God is real!

One of the observations I have made both from my own experiences as a fundamentalist Pentecostal evangelist and those of other believers is that no matter what arguments are presented for the existence of God these arguments are never successful because of one fatal flaw: some things just never change. No matter how sophisticated they try to make their arguments from a philosophical (apologetic) or scientific (pseudoscience)  point of view they all overlook the most important aspect of those arguments: evidence.

They all begin by putting the cart before the horse so to speak. They all start with the presupposition that God exists! All of their arguments start with what should be in any inquiry the conclusion which should be reached after having studied and analyzed all of the evidence first. They rely heavily on logical fallacies that are generally easy to expose and recognize when they are presented. When it comes to the existence of God they tend to beg the question when asked if everything had a beginning then where did your God come from?

Before postulating any argument for the existence of God you must first prove that he exists. This in and of itself is a monumental task which I believe just cannot be done. Second if you are able to prove that he/she/it exists then you must prove how you know what you think you know about God's attributes and characteristics. This brings us to another problem. Most believers are not trained in philosophy, logical thinking, or science, so they have no clue what we are talking about when we say that they must prove their case.

As a believer I had no clue what was objective, subjective, or empirical evidence. As a Pentecostal believer all of my evidence was subjective. It was based on my feelings about my beliefs, my faith in the Bible, and what I believed at the time was the experience of the Holy Spirit working through me. I had been slain in the Spirit before, spoken in tongues, had visions, dreams of the divine, felt the presence of God through his spirit all around me. I believed in the power of God because I was at the forefront of a deliverance ministry and my specialty was casting out demons (exorcisms) from the oppressed and possessed.

Having had those experiences and lived a life of dedication to God in full I too was blinded by anyone who said he did not exist. Nothing could contradict my feelings, no words could convince me that my experiences weren't true or real! A fundamentalist is one because he or she has become convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have touched the divine. I often point out that I had not come to my decision to be an atheist lightly. It took six years of self doubt and fear to get me where I am today. I was truly bound and oppressed by my religious beliefs. It is because of this that logical, philosophical, and scientific arguments have little to no effect on fundamentalist believers.