# Nonbelievers: How Would You React to the Following Events **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 12, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363 "2011-03-12T01:36:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/141 "2011-03-23T03:50:41Z")
The only good answer is to build a baseball field in an Iowa corn field. ---
**Author:** ![scamartistry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@scamartistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scamartistry)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/142 "2011-03-23T03:51:18Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > If God was real i would fight him with every ounce of my being. Any entity that has the power to stop evil and suffering and does nothing is at best uncaring, but when it starts demanding worship and obedience under the threat of eternal punishment then it is beyond evil. I don’t just not believe in your god, i do not understand how anyone who believes in him isn’t terrified to the core of their being. You go girl. The premise is that God exist. He would have no problem handling you within seconds. nice try ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/143 "2011-03-23T03:53:43Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > You go girl. The premise is that God exist. He would have no problem handling you within seconds. nice try Oh yeah, what if she was in an iron chariot? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/144 "2011-03-23T04:35:32Z")
> [@scamartistry](#): > > You go girl. The premise is that God exist. He would have no problem handling you within seconds. nice try If God existed, would rape him. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/145 "2011-03-23T11:23:31Z")
At one point in my life I really and truly did hear a voice in my head; it told me repeatedly that I wasn’t fit to live and never would be. Was that the voice of God? I actually really and truly attempted suicide but I didn’t try hard enough. With therapy and medication I stopped hearing that voice; I learned not to listen if it ever comes back. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/146 "2011-03-23T11:36:48Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Some people wouldn’t believe in God even if they saw Jesus raise the dead, walk on water, turn water into wine, part the red sea, go up into heaven on a chariot of clouds, or separete the heavens from teh earth, There is a very simple point of epistemology that you are missing here. Let’s say we do have an entity that can resurrect things, suspend itself on water, transmute matter, part liquids, etc… All this tells us, for sure, is that there are ‘magical’ things that exist. It doesn’t tell us that \*your specific magical thing exists. \* This is very, very basic, but perhaps an example would help. Someone claims he is your father, and you doubt him. He proves that he can, indeed, inseminate a woman and cause her to bear a child. Does this prove that he is _your_ father, or merely that he’s someone capable of fathering children? In a world where there is one magical being, there can be two. Or two thousand. Or twenty billion. It would certainly be in any such being’s interest, assuming it wanted followers for some reason, to cleave to the established beliefs of a culture (that is, if it couldn’t just rewrite our brains to think whatever it wanted us to think, anyways). Again, this is a very simple point, but perhaps a few examples would help. A magical being comes to Earth and duplicates all the miracles that Jesus is said to have performed, and claims to be Jesus. Then, a day later, a second magical being comes to Earth, duplicates the real miracles, and also claims to be Jesus. Which one is real, and how do you know? Or, a magical being comes to Earth and duplicates all of Jesus’ miracles. Then another being comes to Earth and duplicates all the miracles that Odin was said to have performed. Then another being comes to Earth and duplicates all the miracles that Ra was said to have performed. Then another… Or a magical being comes to Earth and says that Jesus’ teachings are the gospel truth. And another magical being comes to Earth and says that The Tanakh is the gospel truth and nothing after that counts. And another comes to Earth and says that Mohammed was the final prophet and his teachings are the one true reality. And… I’m not aware of many a-theists who would, faced with actual incontrovertible proof that something totally baffling to science was going on, dispute it with handwaving. Sure, there are some, but there are always some folks who’ll do strange things. The point is that, even if we prove that something we thought of as ‘magic’ is somehow able to be accomplished, that doesn’t prove it was one specific magical entity that did it. Or that that magical entity did one specific thing we’re interested in. If, to use another example, every galactic race older than a million years old has figured out how to create life, and five alien species arrive on the planet and call claim that they are our progenitors, and all demonstrate that they can indeed create life, how do we choose which one is really was? What if their technology is such that it’s indistinguishable from magic, and we can’t even trust what evidence we do have, as they could easily alter it? There’s a reason why faith and proof are divergent. That which cannot be proven is the domain of faith, and about that which we can render solid proof and refutation, faith has to remain silent. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/147 "2011-03-23T16:42:45Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Well, some of the answers essentially stem from “god doesn’t exist, therefore any proof of god is something else” - if you are closed to the possibility of changing your opinion, it’s not very useful. Now it may be extremely unlikely that any evidence can be provided that will change your opinion - but in the case of a hypothetical which is exactly what we’re supposing, you can hypothesize how you would react in such a situation. > > Comparisons to other supernatural beliefs are indeed useful - but if someone gave me a hypothetical… if a horse with a horn and wings flew down and landed next to me, would I believe in unicorns? Hallucinations, hoaxes, and other possibilities would certainly come to mind, but it would certainly be a piece of evidence towards changing my stance on unicorns that would deserve further investigations. I wouldn’t merely say “hmm, I know unicorns don’t exist” and pretend it never happened. > > Part of being a skeptic is quite the opposite of being closed minded. You should be open to any possibilities that there can be evidence for. Even if you correctly assess that the possibility that the evidence will never materialize is miniscule, you still should be open to any rational possibility if the evidence somehow becomes available. People tend to underestimate just how crazy an idea God is. I’ve seen horses before, I’ve seen things with wings fly before, I’ve seen things with horns before, so if a horned winged horse appeared in front of me, I would be shocked, but I wouldn’t outright deny it. If I can touch the unicorn and ride it around, then the most logical explanation is that this unicorn is real. Wizards doing magic basically requires one big leap: magic. They’re otherwise normal people. A saucer shaped UFO lands in my backyard and gray aliens step out. I would definitely have trouble believing in what I’m seeing, but other life existing beyond Earth and traveling here via technology is not that outrageous an idea. God, on the other hand, requires so many assumptions and leaps that it’s in an entirely different league. God is a conscious entity that created everything. God is literally _unlike anything in the entire universe_. I can’t even conceive of how a thing like God would work or operate. Call me close-minded, but I’m honestly not sure if anything could convince me of the existence of this “God” thing. There are just too many other possible explanations within our own universe. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/148 "2011-03-23T23:05:04Z")
If the OP witnessed “obvious” events from a non-Christian theology, I’d wager their reaction would be, “Aha! Satan’s tricks!” If the OP’s Christian scenario occurred, my reaction would be, “Aha! Aliens, mind control, or hallucination!” Aliens, mind control, and hallucination are the atheist’s Satan. Everybody has a trickster waiting to fill in the gaps. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/149 "2011-03-23T23:13:49Z")
Except we know hallucinations do happen and we know that aliens aren’t physically impossible. You don’t need a trickster to explain “what’s happening conflicts with what we understand about the nature of reality.” You need an hypothesis. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/150 "2011-03-24T01:12:24Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > You don’t need a trickster to explain “what’s happening conflicts with what we understand about the nature of reality.” You need an hypothesis. And I say to-MAH-to. I’m just saying there’s always a catchall. I’m not arguing that the atheist catchall isn’t more justifiable, since it totally is. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/151 "2011-03-24T01:34:20Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > And I say to-MAH-to. They aren’t remotely equivalent. “Satan” is as implausible as God; hallucinations however are known to exist. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/152 "2011-03-25T03:31:20Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > And I say to-MAH-to. > > I’m just saying there’s always a catchall. I’m not arguing that the atheist catchall isn’t more justifiable, since it totally is. It’s not about a catchall though. When the (apparent) laws of reality are violated, there are several ways to deal with it. Obviously, the best is to form an hypothesis and test it, and during that process the null hypothesis will be “thus and such did not actually contradict the laws of reality, and there was a mistake made somewhere.” If the H[sub]n[/sub] is falsified, then of course we perform a rigorous analysis and investigation to find out just what it was that went down. We might even conclude that our understanding of reality was wrong, and modify it. Contrasting that with “a wizard did it” just doesn’t stand up. ---
**Author:** ![arminvonstolz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@arminvonstolz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arminvonstolz)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/153 "2011-04-01T23:06:41Z")
If 1 or 2, … start believing. If three, rejoice. Too many people anyway ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363/154 "2011-04-02T19:05:18Z")
I would pee my pants. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonbelievers-how-would-you-react-to-the-following-events/574363.md?page=7)