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[quote=Anonymous]OP here, good evening.  With my little ones nestled in their beds, I finally have time to add some thoughts.  I have read and caught up on the excitement of the day (the red herrings, the straw men, the reductio ad absurdums, the liberal sprinklings of ad hominems, and the various slams against particular religious texts), and I watched the rationalist/materialist infomercial with keen interest, because information shared with an accent always sounds sublime.  I wish there were time to discuss every point in great detail, but one can only long for eternity...oh, nevermind ;)

I think I will need to make my points in separate posts, and they follow from one comment in the YouTube video.  The rationalist wittily observed that moral questions, such as nuclear bombs dropped on the innocent and annoying ring tones (?), do not fall under the rationalist category of knowledge.  I heartily agree, and that is what my points will address.

First, the "wishful thinking" argument.

Repeatedly, the nonbelievers/materialists/rationalists on this thread have stated that God is the result of wishful thinking, due to this line of thought:  I cannot bear the thought that there is no such thing as perfect justice, therefore there must be God, who metes out perfect justice.  Or, I cannot bear the thought that this is all that there is, therefore there must be more to us than just our physical bodies in this world, therefore there must be souls, that live forever, and by the way, God must have made them.

The "wishful thinking" dismissal was famously put forth by Freud, who thought of God as a figment of our still-childish imaginations, dreamt up as a perfect father figure to comfort us in our fearful and uncertain world.

The magnanimous atheists repeat the "wishful thinking" dismissal almost wistfully, sort of wishing it were true themselves.  How nice it would be if there were perfect justice.  How nice it would be if we had eternal souls.  How nice it would be if God was holding everything in the metaphorical palm of His hand.

The snarky atheists are a little more blunt, usually accusing believers of mental illness, stupidity, weakness, and gullibility.

While noting that the "wishful thinking" argument is not worthless, I have been willing to put it aside, for the following reason:

PPs have stated repeatedly they do not believe in God because there is "no evidence," no "proof" for His existence.  I asked, "What evidence do you need?"  And received the answer, "I am a rationalist/materialist.  I know things to be true through the scientific method, which can know the material universe, which is all there is."

But God, if He exists, is not found[i] in[/i] the material universe, He [i]created[/i] the material universe.  He transcends the universe.  He is no more to be found in the material universe as a builder is to be found in the house he built as a wall or a floor.

(This is where PPs start throwing unicorns and leprechans and Santa Claus around, but these examples show a misunderstanding of what the word "God" signifies.)

So here is the problem:  if empiricism is the only way to know the truth, then there is no way to know God.  At best, empiricism can investigate traces of God's work, but not God Himself.  If empiricism is the only way to know reality, one rules out, a priori, even the possibility of God, because one rules out any means to know God.

(Besides sensory knowledge, we do also acquire information through logic, through argumentation.  But, as many PPs have emphasized, that is not material evidence.)

This is the turning point, because this is where the intellect meets the will.

So who is asking for the evidence that God exists?  It is someone ruling out the possibility to begin with?

(The Last Battle illustrates this during the scene of the dwarves eating the feast Aslan has prepared for them.)

Clearly, PPs have looked at the same evidence, in the material universe and in logic, and come up with incompatible conclusions.  When someone chooses not to believe, there is nothing to be done.

That is why I have set aside the "wishful thinking" stumbling block.  I accept the worldview of those who believe that rationalism/materialism is true for now.  That leads to my next point.

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