, as with evidence regarding the existance of gods, even with such a god existing (assuming he isn't omniscient) I doubt there would be anything that would make me worship him of my own free will.

Same here. I'm done with worshipping any deity at least for a very long time. Being raised Catholic was quite enough of it for me.

If a god of some sort ever did show up and did a ton of wonderful things, I'd probably just send him a fruit basket or something as my thanks and get on with my life.

 

[Kriptonite]

I would never worship anything. This has nothing to do with religion, I just wouldn't worship anything. But I would befriend the thing. No sense in being mean. But seriously, it would probably have to find a way to solve overpopulation. If this new Gd could make ALL stupid people sterile, I would BOW DOWN.

 

[Malkavian]

And even so, I probably wouldn't worship of my own free will; I'd worship out of fear, etc.

I think this is rather important.

Faith is not a question of whether you have evidence or not. If you do not have faith, and do not worship, then it's because it doesn't make sense to you. I'm not a believer, and my lack of worship is not because of lack of evidence. While I have no evidence, and no belief that a god exists, even if I did know I still wouldn't worship. Being forced to worship, or doing it out of fear, isn't really worship, is it?

 

[T3h Camp3r T3rr0r1st]

A) if he spoke to me and like changed into a friggin' epic car and he took me to pick up chicks

B) Anyone who gets me chicks I will worship forever

 

[Danzaivar]

If we looked far enough into every atom, and they all had a serial number. This number would appear as instantly readable, to anyone, regardless of language.

Any less and you could probably explain it away, that's it for belief without a doubt for me. Don't think I'd ever worship a deity tho.