Over the holidays, I discussed with some atheist friends the question: what would it take to make a believer out of me? What experience could I have that would convince me that some sort of divine presence inhabited the world? More specifically, what could convince me that the Biblical God exists?
Read on for the surprise ending!
I've thought about this before, and arrived at the conclusion: no, there is nothing that could convince me even of the general existence of supernatural phenomena. I don't even think the word "supernatural" has a coherent meaning. If "nature" simply means "everything that exists", then any allegedly supernatural event would have to be caused, and that cause would obviously be something that exists and hence is part of nature. In other words, I don't see any principled way of drawing a line between "natural" and "supernatural".
Note that this doesn't mean we can necessarily *understand* the cause of any given event. Humans are limited, even collectively, in their ability to gather and comprehend information. In principle, though, there must *be* some natural cause for every event, whether we understand it or not. (And, to forestall the fundy bleaters who will try to twist this into an admission that God must have caused the universe to exist: no, the cause need not be intelligent! Anyway, who knows whether the notion of causation even had a meaning before the first instants of the universe's existence? But *now*, today, causation is clearly operational, and events are caused by things that exist in nature.)
So what *wouldn't* convince me? Well, don't even talk to me about images of saints appearing on burnt waffles. I can order a Christ Face Burning Kit from Archie Mcphee for $4, or anyway I will be able to once I sell the idea to them.
Then how about personal, internal experience? If I saw a vision of Christ or the Virgin Mary, for example, that wouldn't do the trick. I could be hallucinating, or someone might've spiked my Kool-Aid, or tricksy aliens might be working their wiles on my poor neurons. In fact, I cannot conceive of any private experience that I could have that would change my mind on this issue. As a software developer, I learned long ago that when my code isn't working right, the last thing I should do is blame the operating system or some third-party library -- most likely, I'm the source of the bug. The same principle applies here.
However, during the conversation I mentioned above, it occurred to me that there actually *is* something that would convince me that the Christian God (or a reasonable facsimile) exists: if *every single* professed Christian on this planet suddenly began behaving according to the best dictates of their faith.
That would be a remarkable thing, and it would give me a lot to think about.
Of course, all professed Christians probably think they're acting in accordance with the dictates of their faith, but it's easy to see that they aren't. The other day, my companara Aura and I were driving somewhere, and a guy passed us in a Jaguar with a Christ-fish on the bumper. Aura said, "How much do you think that car cost?" "Dunno, maybe $60K", I replied. "He could have vaccinated several thousand poor kids with that money," she pointed out (and still had plenty of green left over for a Kia). "I bet if you asked him which was more important [and Christ-like], the vaccinations or the Jag, he'd say the vaccinations -- but he'd buy the car anyway." This is the kind of behavior that, if it changed completely and overnight, would go a very long way toward convincing me that there is something worth calling "divine" in the world.
Now, I'd still assert that this divinity, whatever it is, would have to be a natural phenomenon of some sort, just as are volcanoes, flowers, human beings, and skyscrapers. But such an event would indicate that there are forces so much more powerful and gracious than ourselves that they might actually be worth calling "gods", for want of a better term.
Hmm, I'm almost tempted to re-enable comments for this story... But no, the porn spam would overwhelm any topical comments. If you have anything you want to say, email me at jknapka at kneuro dot net, and I'll paste them in here with attributions.