How do I know that your god is The One, True God?

Hi all,

I wanted to start a discussion to listen to adherents and hear what they have to tell us based on some questions I'd like to pose to them. In other words, I want to sincerely play the role of a seeker and ask them how I would know that their god is The One, True God. The purpose is not to deconvert or convert, I just want to walk through a seeker conversation where I'm allowed to ask questions of adherents and see what they have to say ... to listen. I am willing to expand on what I mean by "The One, True God" if a reader asks for that, to the extent that I think the definition is sufficient for the discussion.

This is the adherent's golden opportunity to proselytize; to convert me.

In order to do this effectively I need to ask the adherent for their imprimatur on a rule by which I can do this without bogging it down so that I can never get my questions asked. So, here it is. I'll ask a question as a hypothetical. It may be that there are more assumptions to the hypothetical that one could add, but I'll ask for the sake of discussion that we allow only the assumptions of the hypothetical I offer. This way, I can at least get through a few questions. If someone thinks the assumptions are insufficient just state that with your answer and we'll accept that as your answer informed by the assumptions of the question.

So, here's my question. I'll ask it and see if I can get a useful answer, recalling that I am a lifelong atheist who has never believed and who is sincerely trying to sort out all the gods out there and figure out which one to follow:

How do I know that your god is The One, True God?

Tags: Evangelical, Socrates, adherents, atheism, atheists, conversion, debate, deconversion

3 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on November 25, 2012 at 7:07pm

Hey Zachary,

If someone believes in 5+ "gods" then, by definition, they don't believe that any one of them is "The One, True God".

Yea, but we already talked abou that, right? Whether its one or some group of gods that's fine with me. Myquestion is one of identification, however many may exist in a Pantheon doesn't matter.

- kk

Permalink Reply by Zachary Harris on November 25, 2012 at 7:34pm

Whether its one or some group of gods that's fine with me.

How do I know that your god is The One, True God?

Please reconcile.

Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on November 25, 2012 at 8:53pm

Hey Zarchary,

As I stated in the beginning, it is a "catch-all" term. It could be singular or plural. The question is,

How do I know that your god is The One, True God?

I don't care how many gods are wrapped up in your definition and that is merely semantics with respect to the purpose of the question; or why I'm asking it. You could have 1, 10, a million or whatever; how is that grouping identified as a god to the exclusion of any infinite number of other groupings one can make up?

You're making this wwaaayyyyyyyyy too difficult.

- kk

Permalink Reply by Zachary Harris on November 25, 2012 at 9:23pm

OK, allowing for the possibility that a million gods could be "wrapped up" together in such a way that the million of them as a whole could be called "The One, True God" is not "merely semantics" to me. It's a game changer.

Let me see if I can now rephrase your Q1 in a way that would make more sense to me:

How do I know that your religion is The One, True religion?

Is that a valid way to express what you are trying to ask?

Permalink Reply by Kir Komrik on November 26, 2012 at 2:23am

@Hey Zachary,

Not exactly. Let me try it this way.

How do I know that your set of gods consttutues the One, True God or one True Set of Gods?

This set may contain any combination of gods you choose.

- kk

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