I am often asked what evidence it would take to convince me of the existence of the Evangelical God; the God of the Bible. Some atheists refuse to answer this question, saying “God knows what evidence would convince me of his existence, so when he provides it, I’ll know it.” Fair enough. The Evangelical God is allegedly omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. If these claims are true, God knows exactly what will convince unbelievers of his existence. Yet, God is silent, outside of helping Granny find her car keys or Grandpa his hearing aids.
So what could the Evangelical God do to convince the Evangelical-preacher-turned-atheist Bruce Gerencser that he exists? One thing. One thing that God, in all of human history, has never done. One thing that would clearly, and without ambiguity, show me that he is real. What is that one thing, you ask? I would like to see God miraculously regrow an amputated arm or leg. Do this, God, and I will admit that you are real. I may not worship you, but I will believe you exist. Regrowing an amputated limb is not enough to absolve God of his murderous, genocidal acts recorded in the Bible. I can admit this God exists without bending a knee to him.
Okay, God, the ball is in your court.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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There is an awesome website dedicated to this very topic.
https://whywontgodhealamputees.com/
Many thanks for your awesome site Bruce!! It came along during my early days of deconversion. Mighty glad I ran into your material.
I’ve seen dozens of claims by believers, including at least two on this forum, that they had experienced miracle cures, including regrowing limbs. These are often followed by comments of ‘hallelujah’ and ‘God is good’, by others determined not to spoil the illusion. I don’t know why they make these claims, which are plainly false. If there were any truth to them you can be sure that they would have been headline news in medical journals. To my mind there are three possibilities with regard to ‘ordinary’ miraculous cures, such as a broken bone. First, misdiagnosis. Second delusion, in that the bone didn’t heal overnight but the patient imagined it. Third, outright lying. When it comes to regrown limbs only the third is relevant.
Prosthetics don’t count, right? 😃
I would like to think that at some point in the future medical science will advance to the point that regrowing body parts is possible. Would that make us deities? 🤣🤣 Just kidding……
Derrick Thomas Thiessen will probably be along shortly with God’s answer.
Why make it easy for the imaginary God(s)? Since they are all powerful, let them completely fill one of my guest bedrooms with brilliant round cut diamonds so I can help others on my bionic limp which is much better than the original. Cash is king/queen 😂😂
Omnibenevolent stopped me cold. Yeah, it’s a real word and a real quality. If omnibenevolence is requisite to the existence of their deity, the evangelicals worship an obvious fake. The utter lack of justice, compassion and fairness in Christian dogma is exactly what provked me to begin questioning and become this skeptic. An unkind, unjust, unbenevolent God is contraditory and incomprehensible to the rational mind. A God that gave the power to reason and question contradicts him (or her) self by commanding aceptance of irrational dogma. As with all spiritual religions, Chridtianity’s inability (or refusal?) to make sense is the sticking point.
OOPS! I forgot about omnipotence. Since God is transcendent and created everything including reason, God can transcend reason as God pleases. God don’t gotta make sense and rationality must be a satanic concept to seduce us into the lake of fire. Oh well. I’m not afraid. I survived in Phoenix for 25 years so swimming in fire is routine.
Sad that you never truly belonged to him. 😭.
However you will face him one day and this blasphemy will be brought out. And yep God removed many that vehemently rejected him and were a threat to the line of Christ. He is the Creator he can do that. He is above all form of law.
I’d like to take it a step farther and say for me to believe in that deity, it would have to raise someone from the dead. Let’s start with my mom. If that happens, yes I certainly would believe. I’d never worship it, but would say a sincere thank you.
This post reminded me of the day I spent in Lourdes in the middle of a bicycle tour from France to Spain and back. There, I saw people in search of cures for everything imaginable. I am sure that some had saved their money for years to make the journey. (I described the visit in a guest post I wrote as “MJ Lisbeth “ a couple of years ago.)
John, no one “belongs” to your hissy-fit god. It’s a primitive fiction, a convenient excuse that people like you use when you want to threaten and dominate people.
Wow John…..
“ However you will face him one day and this blasphemy will be brought out. And yep God removed many that vehemently rejected him and were a threat to the line of Christ. He is the Creator he can do that. He is above all form of law”
🧐🤔🤔
Do realize how incredibly moronic and ridiculous that statement is? You think your all powerful god has to kill humans to protect the line of Christ? Soooo….the only thing you god can do is kill people,to achieve that goal? Which means your all powerful god is either incredibly stupid or an incredibly uncaring killer. You creator can to what it wants, so it decides to kill???
Wow, that is some powerful witnessing. I see your point, follow your god or die. Was it Jesus or Paul that taught you that?
Wow..just wow