fair enough…what evidence could possibly make you not believe in God?
Not to be facetious, but the same type of evidence that would lead me not to believe in anything mythical (i.e., I don’t have any experience of God, and what experiences I have had, that I once attributed to God, have conspicuously natural explanations). The degree to which we have faith in God and believe in him is proportional to what we’ve learned (at least to some degree): A person who has never learned about God will never worship God, because there will be otherwise no indication that he exists. You first believed in God when someone told you He existed. Belief in God never precedes the suggestion first, that he exists. The suggestion is a very powerful one, as well as attractive. Most everything people, through history, have explained with divine and mythical things have had natural explanations, and to me, God is no exception. In a real ardent debate, it might come down to “why is there something rather than nothing?” but plugging God in as an answer, for the lack of our own knowledge, is a hasty manoeuvre. I would continue to wonder why God seems so elusive to everybody else (the non-monotheistic-subscribing individuals, that is).
and as to the commanding an “unjust” thing, may i say God could not command something unjust because He is perfect.
I understand that. The argument isn’t “This supposedly horrific event isn’t unjust because it is impossible for God to preform an unjust act.” The argument is, “by every conception we have of justice and morality, the murdering of innocent people suggests that God is not just, at least as He appeals to our reason.”
That God must be excempt from things that, if men did them they would be evil, seems evidence, not that he is just, but that he doesn’t have to be because he’s God (which seems to be a contradiction).
also, invincible ignorance applies to all people, not just Catholics. and rejection of God is entirely different from ignorance of Him, the line couldn’t be too impossible to draw
I reject the idea of God. I can’t possibly reject,
personally, what I don’t believe in. And If I’m rejecting, not God himself, but his alleged existence, it must speak (at least from the point of your argument) to my ignorance and not simply my defiance. If I thought there was a God, I would surely love Him, or get on His good side, or whatever it is us finite, petty humans would do for a god, but I just don’t believe in Him. Am I ignorant, or am I defiant? Defiance would surely land me in Hell, but with ignorance, I am invincible (I would like to clarify that I am not just willfully blind - I tried with every bit of emotional and intellectual muster to commune with God and be a follower, but the effort was hollow; I didn’t feel anything).
Do you see where I’m coming from?