Atheists - What would evidence for God be like?

Well, for example, showing that people who get prayed for have significantly better chances to recover and less complications.

Or the usual stuff described in holy books. You know, pillar of fire, a booming voice proclaiming stuff, raining fire on his altar, giving his prophets the power to do supernatural stuff, healing cripples or even better, healing amputees.

Ooh, good question, and not one with an easy answer.

I suppose the simplest answer would be qualitative observations we can make that would be less likely under a random system guided by simple rules, than it would be explainable by the whims of god. Before you jump in with examples, beware that this characterisation contains many pitfalls.

The primary pitfall is intuition. God provides a very naively intuitive explanation for the things happening around us. It's a known and documented psychological effect for people to see intelligence where there is none (e.g. conspiracy theories), so the idea that there is someone controlling the big mysterious world is not a tough concept to grasp. I mean, all that beauty must come from somewhere, right?

Take, for example, the big bang. We've never seen anything just spring into existence spontaneously. Before there was nothing, then there was everything! Surely this is more satisfactorily explained by a deity?

Well, not necessarily. A lot of the reason behind why people don't believe in the big bang, is that they can't wrap their heads around the fact that, according to the theory, there is no such thing as "before" the big bang. For example, people can ask: "Why did the universe just suddenly start then?". Well, it started at the beginning of time. When else would it start? We cannot conceive of a moment which has no preceding moments, so the idea of the universe having an abrupt start is not one we easily warm to. So, I wouldn't take the beginning of the universe, necessarily, as evidence of God.

I think what would ultimately provide strong evidence for god would be consistent, purposeful, verifiable, but genuine miracles. These miracles would have to break the usual laws of nature, and would ultimately have to be ultimately consistent with some kind of predictable moral structure. In such a world, there would be no problem of evil for example, because the god would bend the laws of nature to eliminate evil. Of course, God could present himself the human race, but we would also have to verify that he is a god, which requires more of the above evidence.

Good questions, for me since I know the universe came from the big bang, and everything come out of that naturally, then i would have to say that the only logical god that could exist is one that created the big bang, and if that is all he did then there is no need to worship him because as i said and science can prove, everything after that came about naturally. So if all god did create the big bang, then he will not care whether we believe in him or not.

This question should read:

Christians- what evidence of god do you have? Since they have the burden of proof.

especially for a god that they believe can intervene in the natural world.

Something that I would consider evidence? God physically appearing and actually carrying on a conversation with me. Then after he passes a simple test, I'll start believing.

Why should I be expected to believe from pure hearsay, when Thomas (who hung around the guy) asked & received physical touchable proof?

Any number of things, though you would likely need multiple pieces of evidence to really determine the exact nature of something.

The being showing up and allowing empirical testing would be the easiest.

I'm quite easy on this. How about a few second transmission across all media. just to say hello.

Can a god harness the power of radio TV and the web in one go?

You know how science is getting it's evidence right?

In that same scientific way you should prove God exists, and if it the scientific method would prove there is a God and there haven't been made any flaws in that particular research, then you have your evidence.

A god would know.

Whichever god, goddess, or gods that were "real" could show themselves to everyone.

Excellent question. The kind of evidence Atheists demand should be in line with the characteristics Theists attribute to their Gods, so if God cannot be seen, Atheists shouldn't expect to see God to believe in him.