It's a no-win scenario, an exercise in futility, and will be to no avail trying to argue someone into the kingdom--they have their minds made up and don't want to be confused with the facts. There's no smoking-gun proof of God (otherwise everyone would believe)--God is only pleased with a leap of faith to know Him. It's not a step into the darkness but into the light! Evidence in itself is not always conclusive but only one argument for or against a proposition. What one has to do is to go in the direction of the evidence and believe in the preponderance of the evidence. Many a jury has decided a verdict without all the evidence being in, and even of having no direct evidence but only circumstantial.
But one must be willing to go where the facts lead with an open mind just like in science without presupposition. If you are not willing to admit even the possibility of God no amount of evidence will convince you. In fact, without God the First Thinker we cannot believe in thought! First comes the thinker, then the thought, then the object, then the action with the object; thus the link in the chain must begin somewhere. The Bible attributes the First Thought to Jesus ("In the beginning was the Word...."). Infinite regress or passing the buck into eternity (a is caused by b, b is caused by c, c is caused by d, ad infinitum) is impossible and cannot go on forever without some point of the beginning--if there was no beginning there would be no chain according to logic. We cannot believe in a beginning (Big Bang) without a Beginner! That's like believing in a bullet being shot from a gun without a shooter.
The maxim goes without saying: "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." Jesus had performed many miracles and yet they demanded some sign that they couldn't resist--a biggie miracle. The man of God must not be quarrelsome, contentious, judgmental, divisive, or argumentative! We seek an open door not to close them--bridges not walls! Let God open them and look for opportunities! Some discussions will turn into arguments and are not worth the adrenaline and generate more heat than light! Note: yet they will not believe, it's not that they can not believe (cf. John 12:37).
But one must be willing to go where the facts lead with an open mind just like in science without presupposition. If you are not willing to admit even the possibility of God no amount of evidence will convince you. In fact, without God the First Thinker we cannot believe in thought! First comes the thinker, then the thought, then the object, then the action with the object; thus the link in the chain must begin somewhere. The Bible attributes the First Thought to Jesus ("In the beginning was the Word...."). Infinite regress or passing the buck into eternity (a is caused by b, b is caused by c, c is caused by d, ad infinitum) is impossible and cannot go on forever without some point of the beginning--if there was no beginning there would be no chain according to logic. We cannot believe in a beginning (Big Bang) without a Beginner! That's like believing in a bullet being shot from a gun without a shooter.
The maxim goes without saying: "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." Jesus had performed many miracles and yet they demanded some sign that they couldn't resist--a biggie miracle. The man of God must not be quarrelsome, contentious, judgmental, divisive, or argumentative! We seek an open door not to close them--bridges not walls! Let God open them and look for opportunities! Some discussions will turn into arguments and are not worth the adrenaline and generate more heat than light! Note: yet they will not believe, it's not that they can not believe (cf. John 12:37).
Many philosophers have offered "proofs" of God but these are only arguments that the strengthen the faith of the faithful and soften the ones of the infidel but God still requires faith, not proof--He doesn't need to prove Himself to us. The Bible never attempts to prove God but assumes Him. You cannot force a person to believe because it's not a matter of the intellect but of intellectual pride. They say that the heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart! All in all, we only accept the facts that suit our opinions and there is no one with perfect objectivity.
Did you know that you cannot prove anything! Try proving the Mona Lisa is beautiful to the ignorant or the sun to the blind man or the harmony of an orchestra to a young person. Some will deny the beauty of a sunset though this is almost universally accepted. We believe in the sun, not just because we can see the sun, but we can see everything else! You cannot prove the rainbow is beautiful to those who know how to debate. What if they don't like colors or are color blind? Everything isn't a matter of logic or math where everything is contingent upon one undeniable proposition or self-evident truth. That's why in the beginning there was logic (the Logos or Jesus known as the Word). There are two basic assumptions that all knowledge is based upon the law of noncontradiction and the law of causality. Without these two laws, we couldn't know anything!
The point is that all knowledge is contingent, except God's! In fact, everything is contingent except God. We all depend upon something or someone but God! We must all be willing to accept or believe in something we cannot prove, a presupposition or theory; for instance, evolution is founded upon an unproven and unprovable theory. It's never a matter of faith versus reason but which set of propositions we are willing to accept. Those who think science has undermined the Bible neither understand the Bible nor science--which is based on the biblical worldview and owes its existence to Christians. We all have faith! No one believes in "nothing!" Just like no one worships "nothing!" Everyone has a god or God. If you do not worship the living God, you worship some other god. We have a choice as to what we choose to place our faith in, though; for instance, secularists have bet the farm on the assumption that science has all the answers.
There are classic "proofs" of God including creation itself because it had to come from something or someone and couldn't have created itself, the existence of purpose (everything seems to have it)--hence a "Purposer," the appearance of design implying a Grand Designer, the existence of beauty needing an Artist, and even the obvious fact that we see order everywhere from sub-atomic to galactic and we know that nothing can be in order without an Orderer, the existence of cause and effect or causality necessitating a First Cause or causa prima (cosmologically thinking) because infinite regress is impossible (the chain cannot go on forever but must have an origin)--in other words nothing just happens by itself, the moral or character argument that necessitates a Standard of right and wrong and explaining where our values and conscience came from, the most obvious proof of God is the miracle that takes place in the heart of an individual upon finding God and being converted; i.e., changed lives that cannot be denied.
And so there is ample proof for those who want to believe but God isn't going to force Himself on anyone. There is never enough proof for the hardened in heart, stubborn, and unwilling. But one can never disbelieve for lack of evidence! If a person is a sincere searcher of the truth and the answer and willing to accept God and the consequences of knowing Him. Remember God is no man's debtor and will reveal Himself. God will authenticate Himself to the earnest searcher as promised. The problem is that people deny the God they do know and the evidence that they have been aware of and simply choose a life of sin and rebellion against God going their own way and doing their own thing. Soli Deo Gloria!
Did you know that you cannot prove anything! Try proving the Mona Lisa is beautiful to the ignorant or the sun to the blind man or the harmony of an orchestra to a young person. Some will deny the beauty of a sunset though this is almost universally accepted. We believe in the sun, not just because we can see the sun, but we can see everything else! You cannot prove the rainbow is beautiful to those who know how to debate. What if they don't like colors or are color blind? Everything isn't a matter of logic or math where everything is contingent upon one undeniable proposition or self-evident truth. That's why in the beginning there was logic (the Logos or Jesus known as the Word). There are two basic assumptions that all knowledge is based upon the law of noncontradiction and the law of causality. Without these two laws, we couldn't know anything!
The point is that all knowledge is contingent, except God's! In fact, everything is contingent except God. We all depend upon something or someone but God! We must all be willing to accept or believe in something we cannot prove, a presupposition or theory; for instance, evolution is founded upon an unproven and unprovable theory. It's never a matter of faith versus reason but which set of propositions we are willing to accept. Those who think science has undermined the Bible neither understand the Bible nor science--which is based on the biblical worldview and owes its existence to Christians. We all have faith! No one believes in "nothing!" Just like no one worships "nothing!" Everyone has a god or God. If you do not worship the living God, you worship some other god. We have a choice as to what we choose to place our faith in, though; for instance, secularists have bet the farm on the assumption that science has all the answers.
There are classic "proofs" of God including creation itself because it had to come from something or someone and couldn't have created itself, the existence of purpose (everything seems to have it)--hence a "Purposer," the appearance of design implying a Grand Designer, the existence of beauty needing an Artist, and even the obvious fact that we see order everywhere from sub-atomic to galactic and we know that nothing can be in order without an Orderer, the existence of cause and effect or causality necessitating a First Cause or causa prima (cosmologically thinking) because infinite regress is impossible (the chain cannot go on forever but must have an origin)--in other words nothing just happens by itself, the moral or character argument that necessitates a Standard of right and wrong and explaining where our values and conscience came from, the most obvious proof of God is the miracle that takes place in the heart of an individual upon finding God and being converted; i.e., changed lives that cannot be denied.
And so there is ample proof for those who want to believe but God isn't going to force Himself on anyone. There is never enough proof for the hardened in heart, stubborn, and unwilling. But one can never disbelieve for lack of evidence! If a person is a sincere searcher of the truth and the answer and willing to accept God and the consequences of knowing Him. Remember God is no man's debtor and will reveal Himself. God will authenticate Himself to the earnest searcher as promised. The problem is that people deny the God they do know and the evidence that they have been aware of and simply choose a life of sin and rebellion against God going their own way and doing their own thing. Soli Deo Gloria!
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