Why can't atheists understand that personal testimony IS evidence?

Because they see God as a special case situation, in which evidence only counts as evidence of it points toward God not existing. I guarantee you, if 20 people offered personal testimony that there is a baboon running around loose in centre Central Park in New York, they would, at the very least, allow for the possibility that it's true, even with no other evidence. But no evidence is ever going to be enough to convince an atheist to even consider the possibility that God exists, and this is so inconsistent with how people think, and the way evidence works, that they have no choice but to claim it's not real evidence.

It is not 'testable' evidence.
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For all those claiming personal belief as "proof" - Friedrich Nietzsche summed it up best, "A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."

That is called 'hearsay', and is never valid evidence. When will theists figure this very simple concept out for themselves. That would save you a lot of embarrassment, if you have enough sense to be embarrassed by such foolishness.

Ask your god for the location of missing Malaysian flight MH370.

All we need is a lat-long coordinate.
 

Then you must accept personal testimony from people of ALL religions and non-religions, which you refuse to do.

You only accept personal testimony of people who believe exactly like you do as evidence. You dismiss the testimony of Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and atheists as invalid.

You are a hypocrite.

It's probably because atheists actually have at least two functioning brain cells and can spot stupid ignorant dumb@$$ lying cult doctrine with eyes closed and both hands tied behind their backs. Rolls eyes

Personal testimony is experiential.

People cannot experience what someone else has experienced.

Personal Testimony is only opinion and anecdote. Neither one is evidence.

Personal experience is evidence for a person.
Testimony about personal experience
is just something someone says.
There is no way to confirm its veracity.
Try going into any court trial and get
"I have a feeling about something"
admitted into evidence.

--
Regards,

John Popelish

The mother goddess told me that you are full of BS.

SO that is proof that you are full of BS.

>Pray to God and you will get that experience, but it might not be immediately after you pray.
Did that for 20+ years. Still nothing.

And yes, personal testimony is evidence, but it's not very convincing evidence. Consider how many testimonials you would need to be convinced that Superman was real. Then consider that all the testimonials you're hearing don't match up and are from people who admittedly never saw Superman but only felt he was there or heard about him from someone else. How many testimonials would you need then? Now remind yourself that your God is even more unbelievable that Superman.

"Why can't atheists understand that personal testimony IS evidence?"

Oh. For this one simple fact: it isn't

People's opinions or perceptions are NOT evidence. Genuine evidence is tangible and independent of human mental processes.

The only thing that personal testimony evidences is that the person interpreted some thoughts in a particular way. It is certainly not evidence that any of the thoughts are true.

Christians, or for that matters any religious person, see what they hope to see, feel what they hope to feel and that is their god is with them.
A case in point. I once took leave to enjoy a day with my wife. But my wife’s sister called at the last minute and told my wife she needed to go to hospital. My wife asked me if we can forgo our outing so as to take her sister to the hospital instead. I was okay with it. We drove her there, accompanied her a good long time there in the hospital, practically wasted my one day leave and drove her home. To make a long story short, she thanked her god. Her god was not with her, we were. Her god did not made it convenient for her to go to the hospital, we did. But her god gets the credit, not us.
Christians can justify anything they want that it is their god’s work that saved the day. And when things turned out bad, it’s Satan the devil’s work. This is Christian’s personal testimony.

It's not legitimate evidence, because it is totally subjective. For it to be legit as evidence, YOUR personal testimony would have to convince any other OBJECTIVE individual who is NOT YOU. The problem is that any yingyang can claim to have had "an experience," but hell, people lie or are self-deluded all the time. Without any kind of objective, independent verification & confirmation, that personal testimony--by itself--is insufficient. And if you are gonna try to claim that it only works if we already believe, then that doesn't count as evidence at all--it'd be more like magical, New Age wishful thinking.

Evidence of what.? It is merely evidence that the person giving personal testimony likely believes what they are saying.. but it certainly is not evidence of the existence of a deity. .

Does this apply to Satan too?

Or is Satan not a "PERSONAL god"?

If no, then where's the testable evidence of him?

Oh, you're funny but not in a good way. More like in a sad way.

10,000 people prayed to god today to not let them die....but they did or will anyways....1000 children will pray to god today not to let them be molested...it will happen anyways......5000 wives and children will pray today for their abuse to stop....will happen anywys......

One hopes that you're aware that sometimes people lie. If all we have is your word, how can we tell if you're lying or not?

Oh yeah, it 100% is court admissible evidence.

It's just not very reliable evidence.

I could tell you that in my personal experience I have three arms. But what gives me any credibility? You're still going to presume I just have two arms, like a normal person.

That's why I don't believe you. You're telling me something that I find REALLY hard to believe, like that I have three arms.

No it's not.

Evidence isn't evidence if it can't be repeated, falsified and peer reviewed. The plural of anecdote is not data.

please send me the $1000000 you owe me
i can personally testify my invisible friend says that you owe me the money but you can't ever meet him
but i'm sure that won't stop you from sending me the money

If so, keep your personal god out of our public lives....

Apparently most Theists do not understand what a belief actually is and that if "evidence" was present it would be a science or minimally a theory. Many gods have had believers present testimonies so your logic would prove that all gods have existed but only in the minds of their believers.

By that reasoning, the giant invisible rabbit that talks to my friend and tells him what to do is real. It's a personal reality. The medications help but my friend still still KNOWS the rabbit is real.

I concede that it may count as evidence for the person who thinks they experience a god. But it will be evidence ONLY FOR THAT PERSON.

Two more points to consider here:
1. Many atheists, me included, are former believers. We did pray but consider the experiences we might have had not of divine nature.
2. While very many believers claim to experience their gods, this is true for adherents of CONFLICTING FAITHS! What do you make of that?

False. I am GOD. MY evidence is my testimony.

Now go suck a dick, GOD commands it!!

If I told you I could fly, should you take my word on it ?

But it isnt, what about those kids in the Salem and other witch trials they were all 'testifying' FALSE evidence in order to stitch up folks that had nothing to do with witchcraft yet they were believed and even praised for their treacherous lying on the stand.

edit. 1 kid even testified that her own mother was a witch... I mean how treacherous can your own offspring get...?

Why?
Well, personal testimony is evidence of a personal God. Millions of people have a personal relationship with God. Many have had a vision, or witnessed a miracle. Many are comforted in times of grief or death by their personal God. These facts are not in dispute.

Is this mountain of evidence for a personal god solid proof that God is a being who created the universe? Eh...ummm.....no, we can’t make a logical leap from a to b. We can make an illogical leap from a to b, though. Surely you see the difference in accepting evidence for a personal God and accepting evidence for an extant being who created everything

Luv u.

There are people who can give personal testimony that Buddhism, Islam, Voudon ( Voodoo), Islam and various other Gods and Goddesses have caused great changes in people's lives. Do you accept THAT as evidence of the validity of THOSE Belief Systems?

Oh, I just realized. It all makes sense now. All Gods are real. All mythical monsters/animals are real. Alien abductions are real. Horoscopes are real, that miracle cream really works, Psychics are real, Homeopathy is real, etc... If personal testimony is real then Big foot, loch ness monster, faeries, gnomes, and countless other things are now real and since personal testimony is evidence we finally have proof of these things. Good Going you solved the problem for all these things, now go collect your Nobel Prize. You deserve it.

CUZ they cannot understand something they never did or even tried to do..

Why can't religious nuts understand that feelings are not evidence.

So, therefore Hinduism, Islam, Rastafarianism and all the other religions also have the same evidence to support them. So why haven't you joined the Rastafarians?

OK. This is my testimony: I have lunch with the historical Socrates yesterday and he has left me his stash of gold.

There is no god try praying away your pathetic deluded life

is it? the god shows himself in dreams and is very vivid , whats the diference betwen lucidmdream?

whats makes you say that ndes arent mind products because of sleep deprivation when it is documented thst when the brain is ready to die itmreleases a certain chemical called dmt to make you hallucinate and have pleasent experiences like heaven and whatever you believe like souls of dead relatives?

testimonys do count has evidence but only if they know what they are talking about

Atheistards sure believe in their own imaginary nonsense.

Why can't atheists understand that personal testimony IS evidence?

- So Elvis really does visit my Aunt three times a week at night as her testimony says.

God is a PERSONAL god, so he has to prove himself to you personally by giving you an experience of him.

- And yet you scream it on street corners and lie under oath in court to for that "personal god" onto everyone.

Evidence of what a person thinks or feels is not evidence of anything else. I believe that you feel some sensation that you interpret as "the holy spirit." Your interpretation is based upon something that someone told you about something that someone told them.... Placebo effect, self-fulfilling prophecy and simple error in judgement are better explanations for your feeling, all falling within the realm of possibilities with the known laws of physics. Wanting to believe something can make you believe it. It can not make it true and that really is unfortunate. How much easier life would be if the answers to the BIG questions were so simple. How nice it would be to reunite with loved ones who have died. How comforting it would be if reward and punishment were assured. A choice to believe all that is settling for ignorance. The lack of curiosity among the religious is astounding.

Pride.

Atheists believe aliens exist but not God,hypocritical. http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/atheists-are-more-likely-believe-aliens-why

Why haven't you paid me back that $20 you owe me?~

LAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So atheists personal evidence should convert you to atheism then should it not?!!!!

Sadly people like you ridicule Christianity!

God can't be measured or quantified so trying to 'prove' He exists according to atheists standards is impossible. If God created EVERYTHING that exists, then He is beyond any means we can ever have to reveal Him except that we find Him through personal faith, which can only be measured by devotion, which they would label as 'delusion' it is an argument you cannot win.

2 answers · Religion & Spirituality
Answers
Very well. Here is my personal testimony.

I was hatched, thirty years ago, at a raven sanctuary. Being an inquisitive little bird, I learned to fly quite rapidly, then how to escape from my cage. But little did I know that the sanctuary was only a quarter of a mile from the now decommissioned Trojan Nuclear Power Plant. I didn't even know what a power plant was.

What I did know was that there was a large building with a lot of people, and I remembered I liked people. So I investigated. And I managed to sneak in to the power plant, unnoticed. Somehow, I got into the pressurized water reactor, and got a dose of radiation.

And that is how I became what I am today, a sapient raven capable of typing and speech, with a penchant for top hats.

Do you believe my personal testimony?

-Corvus Blackthorne

A lot of these people don't want God to exist so they will never accept any evidence even if it hits them right between the old eye..balls.

Evidence....yes. Proof....no. Logic demands there can be no proof, either way
To disprove God one needs to know everything
A god that was within the grasp of a finite mind would, plainly, not be God.
One can only weigh up the evidence. Minds such as Neeton, Kepler, Boyle did just that and were convinced Christians

A personal statement that someone saw something happen IS evidence in law...and can result in punishment.

i agree with the question

There have been a few that had believed in GOD and left to Atheism. I have asked some why? Each had Sins they wanted to break and think they still could get away with it! Claimed If they did Not believe in GOD they would not sin; yet Sinning they are!

Personal testimony is evidence in any court of law when you have enough people that step up to the bench and all tell the same story without cooperating with each other first the judge considers that hardcore evidence.

Friend you have absolutely Millions upon Millions of Christians that will tell you similar stories without talking to each other first why do all their stories match when they haven't talked to each other first?

It's because they're actually experiencing what they're talking about! I really really feel sorry for atheism they're missing out on a true Miracle of Life communicating with the Creator that made us all and many Christians are doing this on a daily basis look at Jehovah's Christian Witnesses how do you think that Jehovah's Witnesses are all studying the exact same book on the same page in the same paragraph all over the world at the exact same meeting they don't have radios and TVs to tell them what to do they have God's spirit!