Go on then, convince me of your religion

1 October 2007 · 2 Comments

I often hear it said by some flavours of theist that one of the main tenets of their religion is that they are required by their scripture to ensure that my “immortal soul” is saved from “hell”, and that I should want to get to live forever in the wonderful neverland of “heaven” (translations to/from English and cultural nuances notwithstanding).

So, to assist them in the conversion process, I’m giving them a list (with helpful tick boxes) so that they can know without any doubt what it is that they can show me that will convince me that they are telling the truth.

For anyone that hopes to convert me to their religion, the list below is divided into two parts:

Part 1 must only be demonstrated by the use of physical evidence or logical argument based on physical evidence.

Part 2 may refer to scripture as well as physical evidence or logical argument based on it.

I need you to demonstrate to me, directly, and to my satisfaction, in order (and, remember, all of these require ‘and’ between them, i.e. all parts must be demonstrated):

So, are you ready? Let the demonstrations commence!

Part 1

If you’ve got thus far, congratulations, I’m now a deist! If you keep going, you might make a theist of me yet!

Part 1 (continued)

That the god cares about the state of the universe
That the god created human beings directly
That the god created human beings with a “special” place in the universe
That the god is omniscient
That the god chose to create “souls”
That the god did create souls
That the god created a soul and assigned one to my personal being
That my soul is affected by what I physically do and think
That my soul is immortal
That my soul can experience happiness/unhappiness
That the god cares as to the state of my soul
That the god created a situation that could be called the “afterlife”
That the god created a place of perfect happiness, which we call “heaven”
That the god created a place of perfect unhappiness, which we call “hell”
That the god is benevolent and wishes that I spend eternity in the afterlife in heaven
That the god is just
That the god is able to judge my soul
That the god will judge me on the state of my soul
That the god is able to reward or punish based on the state of my soul
That the god will reward or punish me based on the state of my soul
That the god will judge my soul and send me to heaven or hell accordingly
That the god deliberately hides itself from detection
That the god hides itself for a justifiable reason
That the god requires acknowledgement, despite its hiding, as a mandatory condition of being favourably judged
That the god interacts with the universe on a physical level
That the god interacts directly with human beings
That all “miracles” attributed to the god can, in no way, be replicated either naturally or without human intervention

If you’ve managed to demonstrate to me all of the above, congratulations, I’m a theist! Sadly, I don’t have a flavour of theism yet… Why not show me your scripture (make sure it doesn’t contradict anything you’ve already shown me!)

Part 2

The name of your scripture:

That the scripture is available in a form that I can understand, without having to learn any other language, an extensive knowledge of history or a cultural understanding of any ancient civilisation
That the scripture is an accurate record of history, from the first word to the last
That the scripture, where it is not to be taken literally, is clearly marked as allegorical
That the god mentioned in the scripture is the same god as demonstrated in Part 1
That the relevant scriptural injunctions are an accurate recording of those directly expressed by the same god
That the god desires or requires worship
That the god is deserving of worship
That the scripture does not contradict itself at all
That the scripture is not undermined by what we know to be true about the universe
That the scripture is completely and independently verifiable
That all other scriptures and sources of contrary information are demonstrably false
That all “miracles” mentioned in scripture can be verified, and cannot be replicated by any means other than the direct act of the god

If you’ve got this far, you will have sufficiently convinced me that I now share your religion. Hello brother/sister!

If you’ve not sufficiently demonstrated all of these to me, then better luck next time, eh?

This post was inspired by episode #517 of The Atheist Experience (MP3, Google video). Kudos to Don Baker for coming up with his list of “leaps of faith”.

Tags: <argument, challenge, gods, religion, scripture>