Tristan,
your reply indicates you do not accept what I have said about science ignoring God. It is a common misconception amoung people today that science HAS looked for God, looked for evidence of God, and concluded God does not exists, or as you have said, the evidence is inconclusive.
If you will not accept my words do a little research on your own. When did scientists put together a study to search for evidence of God?
Most of the scientists in your science books did believe in God, and most of them were Christians. Its only been in the last hundred years or so that science has delved into the question of "If God did not create the universe, and all life on it, then how did we get here"
but again, the starting assumption was 'If there is no God'.
Please dont take my word for it, or reject what I am saying out of hand, look into it for yourself. Philosophy studies man and God, theology studies man and God - but science deliberately excludes God from its realm of investigation. (for the reasons I have already pointed out).
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I'd tend to believe a well-reasoned study, conducted by competent parties, with compelling evidence and reproducible methodology. I don't put much faith in crackpots. But are you saying that you would ignore such a study entirely, instead putting all your faith in religion?
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No I am saying there has never been such a well-reasoned study, and there never will be. You apparently believe such a study has already been conducted and reached its conclusions, or that it has already been determined that such a study would be a waste of time (presuming the result without actually doing the investigation).
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Can you fault scientists for believing that they won't be making productive use of their time in proving the existence of something for which it is exceedingly difficult to even gather data? I've outlined the scientific approach to finding proof of God's existence; perhaps they, as I, feel that there's simply too much to test to actually find him and show that he's not an impostor.
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Ive already mentioned that a large number of scientists in history already did believe in God, and it never occurred to them to attempt to prove His existance. Science looks for understanding that can be implemented in the physical world - electric power, mechanical systems, medical research... That is the basis of their field, understanding the physical world so that WE can control it, modify it, and exploit it to our benefit.
What would be the end result of science finding God? would they put Him in a cage and hook wires to Him to tap into His unlimited power? Would they petition Him with suggestions for how to improve the universe? Would they appoint Him head of the University of California?
If or when you 'find God' the only logical outcome would be the establishment of a personal relationship. Science does not deal with personal relationships.
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As for me, I realize that there's a another little problem: what if it's a powerful alien (hypothetically), and not God, but the alien can do 99% of the things God can purportedly do.
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then science would be stood on its head. If some being has the power of life and death, has the power of creation from nothing, exists outside our time domain, can read your thoughts (telepathy), can control matter and energy with its mind (telekinesis)
then our science and technology has been reduced almost to zero, but the most important issue on that day would be one thing only: our relationship with that being. Whether or not that being is our Creator, we would have to understand what it expects from us, how we could co-exist
understanding its nature and character would be critical to our survival
and the only thing you would have to go on would be:
1. what it chooses to reveal to you about its nature and
2. the eyewitness accounts of people who have interacted with the being
in the end, it would come back to what type of relationship you had personally established.
in fact, you would then find yourself in a situation, or a field of study very much like the religion, philosophy, theology... fields we have now. You would have all these personal eyewitness accounts (like the 40 authors who wrote the 66 books of the bible), you would have living individuals who claim some sort of interaction, you would have leaders appointed to be the official alien go-betweens
you would have to worry about whether this being was evaluating us as a species or as individuals for some purpose
it would be like starting a new religion from scratch
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So, to cut to the heart of the uncertainty, I could ask the purported god to prove himself to me; then, at least, I would only have to figure out whether or not he's lying. But isn't that just another nearly-unanswerable question?
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this is what it all comes down to. God would have to reveal Himself to us personally, in a way that we would accept (my terms?)
This question does have an answer. Each person comes up with their own answer to what they will accept.
And as I talked about before, many people have accepted the reality of Gods existance (in one form or another). Its not something they can show you, or convince you of, because you have no way of knowing whether the evidence they accepted was real, or they made it up, or someone deceived them
so in the end, this is one thing in life that each of us must decide for ourselves, based on our own observations and our own personal conclusions.
(almost as if we are being tested somehow)
(tested? sorted? selected? measured? characterized?)