Theistic beliefs can be rational.

Thanks to Con for his argument.I will be arguing in favor of the resolution that theistic beliefs can be rational.I will assume that this round is for opening contentions only, since that is what Con has done, as well.C1) Suggestive Evidence I will argue that there is suggestive evidence for the existence of God, thus making belief in God rational. 1. Cosmological Arguments- We have no evidence that the universe can create itself out of nothing; all that we have is baseless theoretical frameworks for how that could possibly have happened. One perfectly plausible idea that takes away the need for the universe to create itself out of nothing is that some sort of intelligent, metaphysical force (i.e. God) caused the big bang and brought the universe into existence. Of course, this does not discredit possible explanations for how the universe could have come about from nothing, but the point is that the God hypothesis is just as rational and believable as any other cosmological hypothesis at this point. All are equally lacking in evidence, and all are equally feasible.2. Fine-Tuning Arguments- We have observed a large number of cosmic coincidences with no feasible materialistic explanations behind them. These include the disparity in the amount of matter and antimatter in the universe, the rate of the universe's expansion, and the proton to electron mass ratio, to name a few. If any of these constants had been even slightly off, the universe would most likely have been radically different to the point that life couldn't have even evolved. One perfectly plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that an intelligent force (i.e. God) fine-tuned the universe specifically to allow for life to evolve. There do also exist some other arguments that suggest God's existence; I will not be able to delve into them here due to their complexity, but among them are the Introspection argument (concerning the nature of the human consciousness) and arguments from Quantum Mechanics (concerning potential explanations for the weirdness of certain quantum effects).The point of all this is that while no argument can really claim to prove God's existence, many of them do lend quite a bit of plausibility to the existence of God, and thus, it is rational to believe in him.C2) Spiritual ExperiencesThroughout history and around the world, millions of people have reported spiritual experiences- instances in which they were able to witness God's presence, be it through visions, sensations, miracles, or fulfilled prayers.Of course, those are all anecdotal in nature, and we cannot simply accept them to be true. However, I will assert it is perfectly rational for someone to *personally* believe in God based on *their own* spiritual experiences.It is rational in the same sense that it is perfectly rational for a man to believe his friend exists, since he has been seeing him and interacting with him over long periods of time. The man's conviction that this friend exists would be even more strengthened if a large number of people could confirm that friend's existence via their own interactions with him. In the same way, it is perfectly rational for a theist to believe that God exists, since he has been regularly seeing and interacting with God over long periods of time (i.e having spiritual experiences), and it is made especially so because millions of theists all around the world can affirm that they too believe God exists based on their own spiritual interactions with him. CONCLUSIONI have shown that, not only is their ample suggestive evidence for the existence of God, but that spiritual experiences are a rational basis for a person believe in God, especially given the large amount of external confirmation from other theists. Theistic beliefs can definitely be rational. I hand the debate back over to Con.