I can't give up hope because I don't have any. If in the unlikely event there is a god, it's totally up to him whether or not to reveal himself and give me the remarkable evidence, I'm not going to waste my time on something out of my control. And no no no, don't bring back this B.S. thing of 'just desire in your heart to want to know your god.' I was a christian for many years, and it was just me talking to myself or grasping for interpretations of the natural world to mean something (something anyone of any religion can do). Don't pray for me to find something, I am not looking, if anything you can pray to your god to get off his but and demonstrate himself. Events like the ones described in Matthew 27:52-53 would be a good start but definitely would need more. I sincerely hope you think a little deeper about this personal experience (which you left un-described) and whether or not it was actually such good evidence or whether it's something that someone of any religion could do or might happen to them (and probably has been claimed before).

Alright so if it would not be fair or your gods way for him to reward me (or forgive me or whatever hoops you say we have to jump through in order for him to allow us to be 'in unity with your god') any less than someone like Thomas seeing as how I have not given the same proof, I will continue to live my life as I am until I am given the undeniable proof, which was my position in the first place. Any attempt for your to convince me is futile since it all depends on the will of your god, so I guess there's nothing left to talk about. Good day sir.

I'm going to ignore the rest of your comment until you ACTUALLY answer the question (you've evaded three times now). Assuming I continue to live a decent life (I have yet to harm anyones life or well being in any considerable amount) and someone of Thomas's time lives a virtually identically good life and we both have the same standard of evidence to believe this god exists but that person was given this proof by your god while I was not, Do you think it would be FAIR AND JUST for your god to punish me for not believing and reward that person for believing, even though we have the same standard of belief but by shear accident I wasn't born in that time?

Please answer in the form of 'Yes/No it is fair/not-fair because “some explanation,”' for clarity and to remain on topic, unless, of course, you are ashamed of your answer or are undergoing cognitive dissonance and desperately trying to keep your belief that your god is good while still believing I will be punished merely for not believing, in which case just evade the question again and terminate this conversation.

God is the fairest of judges. God will look through your own eyes, and play back with you your entire life, and then it will be very clear to the both of you if you should indeed spend eternity with God. If you never had an opportunity to have any faith, and you lived a good life (i.e. do until others as you would have then do until you, golden rule, etc.), I think your chances are good. If however, you indeed heard the message and rejected it, then I am not so sure. This goes back to the scenario of a plane crashing in the Pacific, and only a toddler survives the accident and somehow gets beached at an uncharted island, and grows up alone, never hearing about God from anyone. Would that person be damned? I think not. There are some, and it is a very controversial group, that believes that even Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, made it. It was all part of God's plan that he would betray him, and in Judas's defense, he was trying with the best intentions to cajole Jesus “the Messiah” to rise up and free the Jews from the Romans as God promised the Jews with his covenant with them. Judas, judged through his own eyes and life's experience may have made it despite what he did, and despite the fact that he killed himself over what ended up happening to Jesus. Same goes for clinically depressed people that through no fault of their own are so despondent that they take their own lives. That is why it is imperative that no one ever pre-judge another person “…until you walk a mile in their shoes.” Jesus told the thief who was crucified next to him that this day he would be with him in paradise (though the thief did ask for mercy). I hope that answers your question. I've heard that heaven is a pretty nice place to retire. I hope I get to see you there someday. Be sure to refer to the “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” for more information (and start with a Gospel book and with one translated in today’s and not Shakespeare’s English for an easier read). I think it would be better to be sure about things before one dies, so it is well-worth a second look.

Yes, without faith you would not believe something unless you had proof. Point established. I am able to believe in things I do not have proof of because I have faith. Glad you have an open mind, though it is an open mind with conditions.

Why not talk to more people about why they believe instead of concluding that it is simple human motivation? Self-motivation has nothing to do with it in my experience.

By definition a miracle is not something that would occur on demand or over and over again so that it could be documented. However the Vatican will not elevate someone to sainthood unless there are documented miracles, such as medical conditions that go away without any explanation (x-rays before and after for example). If there were cameras and scientific instruments everywhere documenting every miracle, then why would anyone need faith? That is the point: one must believe.

As for Thomas, who much is given, much is to be expected. By his privilege to see and touch things for himself, he ended up evangelizing for the rest of his life, eventually ending up in India (on foot). I am not so sure I would want to trade places with him! Perhaps it is fair after all. If you had an opportunity to see for yourself, would you trust in the Lord to lead you to places you never expected to go, and do things you never expected to do? Perhaps it is safer to stay secure in your doubt, and not take that leap of faith. May God bless you and keep you. I wish you all the best in your quest to find the truth.

Being a skeptic is a good thing, so I am glad that you question what you read. Given how many urban legends are spread via chain emails on the internet, it is refreshing to know some would question stuff like that rather than forward it on. However I hope you have not closed your mind to other possibilities, because there are many unknown things yet to be discovered.

Just look at the last 200 years of scientific discovery and wonder what documented conventions are going to be thrown out in the coming years. Have you been enlightened by your college education to the point that you now know everything, and billions of fellow humans that believe in a god are just a bunch of gullible fools for believing in the spiritual? Are the monks that live on the mountains of Tibet a bunch of quaint hippy-types that like some kind of simple life despite the persecution and death they have faced? Are the Jewish people that have moved back to Israel doing so because it is the best place to live and there are better jobs there? Is India one country or did it split into primarily Hindu and Muslim states despite Gandhi’s wish that it would remain united? Did Cassie Bernall deny her faith so she would be spared the bullet in the massacre at Columbine? Would our great nation's founding fathers defy death to do what they did if they did not believe it was the will of God that America came to be a united republic? Please do not dismiss what you do not yet understand. I challenge you to seek out why so many people and cultures believe in a god rather than spend all your efforts convincing them otherwise.

Ask the people at Santhome Cathedral in Chennai, India that have old mosaics documenting what “Doubting” Thomas the Apostle did in the year 72 that caused them to believe. Their church was spared when the Tsunamis hit a few years back. There is a legendary post that Thomas claimed the flood waters would never cross, and miraculously it did not. Wow, only a fool would believe in such mumbo-jumbo, right? I wonder why they believe in such stories. It is their faith that allows them to believe.

I'm not going to try to prove to you what Jesus did when he was here. The stories of what he did were passed down from the eye-witnesses through many generations of believers. What Christians do is to test the “fruits” of the spirit. The eye witnesses were given more than the gift of faith so that they could spread the good news. Most of them were simple folk like fishermen that would never have had the courage to speak to the educated Greek philosophers or the citizens of Rome, and yet they did, otherwise why did those people adopt Christianity as their own? There are many spiritual gifts beside faith and no one has them all. You are on your own life's path, and perhaps until now there has been nothing to help you believe in the unseen. I hope you will at least open your mind to other possibilities, and keep searching for the truth.

I am sorry you do not have the gift of faith to believe. Yes, of course without it you would not understand. Many that finally get faith to believe explain the experience like their eyes being opened for the first time.

It was easy when Jesus walked the Earth because he performed many miracles that people were able to observe with their own eyes. They did not need much faith to believe because they had their proof. Even someone as close to Jesus as Thomas the Apostle did not believe until he was able to put his fingers in his wounds. For the first 300 years of the early Church all Christians regularly performed miracles in his name. It was much easier to believe in God during that time, and of course early Christianity spread rapidly.

I myself have had my own experience which proves to me that God does indeed exist. It would be like observing some scientific phenomenon which I cannot recreate, and only I witness. Would other scientists believe me? Probably not. I wish that you have some experience someday that helps you to believe. To the unbeliever there is nothing physical that proves anything of spiritual nature, but the believer–once awakened–sees small miracles that happen every day. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.

Well it is not clear to me that the author believes in no god, even though he may. He may just disagree with what kind of god he thinks exists and abhor religion. As for myself, I do not believe in any gods, not because of what some religious person does but because I have not been convinced that it's actually true. I find the evidence to be insufficient to support the claims. Regardless, both the author and I can judge the dogma of the religion on it's own merit. I judge the ideas expressed within the religion itself, not just some individual or the supposed god.

I never understand what people are thinking when they say you need to have a relationship with a god. I was a Christian for quite some time in the past, and I was trying to do all these things like have a relationship with their god, but he never came to me and I never heard him, it was just me talking to myself or trying to interpret things in the natural world for something he's trying to tell me, both things I could do without him actually existing.

Hmm, not sure what you mean by spirit. I know there's the body and then there's the mind, a product of the body, but I don't know where the spirit is. And you could study the brain and the parts that are active during certain functions and know which part performs the functions that give us the ability for moral reasoning or a conscience, like the anterior prefrontal cortex. And people can have a different sense of conscience than you, but they do not just become a sociopath from not listening to what you think it should be telling them. Just look up psychopathy or sociopathy on wiki for more info.

Stuff like your last two paragraphs is largely gibberish to me or just people who don't believe in general. We don't think there is good evidence to suppose that it's true. Just imagine someone telling you that you have to balance your chakras to achieve true peace and happiness. It's just white noise.

You can think that not respecting ideas is dehumanizing all you want, and you have the right to think that but I have no obligation under the Constitution to treat that idea with respect and give it more merit than it deserves.

NO, some opinions and beliefs are better than others. If someone wants to respect an opinion or belief they can, but we have no OBLIGATION to do so, and if you end up on the fringe of society because you hold a belief that most people find reprehensible or moronic that's just how it is. This not happening is not guaranteed by the Constitution.

Here's an example that hopefully you can understand. Let's say a Senator of CA makes a statement saying something like 'Though I think all races and genders deserve the same rights, I think white males are more intelligent and productive than Hispanics, Blacks, or women.' Do you think he will be re-elected? Isn't it his freedom to hold that opinion? Do we have to respect it and pretend it's equally valid when it's time for another election? Chances are people will not like his opinion and challenge him on it and not vote for him or hang out with him or put him in positions of authority (being pushed to the fringe). The same goes for someone who believes that they were abducted by aliens and took a ride on a ship into space and got probed.

Nobody is telling you that you can't be religious or hold a belief like the Senator or the person saying they were abducted by aliens, but it's my right to say they are completely idiotic and asinine beliefs and I don't have to pretend they aren't as stupid as they are just because you have the right to believe them.

You can think that not respecting ideas is dehumanizing all you want, and you have the right to think that but I have no obligation under the Constitution to treat that idea with respect and give it more merit than it deserves.

NO, some opinions and beliefs are better than others. If someone wants to respect an opinion or belief they can, but we have no OBLIGATION to do so, and if you end up on the fringe of society because you hold a belief that most people find reprehensible or moronic that's just how it is. This not happening is not guaranteed by the Constitution.

Here's an example that hopefully you can understand. Let's say a Senator of CA makes a statement saying something like 'Though I think all races and genders deserve the same rights, I think white males are more intelligent and productive than Hispanics, Blacks, or women.' Do you think he will be re-elected? Isn't it his freedom to hold that opinion? Do we have to respect it and pretend it's equally valid when it's time for another election? Chances are people will not like his opinion and challenge him on it and not vote for him or hang out with him or put him in positions of authority (being pushed to the fringe). The same goes for someone who believes that they were abducted by aliens and took a ride on a ship into space and got probed.

Nobody is telling you that you can't be religious or hold a belief like the Senator or the person saying they were abducted by aliens, but it's my right to say they are completely idiotic and asinine beliefs and I don't have to pretend they aren't as stupid as they are just because you have the right to believe them.