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Originally Posted by KenWittlief
In hindsight, that is the only way our freewill can remain intact - we have to decide what is right for us, personally, first. Otherwise, if a 100 foot tall God appeared to everyone on Main street tomorrow, and said "Im God and this is the way its going to be" then what else can we do? listen to Him, or die? No more freewill.
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How do we know what God is? Is he 100 feet tall, or 2.5 inches? This is just the problem: we simply don't have sufficient evidence to ascertain the existence, much less the nature of any deity. Even if this God of Main Street demonstrated his capacity to emit lightning from his eyes, or summon a plague of tarantulas, we wouldn't know if he were your chosen God, or merely a powerful impostor.
An omnipotent god could impose on us the understanding that he is the one described scripturally, but short of that, we can't prove on our own that any powerful deity is
that deity, because powerful deities (by their nature) are assumed to have capabilities that are currently beyond our capacity to prove (otherwise, we would hardly have cause to call them deities).
As for personal interaction with God, you'll grant that people sometimes believe crazy, even stupid things (Santa Claus, homeopathy, Elvis lives, etc.), and that sometimes, they refuse to be convinced of the falsehood of those beliefs. How can I be sure that your personal interaction with God was real, and not a delusion? Similarly, I could conjure up such an experience, if I were to experiment with certain substances—would you believe me if I said that I personally interacted with God?
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Originally Posted by Ken Wittlief
If you got the absolute proof of God's existance that you seem to be demanding, then what will you do afterwards? What meaning would there be to anything you do after that point? What other choice would you have?
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Why would I need special meaning, or another choice? If it were real, and absolutely, provably so, then so be it. There is no dichotomy here.