Atheists: What would it take?

[one_raven]

I'm looking for some help with a story idea I'm trying to flesh out.

You meet a guy on the street.
He seems like a nice enough guy, if a bit eccentric.
After a few conversations he tells you that he is God.
What would he have to do to convince you?

Keep in mind that the constraints of the story require that he only prove it to YOU.
He doesn't want to make all the people in the world hear his booming voice at once because he only wants you to know.

Another constraint of the story is that one of the very few things he can not do is read your mind. The other thing he can't do is definitive pre-cognition more than a few minutes into the future (he can see what is likely to happen given certain constraints, like people imagine a massive computer weighing the evidence of cause and effect -the only real variables being the probability of what may or may not happen due to free will).

I want to steer away from the lame cliches such him knowing things about you that no one else could blah blah.

What would you personally require (if anything) to be convinced that this person is God?

 

[Ophiolite]

For starters I would want evidence he had never posted on sciforums...

Get him to explain something of his purpose; ask him to describe how much he interferes in human affairs; enquire as to his view on creationists. Then a quick tour of some other planetary systems.
Basically I am making a character assessment and packing in some free travel.

 

[one_raven]

Let's say he stopped time for just you and him, for example, and did stuff (whatever magnificent stuff you can imagine) but no one else could see it?
Would you discount that as hypnosis or illusion?
What if he turned time back so you can view yourself as a child and observe your memories happening before you?
Would you be able to easlily discount that?

 

[one_raven]

For starters I would want evidence he had never posted on sciforums...

LOL.
I don't blame you!

Get him to explain something of his purpose; ask him to describe how much he interferes in human affairs; enquire as to his view on creationists. Then a quick tour of some other planetary systems.
Basically I am making a character assessment and packing in some free travel.

What if you disagree with the things he says?
What if you deem him an asshole?

Let's say you accept that he has some "powers" but can't decide if he is God, the Devil or an alien?
What would put you over the top?

 

[one_raven]

That would be impossible, because I'm God.

Are you trying to be cryptic and mysterious or funny?

 

[one_raven]

Gotcha.
Thanks for the feedback, then.

 

[one_raven]

How would you convince an Atheist of that fact, given the constraints above?

 

[scorpius]

You meet a guy on the street.
He seems like a nice enough guy, if a bit eccentric.
After a few conversations he tells you that he is God.
What would he have to do to convince you?

hey if hes all knowing God He should know what it would take!

 

[one_raven]

hey if hes all knowing God He should know what it would take!

Not necessarily.
Not if he can't read your mind.

Besides, I'M not God, so that doesn't help me out with my story much.

 

[one_raven]

There is no need to convince, an opinion changes nothing.

In this case it does.
The story absolutley hinges on God convincing this character that he is who he claims to be.

 

[one_raven]

The story may hinge on it, but it still changes nothing. What are you trying to convince yourself of?

Nothing at all, actually.
Quoting myself from a recent thread:

I am thirty-three and have been thinking about it since I decided that I was no longer Catholic when I was about eight years old.
Recently I have found myself seriously considering going to school for Anthropology with a focus on world religions.
It's not really an attempt to know God and discern what I may end up believing.
Not for me, at least.
It is more a source of curiosity and wonderment for why people believe what they do.
I have pretty much resolved myself to being agnostic for the rest of my life because, simply, I don't think it matters.

After some long and serious thought I realized that Man was far more fascinating than God.
All these years I spent so far trying to understand God, what it may be and how I feel about it were not in vain, but more a prelude to where I have come to realize my real fascination lies.

I don't have much interest in studying God through Man's eyes.
I would rather study Man through God's eyes.

I am satisfied with being agnostic.
I'm simply trying to write a story.

 

[one_raven]

Not bad.
A bit cliche, I think.

 

[TheMatrixIsReal]

http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/evertz/sounds/gone.wav

 

[one_raven]

http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/evertz/sounds/gone.wav

I don't have speakers on my work computer, but I'm assuming it's a silly sound effect to go along with deleting your posts from this thread for whatever reason?

 

[Zero Mass]

If you saw that god-awful (no pun intended) movie Bruce Almighty then you might get a few ideas. Sounds a lot like what you are writing. Although I personally would need something that god is famous for (In the bible at least) a miracle to believe some guy is a deity. What kind of miracle you ask? Not the lame 42nd street style, but rather something like flying, or reading my thoughts, or saving the earth from a giant asteroid using a toothpick, yada yada.

-ZERO MASS

 

[one_raven]

I saw Bruce Almighty.
Cute, clever, fairly worthless romantic comedy.
Not at all what I had in mind.

So, if you said "prove it" and the two of you were suddenly floating high above the Grand Canyon, or standing on Mount Everest (like in Bruce Almighty) that would convince you that he was who he claimed to be?

What about what I said about stopping time for just the two of you?

 

[one_raven]

Basically it seems to me that many atheists (just as all other skeptics) point a VERY critical eye at phenomena (which is a good thing) and seem to have an explanation for many things that would fail others.

For example, if God did take you flying above the Grand Canyon, you could simply dismiss it the next day as an illusion, hypnosis, a waking dream, maybe the wierd guy drugged you etc...

I am looking for what, under the most critical atheistic scrutiny (if anything) will hold water.
Being that only YOU can observe this and you have no outside sources of corroboration, would anything be water-tight?

 

[Neildo]

For example, if God did take you flying above the Grand Canyon, you could simply dismiss it the next day as an illusion, hypnosis, a waking dream, maybe the wierd guy drugged you etc...

I am looking for what, under the most critical atheistic scrutiny (if anything) will hold water.
Being that only YOU can observe this and you have no outside sources of corroboration, would anything be water-tight?

Nope, for the reasons you listed above.

Disproving something is quite easy.Proving something, however, is the hardest thing imaginable. Nothing can be proved; one can only be persuaded or taking another person's word into believing. I can read many scientific books to learn about something, but that doesn't proove anything as I have to take that person's word for it that it's true. The only thing I'm then doing is using someone else's work to create something in their world. I could list many examples of things and then ask someone to proove it but you could too so I'm sure you get the idea.

- N

 

[Athelwulf]

I would be able to believe that the person has supernatural powers if he proved that to me. He could take me back in time and show me some stuff from my past, sure. All he has to do is something supernatural, and I'd believe that he has supernatural powers.

However, I really couldn't ever believe that he's the Judeo-Christian God (which is who I assume ya mean).

 

[one_raven]

the Judeo-Christian God (which is who I assume ya mean).

Well, no, not exactly.

Nope, for the reasons you listed above.

Disproving something is quite easy.Proving something, however, is the hardest thing imaginable. Nothing can be proved; one can only be persuaded or taking another person's word into believing.

So, you are both saying that no matter what, you could and would never believe in God?
No matter what he did, he couldn't prove it to you?

I think that's at least as closed-minded as those that DO believe in him, but I guess that's an issue for another thread.
Thanks for your responses.