The Existence of God

Thanks for a well thought out, well constructed argument. Almost all the time arguments for the existence of God are simple things like "well how can you explain how beautiful our Earth is?" So thanks for actually taking time to produce a good argument.Most of the time I would dismiss the Bible as any type of reliable source as that's the only book that is pro-God, but I will work with you on this one, as from what I've read of your argument, the verses you've brought up aren't straight forward "yes, God exists" types of things, like Revelation 1:8 - I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. So thanks. ReasoningI am not discussing the Big bang Theory, as I have my own separate views regarding this theory than most people. I believe (much like you probably believe about your God) that the Universe is infinite, with two possibilities; the universe expands then contracts into itself, creating a new Big Bang via quantum fluctuations [1], or simply the universe has always existed, and is neither expanding nor contracting, but simply changing - a theory called the Infinite Universe Theory [2]. This theory also addresses your comment regarding the second law of Thermodynamics.This however has little to do with the existence of the Christian God. I'm not talking about the origins of the universe, unless you can prove or give reasonable evidence or explanations as to how God created the universe over any other theory.The 'log cabin' scenario is - I hate to say this - irrelevant. We have a complete understanding on the chance of logs falling (taking the law of physics into consideration) into a strategic pattern that most likely would not happen without intervention from an outside force. This does not mean that Earth or the universe has a creator because it has unique, fascinating, beautiful, seemingly "random" or "unlikely" events or elements. We have an understanding of physics on Earth and throughout most of the observable universe, but to relate that to what happened before the universe existed (if there even was a before), would be irrational, as we can't relate something we have a nearly perfect understanding of with something that we can't even determine existed - or didn't exist.We can explain through science why most of our laws exist, and we don't just dismiss anything as a miracle if we can't currently come to a concrete conclusion or highly probable theory.EvidenceIsaiah/Cyrus - This is human error and human interaction. Nothing here shows either divine intervention or any type of actual prophecy. I could say "under thy Heavens lies our stone force; holding back the water rained upon us for years - thy Hoover Dam - will be no more; will crumble; will fall, with the might of a million tonnes, and the Great Flood will come onto us as it did to Noah and his people." ...And what if the Hoover Dam actually falls apart due to someone forgetting to open a drain? Would I be a prophet because I predicted this would happen? No, because it's a possibility that I predicted. If I were to say a meteorite the size of 1.23453km in diameter will strike Earth on the 12th Day of November at 3:33am, directly in Beijing, then that actually happened, I would consider it a lot more reasonable to consider that a prophecy, but even then... it's still possible.A prophecy would be predicting the impossible, or predicting something with zero knowledge of that event.But even then... someone predicted something would happen, and it happened. This does not prove God's existence. It proves someone was either intelligent or got lucky. Saying it's a prophecy and God was a part of it is a simple idea and doesn't prove anything related directly to God himself.Jeremiah/Edomites - This is once again human action. Humans did something that someone else said would happen, and I may add the "prophecy" was rather vague.Luke/Jerusalem - This is an even better example of a simple speculation. No exact dates or specifications were given in the "prophecy," basically just "Jerusalem will be attacked and the people will run for the hills." It makes sense that they did that when they were eventually attacked. This once again has nothing to do with God.-The main reason I usually dismiss the Bible is because it is supposedly the word of God, written by man. I can dismiss this by saying man invented God in order to unite groups of people, as there wasn't much common ground between groups other than their birth city in that time period. Jesus, Mohammad, and Buddha were all powerfully spiritual people who believed solely in love, peace and harmony. And what better way to spread that and unite the people than follow a belief system and encourage others to follow the same belief system? Before the Bible was written, people believed in their birth land, and that's about it. After the Bible was written, more people believed in that and it's teachings than materialistic possessions. At the time, it united cities upon cities, which was a great way to form alliances with others. However; we now have developed our understanding and practice of science enough to dismiss an idea of any type of God from religion. The Bible is filled with metaphors, fictional stories, methods of peace, a good place to develop an understanding of moral values, and much more. But if it has so many metaphors, why decide what is and isn't fact? I'm sure most people can agree there wasn't a flood 4,500 years ago, or that Earth is more than 11,000 years old, or that a woman wasn't created from a man's rib, or that a snake talked, or that an angel didn't like God so he was cast into eternal fire for all of eternity, which by the way, is a great way to be a nice person, because if you're not you'll suffer forever after you die.I'm not saying the belief in God or a God is necessarily a bad thing, or that if you follow a religion you're a bad person, I'm just asking people to think logically and rationally about it. Sure, it's a great way to be a nice person, but then again look at *ahem* GodHatesFags.com... The Westboro Baptist Church claims to believe strongly in God and religion, yet they act like complete... jerks... so MANY different groups of people - all in the name of God. The advancement of technology and our understanding of Earth and our universe and possible space exploration is hindered by religion; way too many people pass of the currently unexplainable by simply throwing God at it - "why do the planets orbit around the Sun? Well because that's the way God intended it."I believe the "proof" of "no" God is simply the lack of evidence of a God. I agree that it is technically impossible to prove a God does not exist, and the only way to do so would be to examine every inch of the entire Universe at once, but by that logic, the Flying Spaghetti Monster exists, as well as rainbow coloured Unicorns, or Leprechauns, or anything else you can imagine, as it's technically impossible to prove it (or anything, for that matter) does not exist. But for someone to assert that God does exist, the burden of proof would rely on him, as he's the one making a claim, and I'm the one disputing it.If some random guy comes up to you, and says you killed somebody, what would you say? You would most likely ask him to prove it. What would happen if the court says the burden of proof is shared 50/50, and you would get half a life sentence if you cannot disprove his claim? You would probably consider that ridiculous, right? You've got an alibi? Nope, they could be lying. You've got pictures of you time stamped sleeping at the time the guy said you killed someone? Nope, it's photoshopped. You have a recording of you playing PS4 during the time the guy said you killed someone? Nope, you simply set the clock back to make it seem like a different time. There's a 99.9999999% chance you won't be able to completely prove that you did not kill someone, just like there is a 99.999999% chance I cannot prove God does not exist. This is why the burden of proof lies on the person making the claim. You claim God exists, I don't believe you. You have to prove it. Quoting speculations from the Bible does not prove the existence of God. Questioning my understanding of the creation or infinitude of the universe does not prove the existence of God.If God exists, why is AIDS killing so many people? Why can't he stop it? Why won't he answer anyone's prayers pleading him to stop it? What about Cancer? Why do diseases like Ebola keep coming back and killing thousands of innocent people?Why is there famine? If Jesus could feed thousands of people with some fish and bread, wouldn't his father be able to feed everyone with something too? Wouldn't he send his son back to Earth to help the countries that are crying out to him? Wouldn't he answer the prayers of millions of people who are starving to death?Why did God send an asteroid to Earth a few hundred million years ago and kill all the dinosaurs? Why did he allow innocent creatures to perish? Why did he not intervene and send the asteroid another direction?Why has God not shown himself to people who pray to see him? I attended church for several years, and not once did a single thing happen that made me go "wow, I guess he does exist!" And believe me, I prayed and I did believe he truly did exist, but later on I could just tell by the lack of any type of evidence that he most likely does not, and if he does... well why doesn't he show himself to non-believers?Thanks again for accepting, and for producing some decent arguments! Looking forward to the next round. [1] http://www.nytimes.com... [2] http://www.scientificphilosophy.com...