Pros and Cons of Proving God Exists?

[Mojotronica]

Maybe we are so focused on whether or not we CAN prove God exists, we don't stop to think if we SHOULD prove God exists.

Here are two pros and two cons to think about.

Pros:

1. If we prove God exist that will likely lead to more church attendance and revenue for the churches and their charitable work.

2. Transforms our existential dilemma into a simple set of rules to obey and goals to work towards.

Cons:

1. It makes the idea of "faith" obsolete. You can't have faith in something that you know. You can only have faith in things you don't know, once you know it, it becomes certainty. If you think of faith as the core principle of Christianity, than proving God exists actually destroys Christianity.

2. Maybe the existential dilemma is the point.

Feel free to add more pros and cons to my starters. The point of this thread isn't to debate, just to make a long list of pros and cons. We're not in the proving God exists business, we're in the listing pros and cons of proving God exists business, and cousin, business is booming.

[Jon Miller]

I don't think you understand 'faith'.

JM

[kentonio]

Pros:

1. If we prove God exist that will likely lead to more church attendance and revenue for the churches and their charitable work.

2. Transforms our existential dilemma into a simple set of rules to obey and goals to work towards.

I think you accidentally put those under pro instead of con. I'm confused by why 1) enriching the church even further and 2) everyone following a zombielike path, would be good things.

Cons:

1. It makes the idea of "faith" obsolete. You can't have faith in something that you know. You can only have faith in things you don't know, once you know it, it becomes certainty. If you think of faith as the core principle of Christianity, than proving God exists actually destroys Christianity.

If faith mattered a ****, then Jesus would never have carried out miracles.

Feel free to add more pros and cons to my starters. The point of this thread isn't to debate, just to make a long list of pros and cons.

Sounds dull, debating other peoples ones sounds better.

[Kidlicious]

I don't think God allows us to know objectively (prove) he exists. We can speculate on why, but having faith isn't just believing things when we don't have proof. It's humbling ourselves and knowing who we truly are and what our relatktionship to God is.

[Kidlicious]

Also, I wonder what proof would actually be. Would it be seeing God? Some people would surely say that he's not God, just a powerfull being from another universe or something.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

we should try to get in touch with Nietzsche about this, he should know by now

[DaShi]

If we knew God existed we'd have "faith" that he wouldn't flatten us on a whim.

[Imran Siddiqui]

2. Transforms our existential dilemma into a simple set of rules to obey and goals to work towards.

This doesn't follow from proving God. Well, I guess it depends on which God. The Christian view of God is not some rule maker (regardless of what some would make of Him).

[Kidlicious]

Serious question Imran, do you believe in the part about the 10 commandments and all that?

[Imran Siddiqui]

What do you mean the part about the 10 Commandments and all that? That He gave them to the Israelites? Interestingly enough when Jesus comes around later He says that all the law can be summarized in his 2 Commandments - love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. The Jews, due to Jesus not being around yet, had an imperfect view of God, though they tried as best they can. I believe that it was Moses's attempt to encapsulate God's desires after talking with Him. Interestingly enough, scholarly view is that the 10 Commandments appear to resemble a marriage contract in the Ancient Near East (hence all the jealous God stuff and all that).

[Berzerker]

If faith mattered a ****, then Jesus would never have carried out miracles

I remember a passage where Jesus laments mankind's lack of faith, always in need of signs or evidence

[Kidlicious]

What do you mean the part about the 10 Commandments and all that? That He gave them to the Israelites? Interestingly enough when Jesus comes around later He says that all the law can be summarized in his 2 Commandments - love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. The Jews, due to Jesus not being around yet, had an imperfect view of God, though they tried as best they can. I believe that it was Moses's attempt to encapsulate God's desires after talking with Him. Interestingly enough, scholarly view is that the 10 Commandments appear to resemble a marriage contract in the Ancient Near East (hence all the jealous God stuff and all that).

You didn't really answer my question directly. Do you believe the 10 commandments came from God?

You seem to be saying that the 10 commandments are inferior to their summary given by Jesus. How can that be?

Also, yes the Isrealites didn't understand God perfectly, nobody does. Despite the fact that God's own son came to teach us the way we all still do it our own way. God have mercyon us.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

You'd think that, if God was both omnipotent and all-loving, he'd have sorted out these communication problems thousands of years ago, right?

[Kidlicious]

Good question. Why did He create time?

[Aeson]

Pros: Jesus, Mohammed
Cons: Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart