What would it take for me to once again believe in Jesus of Nazareth as my Lord (master) and Savior from eternal damnation? It’s very simple. I insist on the same evidence that Moses, the disciples of Jesus, and Paul insisted on to believe: a supernatural sign.
But I’m not asking the Judeo-Christian god to appear to me as a massive pillar of fire, as he allegedly did for several million ancient Hebrews. I’m not asking the Judeo-Christian god to rain down fire upon an altar filled with wet firewood, in front of a large crowd of skeptics, as he allegedly did for Elijah. I’m not asking him to appear to me in the flesh as he allegedly did for the disciples. All I ask for is that the Judeo-Christian god levitate my coffee table, three feet off the ground, for thirty seconds.
That’s it.
Is that too much to ask?
Escaping Christian Fundamentalism 
I guess I’ve gotten too “hard-hearted” over the years, because it would take a WHOLE lot more than a levitating coffee table for me to “return to the fold.”
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More like the Rich man and Lazarus – you’re not convinced even though a man has been bodily raised from the dead.
If you apply the principles of historical inquiry there’s no way to deny the historicity of the New Testament. But you have to special plead it away.
Why would a levitating coffee table convince you of anything?
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A levitating coffee table would be much better evidence for the supernatural claims about Jesus than the hearsay, non-eyewitness sources, and conjecture provided by you and other Christian apologists.
I suggest that EVERY Christian ask Jesus to levitate his or her coffee table, in the privacy of his or her own home, without anyone else watching. And if Jesus refuses to levitate your coffee table, in private, just for you, dear Christian, guess what?
HE’S DEAD!
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If my I saw coffee table levitate, I’d have to ask myself the question, “Which is more likely, that the war god of a bronze-age mid-eastern tribe exists and is trying to get my personal attention, or that I’m having a hallucination?” I’d have to go with the hallucination. I’d need other people to witness the event, and document it. I’d need a magician or two to come look at it and rule out any kind of trickery. Lots of people have thought that they had seen some kind of sign when it wasn’t anything of the kind. My standards for a “sign” are really tough.
However, if a preacher came up to me and started their spiel with my private passcode, they would at least have my attention. But I think my coffee table is more likely to start levitating, for all the success the godbots have had with that simple task.
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Gary, I have to agree with Ubi. This wouldn’t convince me either. How would I know that this wasn’t due to latent mental illness, magic, hallucination, a waking dream, or even somehow the latent ability of my own mind? How would I know that it was really the God and Father of Jesus Christ, and not some demonic imitation? For me, the possibilities would be endless.
Even if God wrote His name in the sky, how would we know it was Him, and not some cheap trick or the work of aliens? I mean people will maintain atheism in the face of the complexity of the entire cosmos.
Without getting into argumentation about evidence or not relating to the resurrection, the Scripture states that some were not even persuaded by this event in the very time of Jesus…
I just don’t think a floating coffee table could do it for me.
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If right this moment, sitting in my living room, I said a prayer to Jesus to prove his existence to me by levitating my coffee table, and immediately the coffee table lifted off the ground by three feet, for thirty seconds, I would be a believer.
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That said, I would not expect anyone else to believe in the existence of the supernatural (Jesus) based on my alleged experience of seeing my coffee table levitate. If any one of you claimed to have experienced coffee-table-levitation after praying to Jesus, I would assume you were absolutely NUTS.
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Well, by way of a very rough analogy, isn’t this something like what happened in the first century? The apostles experienced the resurrection of Jesus, and testified this to be a sign from God. Some believed, but others thought they were either nuts or lying.
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ALLEGEDLY this is what happened to the apostles in the first century. The problem is that we have no confirmed eyewitness testimony regarding these alleged events other than Paul’s, and he only said “have I not SEEN the Christ”. That is pretty vague. If the author of the Book of Acts is correct, Paul SAW Jesus as a bright light, in a “vision”. That is not the same as me watching my coffee table levitate in a sober, sound, state of mind.
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Well, I agree that the gospel accounts were not written by eyewitnesses, but I think they do reflect that testimony .I think the writers had access to the apostolic witness, and oral tradition. Many orthodox scholars and apologists have addressed this issue. However, as I know you are aware, others will disagree. ..I’m thinking of those, in particular, connected to the Jesus seminar.
But, here’s the thing, Gary, just for the sake of argument, suppose the gospels were written by people who all claimed to have personally stood right outside the empty tomb, would everyone believe? I think not.
For one thing, in our time, the cultural conditioning toward naturalism is extremely strong. People are caught inside that box, and it’s difficult for them to objectively think past it. Also, people rightly are offended and impacted by the abuses of the church, and institutional religion in general. I think this also can influence their thinking even on an unconscious level.
I can’t think of any sign apart from what God has given that would convince all of humanity, other that things that would involve the negation of free will, and then how would that reflect the love of God at all?
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“Well, I agree that the gospel accounts were not written by eyewitnesses, but I think they do reflect that testimony .I think the writers had access to the apostolic witness, and oral tradition.”
This is an assumption. There is no confirmed proof that the miracle stories in the Gospels are eyewitness accounts. They could all be literary fiction written for theological purposes, not meant to be taken literally. This would have been perfectly acceptable in the genre of literature in which the Gospels were written.
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Rebecca wrote:
Zoe: Are you speaking about yourself here Rebecca?
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I think I’m able to see your point, Zoe. Everyone is going to reflect some bias, and cultural conditioning. I was thinking of secular people in my post, but thinking deeply about your question, yes, it can be difficult for me to put myself in the mind and thought pattern of someone who is a non theist. We all can get caught in our own boxes.
I definitely am able to see how someone might be questioning or have honest doubts concerning Christian faith, but I do have a very difficult time understanding how a person seeing the complexity and fine tuning of the universe, can maintain with absolute certainty that there is no creator worth knowing.
I also think that spirituality is so much a part of who I am that also when I am out in nature there is just this intuitive knowing and connection. I can’t even put it into words to explain. Spirituality is part of my DNA.
Appreciate your question.
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