Agnostic Atheist

    How do you go about proving God's existence or nonexistence?  I would like to discuss it because it's usually avoided in polite conversation for good reason.  But this essay or rant or whatever is not polite conversation and will probably offend some people.

    First of all, how do we prove God's existence?  Well, from what I know, there is no hard, empirical evidence that proves God's existence.  There isn't any, none, and the Bible obviously doesn't count because it only assumes God exists; it never factually proves that God exists.  Miracles don't count either, common sense can even dictate they aren't real.  And people that say they know God helped them out can't actually prove it, they just believe that a coincidence was simply an act of God.  It's not just limited to beneficial coincidences, some people even believe God punished them for being sinful.  Is there any proof that God seems to randomly help or hinder his creations?  No, there isn't, only assumptions are made as to why things happen the way they happen.  It seems that the best proof of God's existence is through assumption and anecdotes of God being benevolent or punishing perceived sin.  Anecdotes, hearsay, emotions, and assumptions should never be taken as hard evidence.

    Now, how do we prove God's nonexistence?  We cannot disprove God's existence, but the lack of evidence against God's existence isn't the same thing as proof for existence.  They're mutually exclusive in this sense, and so going from hard evidence, or lack thereof, we can only say we don't know whether God exists or doesn't exist.  But, let's replace God with something else that can't be proven for or against.  How about Santa Claus?  We cannot prove or disprove Santa's existence, but adults know he doesn't exist because they're the ones who wrap the presents and write "From:  Santa" on the present.  The kids who believe in Santa assume he's real because adults or other kids have led the believers to believe that Santa is real and is the one who puts presents under the tree.  It goes even further because in the mall or some other public venue where someone masquerades as Santa Claus.  So now the believers of Santa can say they saw Santa at the mall, but then another can say they also saw Santa at another place and time.  So now it's either assumed Santa is omnipresent, these people are not Santa Claus, and/or Santa does not exist at all.

    I could take the line of thought about Santa further, but it's just impossible for Santa to exist.  Almost any adult knows this, it's just plain common sense and doesn't need any further discussion.  Trying to prove or disprove God is very much the same with Santa Claus, it's not a matter of proving or disproving, it's a simple matter of belief or disbelief.  God was never created with the intention of someone applying critical thinking to his existence or nonexistence.  It's about emotions, no logic or intelligence can ever apply to God.  He hears everyone's prayers?  Really?  He knows what's going to happen to us before it takes place?  There's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?  So there's three beings but only one God?  Wafers and cheap wine are Christ's body and blood?  All of these are based on beliefs that people are conditioned with at an early and impressionable age.

    I will end this note with this line of thought:  critical thinking and emotionally held beliefs are mutually exclusive.  That is why the God question can never be answered with critical thinking that is better applied to philosophy and science.