But I don't believe and I don't know. No one knows. That's why I'm an agnostic atheist. The only way you could KNOW is either you met god or you are a god yourself.
I know, and I am not God.
Let's take a different approach from the ones you offer, that of faith. Do you know the story of Moses whose eyes had to be shielded when God passed directly in front of him? Some read this story as a revelation about God--that God is seen best in hindsight; His presence, when directly in front of us, "blinds" us, as God is too bright to be seen. Sometimes we see in hindsight; perhaps because He is the expert in, "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing," sometimes it seems all He leaves behind are His fingerprints.
What we know is that it is extremely difficult to prove God's existence in the physical dimension--the dimension that science can help explain. But is the physical dimension the only dimension? Some think there are indications that their are more dimensions than the one in which we exist.
It is also my understanding that the physical never ceases to exist--it may change form and substance, but it does not blink out of existence. If this is so, than all the matter we see now may have always been in existence. Let's switch from physical objects to the spiritual. Note, that we can classify the physical as 'matter'. Is it possible we can do the same for the spiritual? If we can, I would say for the physical, we have matter. For the spiritual, we have life, but perhaps more precisely, love. Is matter and love such an unbelievable/unknowable combination?
Just some more or less random thoughts...not provable in the physical world, of course, but perhaps knowable all the same?
Is the physical dimension the only dimension? No. Does that prove a god exists? No. Philosophers have asked the same questions you have just asked for thousands of years.
The story of Moses? Isn't that the story my uneducated 90 year old Grandmother told me when I was a kid? And who told her? Her very uneducated parents, etc keep going back thousands of years. First of all, I didn't really believe all that stuff she told me. I know a lot of kids did but a lot of us sit there scratching our internal heads.
And that Moses story is a story they came up with on how to explain why no one has ever seen god before. That's what chief cave man told the others in his clan when someone called bullshit on his story.
We also at one point thought the sun was god. See why today god is too bright to look at? Please evolve or grow up.
It's not difficult to prove god's existence. It's impossible because he doesn't exist.
Last thing. I watched a show last night where they talked about coming up with co2 and h2o and helium and nitrogen and hot air balloons. The night before they talked about the invention of glass. In the 1700's they thought everything was god or magic. We don't believe in magic anymore. In every single case where our dumb ancestors thought it was either magic or god, science has proven otherwise. Overtime your god has gotten smaller and smaller. Each time we fill a gap. Its called God of the Gaps. But you need no proof so it would be impossible to convince you no matter how much evidence I give because you choose to believe.
Using ‘god’ to explain something explains nothing. God’s supposed powers and how they work are a mystery. An explanation is intended to clarify and extend knowledge. Attributing a phenomenon to the magical powers of a supernatural being does neither. Worse still, this presumption acts to prevent any deeper investigation, being little more than a form of blissful ignorance.
It appears we may be on two different trains of thought. If it took a creator to create matter (as opposed to matter always being), I envision the Creator beginning with dust--and letting physics take over from there.
The next question is how did life come to innate matter, and we are told it was breathed into us from another living being. This makes sense as life begets life. Our bodies came from matter and will return to matter. What about our spirit?
Some believe it just blinks out. Others believe that much like the body returns to the earth from which it came, our spirit returns to the spirit from which it came. We believe this Spirit is knowable, and that people of all ages, down through the ages, can learn about the spiritual just as we have been able to learn about the material.
And so does the spirit in a frog.
Also, please tell me what created god. Why can't matter be eternal? And instead of admitting we just don't know, why say "must be a god"?
It/we/everything you see exist because we just do. Or I don't know. Great to wonder but to come up with "must be a god" is ignorant. Sorry.
And is it really necessary or does it matter if something created us? I'm not asking Christians, Muslims & Jews. I know they think it does. I'm asking people who believe in generic god. Do people who believe in generic god also think that people need to believe or else? I disagree and even if, a lie is a lie no matter how good you think it is or how good it makes you feel. And I know you guys aren't lying. You truly believe. I get that. So lets call it, from my standpoint an untruth.
Using ‘god’ to explain something explains nothing. An explanation is intended to clarify and extend knowledge. Attributing a phenomenon to the magical powers of a supernatural being does neither. Worse still, this presumption acts to prevent any deeper investigation, being little more than a form of blissful ignorance.