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THE QUESTION
The Case for God
What makes the best 'case for God' to a skeptic or non-believer, an open-minded seeker, and to a person of faith and Why?
1) The message of scripture?
2) The scientific evidence for an Intelligent Designer?
3) The 'words' that God has 'spoken' - Torah, Jesus, the Qur'an?
4) A compassionate lifestyle?
5) Personal, subjective experience?
-- Karen Armstrong
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on October 9, 2009 8:43 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Why I Believe
God exists, but what God? I mean the God that is all-powerful, all knowing, the God who is the Creator of the cosmos. By definition if such a God exists, there is only one God, because only one being could logically be omnipotent.
Posted by John Mark Reynolds, on October 24, 2009 11:17 PM
No 'Best Case' Way to Present God, but Many False Ways
As Christians, our goal is never to lie to people by only telling them what they want to hear, or manipulating them to feel what they want to feel. Instead, we want to respect them enough to tell them the truth, and love them enough to do so in a way that is compassionate.
Posted by Mark Driscoll, on October 14, 2009 2:34 PM
A Real God
What made me a Christian Scientist many years ago was the fact that I could put my faith into practice and actually see the results of my faith in God.
Posted by Phil Davis, on October 14, 2009 12:37 PM
Something Stronger Than Evidence
Something stronger than evidence was at work as something stronger than evidence has worked in the hearts of every believer for the last two thousand years. It is the work of God's Spirit.
Posted by Cal Thomas, on October 10, 2009 8:25 AM
Start With Skepticism, Seek Harmony
Because beauty, harmony, and connectedness are also divine traits, humans who express these in their lives reflect divinity in the process. On the other hand, ignorance, hatred, and violence reflect a lack of connectedness with that divinity.
Posted by Ramdas Lamb, on October 10, 2009 12:45 AM
To Know God, Taste the Sugar
Salvation is not attained by a club membership in my faith or another, or bought and sold in a transcendental marketplace of souls. Salvation is the most available of all commodities, there to be had for anyone whose mind is still and open to experience the divine.
Posted by Aseem Shukla, on October 9, 2009 3:36 PM
Karen Armstrong's Cheshire Cat Compassionate God
Armstrong and her fantasy deity smile, and preach compassion. But "it" smells of the library rather than the street, and she does not pray to it. But we God-believers can be grateful to her for insisting that there is a there there, which is an ever-so-small but real advance on atheism
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on October 9, 2009 2:44 PM
Thanks, But No Thanks, From A Happy Atheist
The fact that there are many Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, and atheists whose lives are models of concern for their fellow humans--and many whose lives are sinkholes of selfishness--suggests that religious belief, or the lack of it, has little to do with our daily decisions on behalf of good, evil, or apathy.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on October 9, 2009 10:17 AM
Wisdom and Compassion
I would say that the most contradictory evidence for faith in God: believers marked more by arrogance than compassion or make-believe than wisdom.
Posted by Brian D. McLaren, on October 9, 2009 10:11 AM
The Best 'Case for God'
What I believe attracts the skeptic is a willingness on the part of religious people to wrestle with truth and to follow it no matter where it leads.
Posted by John Shelby Spong, on October 9, 2009 9:28 AM
Looking for God in All the Wrong Places
I believe there is no scriptural text, no argument from nature, no human or divine words, and no example of human kindness that works to inspire faith until there is a "Why?" that springs from the human heart.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on October 8, 2009 11:30 PM
Proof of God Never Stands Still
The reason that the Kingdom of Heaven is within is that God is a state of consciousness; there is nowhere to look but within. The deity may be infinite, all-pervasive, and ever-present, but proof of God is on the move, shifting as fast as our own perceptions.
Posted by Deepak Chopra, on October 8, 2009 9:01 PM
Exhibit A: Jesus
Beauty, Justice and above all Jesus.
Posted by Nicholas T. Wright, on October 8, 2009 4:25 PM
Good Believers Make the Best Case
I personally think a strong, good life built around faith in God is the best evidence. The example of a person-or a population of people-who act on their faith is the best kind of proof. Such people are not an argument for an unseen reality but they are evidence of God working.
Posted by Richard Bushman, on October 8, 2009 4:22 PM
The Case for 'Faith', not 'Belief'
When we are talking about God, nobody has the last word because what we call God lies beyond the reach of speech. Equating 'faith' with 'belief' is a recent aberration and one that is peculiar to modern Western Christianity.
Posted by Karen Armstrong, on October 8, 2009 4:09 PM
Making the Case for 'Belief' in God
In the history of theology, two of the most compelling ways to make the case for God resided in these two questions: What is the basis for moral truth? Why is there something rather than nothing?
Posted by Rebecca Goldstein, on October 8, 2009 3:51 PM
A Case For Nothing
It seems that Karen Armstrong and I would agree that nothing is sacred, but from opposite sides of this pun. Ms. Armstrong believes in a god about which or whom you can say nothing, and I see no thing worthy of worship
Posted by Herb Silverman, on October 8, 2009 1:00 PM
History and Community
For the Jewish tradition, the greatest appeal to a non-believer is not personal experience or the expression of Scripture. It is found in history and especially in community.
Posted by David Wolpe, on October 8, 2009 12:21 PM
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iampdavis2: I skipped all the "expert" testimony to focus on the original question, in part because I believe that people come to God one at a time, and...
