Is there anything that would make you no longer believe?

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SteakNPotatoes

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Disclaimer: First off, let me clearly say (write? type?) that I’m in no way setting out to ruin anyone’s belief. That said…

I’ve read lots of apologetics here who present reasons to believe in God, but I always find myself wondering if there is anything that could change their mind about the existence of God? So…

What event, evidence, thought, vision, discovery, dream, or whatever would prompt you to no longer believe in God?

My suspicion is that most believers would answer with an emphatic “NOTHING!”, but I’d like to read it for myself.
 
SteakNPotatoes said:
Disclaimer: First off, let me clearly say (write? type?) that I’m in no way setting out to ruin anyone’s belief. That said…

I’ve read lots of apologetics here who present reasons to believe in God, but I always find myself wondering if there is anything that could change their mind about the existence of God? So…

What event, evidence, thought, vision, discovery, dream, or whatever would prompt you to no longer believe in God?

My suspicion is that most believers would answer with an emphatic “NOTHING!”, but I’d like to read it for myself.
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here ya go…NOTHING!😃
 
SteakNPotatoes said:
Disclaimer: First off, let me clearly say (write? type?) that I’m in no way setting out to ruin anyone’s belief. That said…

I’ve read lots of apologetics here who present reasons to believe in God, but I always find myself wondering if there is anything that could change their mind about the existence of God? So…

What event, evidence, thought, vision, discovery, dream, or whatever would prompt you to no longer believe in God?

My suspicion is that most believers would answer with an emphatic “NOTHING!”, but I’d like to read it for myself.
Click to expand...
Actually, “nothing” would be correct. That is, if suddenly “nothing”, or “no thing” existed, then that would mean I would not exist – neither my body nor my mind. Since I need a mind to “believe”, there would be no “belief” either. Thus, “nothing” would make me no longer “believe” in God.😃
 
I can see this thread is gonna consist of a lot of really short responses…
 
SteakNPotatoes said:
What event, evidence, thought, vision, discovery, dream, or whatever would prompt you to no longer believe in God?
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It’s not possible for me to unbelieve. “Events, evidence, thoughts, visions, discoveries, dreams…” All exists because of God. So how can something which God is the author of, be used to disprove His existence? In other words… I think, therefore God is.
God bless.
 
Ahimsa said:
Actually, “nothing” would be correct. That is, if suddenly “nothing”, or “no thing” existed, then that would mean I would not exist – neither my body nor my mind. Since I need a mind to “believe”, there would be no “belief” either. Thus, “nothing” would make me no longer “believe” in God.😃
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I read that a couple times, but it gave me a headache. I’ll read it again after the aspirin kicks in… 😃
 
Tietjen said:
It’s not possible for me to unbelieve. “Events, evidence, thoughts, visions, discoveries, dreams…” All exists because of God. So how can something which God is the author of, be used to disprove His existence? In other words… I think, therefore God is.
God bless.
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"Circular Argument, meet Begging the Question.

“Begging the Question, meet Circular Argument.”

Rinse. Repeat.

I’m not mocking your response… well, yes, I guess I am. But I plead guilty by reason of weariness. It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and I’ve been working everyday for the past three weeks, and am giddy at the thought of relaxing tomorrow, and I knocked off early today.

anyway, back to the question at hand…
 
SteakNPotatoes said:
I read that a couple times, but it gave me a headache. I’ll read it again after the aspirin kicks in… 😃
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Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t know what’s going on…let me add a twist to the “common answer”. When my evangelical preacher dad divorced my mom I seriously questioned my faith.

Then I strayed from my beliefs. Then, when I found that I couldn’t attend one church in the metropolitan area that I live in (which is population 2 million) where I didn’t run in to someone who knew my dad (who had preached on radio stations and was active in the community) I quit altogether.

Then someone from work led me to an RCIA class and I found a home in the Catholic Church, and learned the true faith!

A circumstance I had no control over whatsoever caused me to doubt, but yet I knew in my heart that there was something to this Jesus - but I had no idea how great that relationship could be.

It brings a whole new meaning to me of Romans 8:28 - “all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose”

In my own words, I recently advised Catholic friends when a local priest was killed in a one-car drunk driving accident returning from a local casino, with these 7 words: “Always keep your eyes on Jesus Christ”.
<>
McKevin
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I thing that there would be things that could stop me being Christian (very hard though) but I would still believe there would be a God none the less.
 
SteakNPotatoes said:
Disclaimer: First off, let me clearly say (write? type?) that I’m in no way setting out to ruin anyone’s belief. That said…

I’ve read lots of apologetics here who present reasons to believe in God, but I always find myself wondering if there is anything that could change their mind about the existence of God? So…

What event, evidence, thought, vision, discovery, dream, or whatever would prompt you to no longer believe in God?

My suspicion is that most believers would answer with an emphatic “NOTHING!”, but I’d like to read it for myself.
Click to expand...
First, you should clarify your question. Belief in God? Which one? I believe in the Christian God. My friend believes the substance of the universe itself is “God.” However, assuming you posted this on CAF, I expect you are referencing the Christian God.

There are many things that would make me no longer believe in the Christian God. Here’s a list:
  1. The gates of hell prevailed against the Church.
  2. God appeared to me and said, “I’m going to cease to exist. Bye bye.”
  3. Jesus at His second coming said, “No no…you guys got it all wrong.”
  4. Aliens came and killed everyone except me, then took me to their planet and showed me how they started life on Earth and not God.
  5. Hillary Clinton becomes President.
  6. I develop a time machine and go back in time to the year 30 AD, 1000 BC, 3000 BC, 5000 BC and interview Jesus, Mary, Moses, Abraham and Adam and Eve…and find out they don’t exist or they are frauds
  7. I die and nothing happens.
 
The Apostle Paul wrote that if the resurrection is not true, then we are most to be pitied among men. If Christ was not resurrected from the dead, then we are still dead in our sins and there is no hope for us. So, I suppose that I might become an atheist if convinced that the resurrection was a fraud. Not that that is going to happen.
 
SteakNPotatoes said:
…What event, evidence, thought, vision, discovery, dream, or whatever would prompt you to no longer believe in God?…
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All the prophecies in the Bible would have to be erased to convince me that there is no God.

Imagine if there was no God; who could possibly write all those prophecies in the Old Testament, and have them fulfilled in the New Testament?

Who could predict the life, death and resurrection of Christ with such accuracy, as found in the Old Testament, without the inspiration of somebody who is above time (ie, God)?
 
I would stop believing if God Himself appeared and told me to stop believing in Him

😛
 
I used to be a firm believer in Jesus but I am no longer a believer. I’ll tell you what did it to me: logic and rationality. Despite the Church’s claim that faith is compatible with rationality, I discovered that this was not true and this I discovered while I was studying to make my faith stronger. It didn’t make my faith stronger, but it made me a stronger person because I was able to acknolwedge that I was wrong. The only way the world will move forward is when the religions of the world can acknowledge when they are wrong instead of saying “Nothing will shake my faith! Nothing will shake my belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven! Nothing will shake my faith that there is only one god Allah and Muhammed is his prophet!!” See where this leads us…straight to a hell on earth like Sept 11th, the Inquisition and the Crusades.
 
I will tell you that in a dream I had about two months ago, I died in the dream. There was nothing after that in the dream. It was blackness, and I was alone and horrified thinking “where is God!?”. Thank goodness I don’t think it went on much longer and I woke up after that.

That would be the only thing that could make me not believe in God. If I died, and there was nothing. The end.
 
nucatholic said:
I used to be a firm believer in Jesus but I am no longer a believer. I’ll tell you what did it to me: logic and rationality. Despite the Church’s claim that faith is compatible with rationality, I discovered that this was not true and this I discovered while I was studying to make my faith stronger. It didn’t make my faith stronger, but it made me a stronger person because I was able to acknolwedge that I was wrong. The only way the world will move forward is when the religions of the world can acknowledge when they are wrong instead of saying “Nothing will shake my faith! Nothing will shake my belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven! Nothing will shake my faith that there is only one god Allah and Muhammed is his prophet!!” See where this leads us…straight to a hell on earth like Sept 11th, the Inquisition and the Crusades.
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I had the exact opposite experience.
 
nucatholic said:
I used to be a firm believer in Jesus but I am no longer a believer. I’ll tell you what did it to me: logic and rationality.
Click to expand...
I think most anyone could have doubts. Almost anyone could have his belief shaken. It is certainly possible to be unpersuaded that there is a God, in the same sort of way it is possible to be unpersuaded that there was ever a Julius Caesar. But it is very difficult for me to picture anything so colossal that it could actually cause one to be affirmatively persuaded that there is no God. Human “Logic and rationality” are inherently inadequate to the task. Posit for a moment a being that is ten times as intelligent as the most intelligent human being. Many scientists suggest to us that, among the multimillions or billions of planets, there are surely such creatures. Any person who believes in a purely natural explanation of human existence is virtually compelled to admit the possibility of such creatures. If such beings exist, we are inherently capable of truly comprehending them, in the same sort of way that a dog is inherently incapable of understanding string theory. If such superior creatures desire to communicate anything of their existence to us, they must do so on our terms; at a level we can understand. But if such creatures do so, there is much about them that they simply cannot communicate fully to us because we would not be able to understand nine tenths of what they told us. Once we admit of the possibility that a being can exist that is ten times as intelligent as we are, we cannot deny the possibility that there is another that is a million times as intelligent as we are. Once we get beyond our own ability to comprehend, we cannot affirm or deny anything about that other being except what it communicates to us on a level we can understand. I can, by way of example, communicate some small aspect of myself to, say, a sea slug by touching it. That’s about all I can communicate of myself to it. No matter what I do, I cannot explain to the sea slug what the witches signify in “MacBeth”. Nor can the sea slug glean that information from me, no matter what it does. It cannot disagree with my understanding of of the dramatic purpose of the witches in “MacBeth”, or deny that I read MacBeth or deny that the play exists, because it does not have the power to access “MacBeth” at all. Therefore, denying “Godly” attributes to a theoretical being we think worthy of the appellation “God” is absolutely impossible. Once we get beyond our own capabilities, we can deny nothing. Again, though, it is impossible to definitely assign to that being we might call God, attributes which are inherently beyond our own power of comprehension. Like the sea slug, we can comprehend only those things such a being communicates to us in ways we can comprehend. Christians call that communication “revelation”. One can doubt the source or reliability of that communication out of simple incredulity or individual incomprehension. But one cannot logically demonstrate that it cannot be a communication from a massively superior being, because one cannot go beyond one’s own powers, something absolutely necessary to truly demonstrate that what Christians call “revelation” cannot possibly be the communication of such a being. Such a being would communicate what it wanted to communicate, in the manner it chose, and for its own reasons, and we could not get beyond that.
 
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