Now bear in mind I am an atheist and have no special fondness for religion or faith. — Tom Storm

and yet, you defend these views well. Have you ever thought about the possibility that, deep down, you are either a latent believer or a dormant believer? :smile:

That is, faith is not "weak knowledge," but the highest form of existence,
in which a person enters into a direct relationship with the Transcendent, without intermediaries—neither logic nor morality.

Indeed, it is a necessity for developing a relationship with the transcendent.

If God (gods) were to appear before us, how would we know that it was God? Would he(or she) say I am God and we would believe it and know it to be true? Would he give us a sign, of his power, such that we know it to be true? How would we confirm that it really is God and not some hallucination, or imposter?*

Perhaps we would recognise God, this presumes that we have already formed an image, or idea of God. Something that we have developed a faith in. But what if this image doesn’t match the God before us? Does our strength of faith carry us past this doubt, until we can accept God?

Or perhaps a part of us is God, that we have nurtured through faith. That this part of us which is already God, reaches out to the God before us, that we know intimately in good faith that we are encountering God.

* There is a logical argument that it is impossible to know, or recognise God intellectually.

Have you ever thought about the possibility that, deep down, you are either a latent believer or a dormant believer? — Astorre

No. But I think you’re asking that because you can’t conceive of how my response could be rational, and so you assume it must belong to the realm of magical thinking. :wink:

No, rather, the point is that I've met many people who call themselves believers who don't possess even the slightest degree of the ethicality that permeates every one of your answers.

The average person, unable to justify ethics other than through religious imperatives, is nowhere near as honest. But you, calling yourself an atheist, therefore have reasonable ethical foundations. Now I'll ask you to provide them, as they are very valuable to me.

Perhaps we would recognise God, this presumes that we have already formed an image, or idea of God. Something that we have developed a faith in. But what if this image doesn’t match the God before us? Does our strength of faith carry us past this doubt, until we can accept God? — Punshhh

Here's the thing: by creating any image of God in our heads, we're trying to fit something into our heads that's incomprehensible, a priori. This is convenient for us, since it corresponds to our ways of knowing everything. But in this case, we're dealing with something that's impossible to fit into our heads, to know, or to create an image of. Feeling, experiencing, and sensing—I think it's possible.

And perhaps people are a bit confused here: after all, red is impossible to describe, but it can be imagined. God, however, is impossible to imagine, describe, or comprehend.

I'm inclined to believe that if we meet Him, we'll certainly recognize Him.