God does not exist!
I have personally come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no convincing evidence for the existence of an all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present god. Theists so called subjective evidence is not evidence at all. Mainly because if it was a personal experience you claim to have had on your own with no witnesses to support it then we are forced to take your word for it.
Thomas Paine in his excellent book The Age of Reason explains this point incredibly well:
“Revelation when applied to religion, means something communicated
immediately from God to man. It is revelation to the first person
only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged
to believe it. It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation
that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation
is necessarily limited to the first communication.”
From the perspective of a nonbeliever and reason; your personal experiences with the god of your choice are not evidence of anything. As a former Pentecostal evangelist I can attest to the power of personal experience and how it affects our beliefs. Coming from a Charismatic church, experience was everything. We all wanted to feel the presence of God or the power of the Holy Spirit coarsing through our bodies. I practiced openly speaking in tongues and believed at one time that God used me as a vessel to bless and heal his people. To a charismatic believer subjective experience is the evidence of the existence of God.
As stated in the quote above Paine has shown why those types of experiences are not evidence at all. That is why a reasonable person who utilizes logic prefers more emprical and objective evidence to determine for themselves whether what they are being told can be taken seriously. Having said that it is my belief that there is no nor will there ever be empirical or objective evidence for the existence for God.
Although believers start with the presupposition that their god exist, we are not obligated to start from that premise. All arguments for the biblical God start with the presupposition that he exists otherwise there would be no arguments to be had. The onus (burden) of proof is entirely on you the believers to provide evidence that could be tried, tested, and verified to confirm what you claim to believe as truth.
I live my life as if there is no god and I don't go around thinking that there is a possibility that there is a god. Honestly, I don't really care if there is one because if he exists he has no effect on my life whatsoever. And if he is anything like the deity described in the Bible then I have no desire to follow or worship a celestial tyrant such as him.
