Just a Few of the Trivially Easy Ways by Which God Could Get People to Believe in Him without Violating Their Precious Free Will®

The following couplet is brought to you by Pelagian-Off. When you’re drifting toward the shore of Pelagia, shove off™.


If there is one thing which I insist must be,
It is that God needs be smarter than me.

God has an image problem. When you look for Him, you can’t see Him. Yes, we know that He’s everywhere, but He’s invisible. In this regard, He’s almost, but not quiet, completely unlike Barry’s role in GM.

But I digress.

If our recent spate of Arminian commenters are to be believed, God wants to save everyone. I mean, He really, really, really wants to save every single man, woman, and child (even Britney!) who has ever walked the face of the planet, be it past, present, or even future. How much does He really, really, really want to do this? Spread your arms wide. See how far they go? God’s want goes farther.

But God happens to be invisible. What is an invisible being to do? I mean, if you were invisible, how would you convince people (other than the IRS, who would tax you even if you didn’t exist) that you exist? This could be troubling. Especially if you can’t touch other people either, or say their name, or interact with objects. You’d be like Sam from Ghost, and who wants that?

But what if you were omnipotent? Why, then not only could you touch people, interact with objects, talk to them…why, you could even make yourself visible!

Today when I went out and picked up my lunch, I was fully convinced the woman at the counter existed. I believed she exists because I saw her there. And my having seen her didn’t violate my Free Will® in any manner, did it? Nope. Not at all.

So really all God would have to do to convince people that He exists is: show up.

You know, when two pagans are making out in the backseat of a car, God could suddenly pop up in the driver’s seat and say, “You kids know you shouldn’t be doing that. By the way, I exist.” I’m fairly certain that would scare the hell out of them. They might even become Methodists.

Come down this path with me now. See that giant white orb in the night sky? There aren’t very many people who look at the moon and say, “That doesn’t exist.” Those who do say that vote multiple times in every election, and are rightly shunned by the rest of society. But they’re a minority. You have to admit, the vast majority of people believe the moon is real (some even believe people walked on it once).

Yeah, I suppose it is possible that someone could see God standing there and still think, “He’s no better than Aunt Wilma, who at least bakes apple pie for Thanksgiving.” But if you said that, couldn’t God bake you an apple pie in response? I mean, what’s stopping Him? And maybe you’d say: “I would like you better if you were four feet tall and green.” What’s to stop God from doing that for you? Whatever you needed God to look like (a giant puppy dog with a rainbow collar and sparkles on his nose) God could be just that! He’s got da power.

Come along further then. How many of you have ever looked at a vending machine and said, “I don’t believe that piece of junk will give me my selection if I put money in it” and then, when you put money in it, you got your selection after all? Would you then say, “I don’t believe that piece of junk will give me my selection if I put money in it” the next time you see it? Perhaps. But suppose you do this a thousand times (because you’re really hungry, see also: rich), and it always gave you your selection. Would you not agree that the machine is reliable and you can trust in it?

Why can’t God do that with atheists? If an atheist says, “God, I want you to jump through hoop A and then I’ll believe” why couldn’t God jump through hoop A? And if the atheist adds more hoops, it’s not like God will get tired (Omnipotence, baby!). And if He can’t acquiesce for logical reasons (suppose the atheist says, “God, if you exist, I want you to raise John McCain from the dead”) He could at least give the reason (“McCain is already undead”).

Now I may be confused, but it seems to me that more people would believe in God if they could see Him and He responded to them then currently believe in Him now when they can’t see Him and He doesn’t seem to respond to them. And the simple action of seeing what’s in front of your eyes is not a violation of Free Will®. Appearing would be a trivially simple task for an omnipotent being, wouldn’t it?

Naturally, in the past I’ve made similar arguments. One response I got was that God’s showing up wouldn’t make any difference. That’s because apparently every time someone shows up we are supposed to automatically assume we are hallucinating.

But the objection continued that it was due to sin that it wouldn’t make any difference. But I thought there was this thing called peeved prevailing prevenient grace, which is kinda like an insurance policy from Progressive: namely, if you have insurance, you can drive your dad’s Yugo. PG is like that, only you get to pick if God will drive or if t3h debil wit t3h houndz of hellx0r will. Which makes me wonder…if PG works, then why would God’s appearing or not appearing have any relevance to what driver you pick to haul down the Interstate is 17.3 mph? I mean, when the insurance agent shows up and says, “You can fill out this card and drive” you don’t say, “You don’t exist” in response.

Oh you do. In that case, I have a voter registration card I need you to fill out. No, no. You can have several.