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Debate: 'Does God exist?'

What a load of self importance in both of these guys.

God exists because you have first person accounts in the scritpures, but more importantly you can prove it to yourself if you are truly seeking to know. Be diligent, research (read the Bible, the commentaries and if you wish the Book of Mormon, and other standard works) and then pray with a sincere desire.
You will then know for yourself.

The author alleges that "the two camps rarely try to understand each other." From the atheist side, this is simply not true. Many, if not most, atheists started out in religious contexts of family, school (yes, even "secular" public school), and friends. Their upbringings were infused with gods and religion so they understood it just as well as their theist relatives and friends did. At some point, many of us (but not me, I never believed in either the Hairy Thunderer or the Cosmic Muffin and I understood that when I was 8 years old) went through an intellectual or emotional crises that caused us to reject the idea of gods.

God exists to those of us who want him to!! Regardless of your religious affiliations he exists and we see him in those leaders of our church that we belong to. We believe that everything that they do is 'inspired'. We believe he answers prayers because no matter what the answer is we 'fit' it into the situation. I.e.; 'He died because God called him home for a special mission there, he survived because he has a mission here or he�s a vegetable because God is testing our faith and compassion'. I think that in reality most people really believe in fate more than God because whatever happens we figure it was meant to be. God wished it so! He also exists so that we can prove that our church is right and yours is wrong and 'wait till you die, you'll find out I was right!' One thing that I absolutely know is........ that NO ONE knows for sure if God exists!! The best that we can have is hope and faith! According to the scriptures.

I had to take an ethics class at UVSC and thought I would get someone like Keller. Instead, I got Mark. I thank God he was the teacher. When will a debate like this occur at UVSC?

Curt

It's interesting that the majority of ex-mormons chose to not believe in God rather than looking for another faith. I suppose it's easier to just stop believing than it is to take those huge steps backwards and start believing in creedal christianity which is historically absurd to rely on or trust in since it's based off of pagan interpretations of an incomplete "Bible". I do think that Mr. Keller is missing the point of God or the meaning of life if he's asking for "proof" that God exists. I guess it would have been easier to never have left home, never have gotten a job, and never have had any responsibilities in my life. But venturing out and exersising faith and trust that their is someone out there which made us and gives us real meaning for being here is the most rational thought I have. I would rather think that, than look at a mosquito on my arm and say to myself that there really is no difference between it and I, other than species. Wanting proof, or else, is as infantile as my 7 year old walking into Wal Mart DEMANDING me to buy him everything he wants.

Now, even Darwin is a believer !

The view of the Celestial bodies discovered today by the Hubble Telescope should make one wonder about how such creations came to be. Nothing comes from nothing is true, however; something can come from something. The elements are eternal and given God organized the elements into what we now see, both completed and in process of completion, how can this on-going process be denied that there isn't some order, creator or God in control of this process. How else can this be. Big Bang? Psshaw? If one is to know spiritual things, he must have Faith in the One Creator and learn about Him...Only then can one KNOW the truth.

I wonder if this debate is going to accomplish anything. I think a more interesting topic would be: "Does the belief in the existence of God increase or decrease one's respect for human life?"

For the atheist, this life is all there is. There is no life after one's death. So you might think that every life would be viewed as a precious thing that must be preserved and lengthened at all costs. Yet a lack of belief in God seems to do the opposite. Life is just something that has happened by chance and if it comes or goes, no big deal. Each human life is looked upon as of no greater worth than every other form of life. In fact, if that human life threatens the environment or puts pressure on an endangered species, the human life is looked upon as a negative thing.

On the other side, many see an eternal view of the human soul may lead the believer into thinking mortal life is not all that precious either. If one dies, they have merely moved on to the next phase.

These views affect the topics of abortion, death penalty, euthanasia, the environment, and population control.

See Al Gore article, this issue.

What a ridiculous article! This Keller guy is lame. Glad to know that our tax dollars are funding this pretender. What a shame!

First of all, who wrote the Bible? First hand experiences are really worthless in a book written so long ago. Anecdotal evidence isn't really evidence at all. Rent "The God that wasn't there."
I never chose to NOT believe in God. Did you choose to not believe in Santa Claus? You can choose to look into the evidence, but what I believe isn't a choice. Did my life lose meaning? Not one bit. I think the idea of living forever is great! I just don't have any good reason to believe that. Do I think you are a fool for believing in God? No. If having a God gives you the only meaning in your life I think that is sad. Life is wonderful, and full of meaning with or without a god.
My life, my values, my happiness and purpose didn't change when I lost belief in a God. Remember, I'm only Atheist to ONE more God than you are. Needing proof before I commit my life to something is in NO WAY infantile.
Believe in God, that's great. Just don't think Atheists are sad and cynical. I am happier now, than I have ever been. (Maybe It's Satan.)

Much of the world is acutally a "Deist" such as myself. I think that some of the people that actually claim to be "Atheists" are actually this. I believe this is because there are many people that don't know how to describe it so I will try.
I believe in "God", but not in any particular religious form. All religions have "good feelings" about them in one way or another. This is because "God" is the center of everything. "God" is our "ground of being". "God" wants us to love, and to simply be.
I love people that are "Theists" as well as "Atheists" because God would want this. We are never going to all agree and that in itself tells us something. A loving "God" would not have the chaos that there is in the world and religion. "God" is not involved in our every day doings.

Of course god exists. Didn't anyone watch Kevin Smith's classic "Dogma"?

God is dead.

Few comments:

If god exists, life in Utah has endeavoured to teach me that he has no sense of humour and is grouchy.

First person accounts in the scriptures don't prove god exists. I have first person accounts of darth vader, too. Anyone who takes the bible literally has never read an instruction manual for a piece of equipment if the manual was originally written in another language and thereafter translated.

Way too many people are religious. Way too few have faith.

Those who contend that there is a God b/c others have seen God first hand are fortifying their own illusions. Further, reading/studying the scriptures does not prove anything. Faith in something that is not seen does not equate to a factual establishment of the existence of God. I believe in God but just b/c others do not does not mean that they are missing something that I am getting. What a pompous and unchristen view. We ought to be more tolerant and more sympathetic to those who honestly do not believe in God, and we ought to not speak pejoratively about those who want to debate the issue.

Either there are or there are not any absolutes. Either God exists absolutely or God absolutely does not exist. What any or all of us think about it does not alter the this absolute. So, where does that leave us? Regardless of what we believe, we all make subjective personal choices about what we will accept as evidence of about things not easily perceived by our extremely limited senses. We are usually not easily disuaded for what comes out of those fundamantal choices. A wise man once said, "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still". We each make choices about what to believe and we absolutely die or live with the consequences.

I was struck by the article�s statement that �...the debate will focus on arguments based on �reason� rather than those based on �faith.�� While the debate probably does not aim at determining a winner or loser, I cannot envision a less level playing field. The outcome would be determined by the preliminary assumption. A belief in God is based upon faith - strengthened by reason; while a belief that there is no god is based solely on reason - ignoring faith.

I was also struck just a few weeks ago by a TV program about searching for intelligent life outside our solar system. Billions have and continue to be spent with no result. In justifying this expense, one researcher said, �The absence of evidence is no evidence of absence.� I loved it. I wondered if he might also apply that to a search for God.

God is dead? when did his obituary run? i must have missed it.

Paul, the burden of proof should not be one the ones who want evidence. If God exists, and wants us to know he exists, why is he hiding so well?
People want proof when they make decisions, but for some reason Religion has a free pass. Faith is just believing something for no good reason at all. It�s not about what�s real; it�s about believing something because you want to. Have all the faith you want, but I am much happier living in the real world.