A hypothetical question, especially for the atheists and skeptics in the audience...

[MagunBFP]

I'm sorry OP. Frankly I agree that your question actually would benefit from answers from atheists, but apparently some people can't avoid the urge to be contradictory or irritating.

Why? Thats like saying to a Christian... "If something proved the Christian faith to be false, what do you think it would be?"

Back on topic though... God/Gods have always been the crutch humanity has used in the face of something they don't understand or that has spectacularly not gone their way, so pretty much the OPs question is what has happened in the history of everything that you don't understand so might foreseeable attribute to a god. I have several of these events, but I'll just settle for two. I believe Thor was responsible for the devastation caused by "Hurricane Katrina", and I think either Aphrodite or Eros was responsible for the chick I asked out last week saying no (I'm awesome, seriously what other explanation is there?)

 

[LiberalSquirrel]

As an atheist, I feel as though I have somehow failed by not being offended by this question. I think it's actually an interesting hypothetical.

So I vote for Rasputin. The man (supposedly) survived being poisoned, shot repeatedly, beaten, and tossed in an icy river. He died from drowning. That's pretty intense.

 

[Candlejack000]

What makes me believe that there is either some higher power is science itself. That is to say that the law of conservation of energy/mass teaches that mass can not be created or destroyed only changed, but the only explanation that scientists can come up with for how the universe came into existence is that all mass was concentrated in one tiny point in space which than exploded. So in my mind something must have created that matter.

 

[Caiphus]

Ooof, I don't know about finding God in human history. Most of the stuff in history is pretty damn depressing and ugly.

In the natural world, perhaps in wonders like the Great Barrier Reef? Maybe the complexity of the human brain. All those are pretty impressive, I dunno.

It's difficult to answer, because I don't look at those things and think "Wow, God must have put them there" or even "Maybe God put them there". Although there are people that do, and it makes them happy so yay I suppose. But it's difficult to artificially switch to that mindset.

Edit: After thinking about it, I would have to pick the near-extinction and desperate survival of homo sapiens:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080424-humans-extinct.html

Although that might be stretching "human history"

 

[Compatriot Block]

I'm sorry OP. Frankly I agree that your question actually would benefit from answers from atheists, but apparently some people can't avoid the urge to be contradictory or irritating.

Why? Thats like saying to a Christian... "If something proved the Christian faith to be false, what do you think it would be?"

Back on topic though... God/Gods have always been the crutch humanity has used in the face of something they don't understand or that has spectacularly not gone their way, so pretty much the OPs question is what has happened in the history of everything that you don't understand so might foreseeable attribute to a god. I have several of these events, but I'll just settle for two. I believe Thor was responsible for the devastation caused by "Hurricane Katrina", and I think either Aphrodite or Eros was responsible for the chick I asked out last week saying no (I'm awesome, seriously what other explanation is there?)

No it's really not. And your spectacular arrogance in reducing people's faith to a "crutch" is not beneficial to your appearance.

A better analogy would be asking a Christian, "If you were an atheist, what would your strongest/most personally important reason be?"

 

[Gormech]

Okay, here we go ...

Let's take the Christian Bible (king James version for simplicity).
The first book of the text is that of Genesis.
The first few chapters start on how everything was created.
Now, try using these words as a sort of direction in drawing the Flower of Life symbol that is supposed to show how everything is in existance.
I like to think of this as the basic template that our world is coded in. *cue Matrix reference.
Now the fun stuff ...
Time/Gravity/Speed are all related so in the first few books, 1 day = ???years.
When God said for there to be light, that was the Big Bang sending everything moving really fast.
Things slow down, 1 day = less years than before.
Garden of Eden is made of 'trees' that are branches of evolution.
Man being forced out of the Garden is our breaking away from the process.
Forced out for eating the fruit of knowledge, we started using tools, lead to above.
Dinosaurs were the 'beasts of the field' mentioned in the later books.
Possibly the Leviathan and Behemoth shown during the 10 commandments part were as well.
God is a programmer, he knows the code but we are in a program that is being run.
The book of Life is the results page.
All the stuff in the Old testament ended up being a loose guide on how to
survive as a species.
The stuff with Jesus is the result of us failing so bad that the only way to counter the
negatives is to offset them with an ultimatum.
Part of the free will thing is that we have to be the ones to accept the tradeoff.

Might add more later.

 

[NoeL]

Tides come in, tides go out. Never a miscommunication. I, as an atheist, just can't explain that. Therefore God.

 

[Xdeser2]

Personally, I'd say the fact that this planet is exactly the right distance away from a star that is exactly the right size for water to form, and then the fact that in said water the right elements came into contact in the right way, in the right amount to form compounds that could reproduce themselves. And from there, those compounds became more complex to the point they formed cells, and those cells formed systems that worked well together, and from that point everything happened exactly at the right moments for humans to emerge.

Sure, the above is grossly oversimplified, but its food for thought. Or rotten food to be thrown away if you just want to say it was all random (Which, to be fair is an equally, if not even more, fascinating concept to ponder).

 

[Knife]

No it's really not. And your spectacular arrogance in reducing people's faith to a "crutch" is not beneficial to your appearance.

A better analogy would be asking a Christian, "If you were an atheist, what would your strongest/most personally important reason be?"

Well, if you care to read the OP a second time you'll see it's more like "What would be your strongest/most personally important reason to be an atheist". And assuming you have no such reason, it would be impossible to answer the question. The problem here isn't that atheists are incapable of answering hypothetical questions, it's just VERY BAD phrasing by the OP. He meant A and wrote down B, and we were trying to answer B and failing, because B has no answer.

 

[Joccaren]

A better analogy would be asking a Christian, "If you were an atheist, what would your strongest/most personally important reason be?"

Actually, no, his analogy is better.
At no point does the OP state "If you believed in the supernatural". In fact, its implying it wants you to NOT believe in the supernatural [As implied by the "Especially for atheists/skeptics" line in the title] and answer the question of what has is most likely supernatural.
Yours is just completely from nowhere. It has a "If you were [another party]", and "Why would you be [other party]".
Both his and the OPs are "If you were forced to give an answer" "What would you say that is not compatible with your beliefs".
It is honestly saying what do you believe is most likely to disprove your beliefs. If it were reworded to a better hypothetical where the hypothetical isn't that you are being forced to answer, but that you do not hold your current beliefs, then it might be more answerable.
As is, as many people have pointed out, our atheist/skeptic beliefs place the odds of the supernatural/divine being involved in any incident as 0. We are asked what is the most likely to be supernatural/divine caused. ALL things have 0 probability. Hence, nothing is in any way likely, and nothing is most likely; all are equally likely as being certainly not supernatural/divine influenced.

What makes me believe that there is either some higher power is science itself. That is to say that the law of conservation of energy/mass teaches that mass can not be created or destroyed only changed, but the only explanation that scientists can come up with for how the universe came into existence is that all mass was concentrated in one tiny point in space which than exploded. So in my mind something must have created that matter.

What created the thing that created that matter?
Its just adding a middle man.
The answer Christians would give to this situation is "God created the singularity before the big bang" [Assuming they believe in the big bang].
The question that stems from this is what created god?
At some point there is something that has to have existed without something else to create it. Why this has to be a deity and not simply the universe/singularity-before-the-universe is beyond me.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The extinction of the Dinosaurs. That was clearly caused by Q when he was bored.

Ah, but the question is: Which Q?

Do you know of another one that'd cause the extinction of the Dinosaurs for his amusement?

[http://s410.photobucket.com/user/canadiansaiyan/media/Q_2372_zpse28eb6b8.jpg.html]

 

[WouldYouKindly]

Most likely I will never say. More likely seemingly divine sounds a lot less definite.

First, it's not going to be something people did or had a large influence in. People doing ANYTHING is not divine.

You know what? That lady who survived a freefall from truly ridiculous heights. Seriously, if there's anyone who had an honest to goodness impervious reason in believing there was a benevolent God watching over her, it was that lady.

 

[Candlejack000]

What makes me believe that there is either some higher power is science itself. That is to say that the law of conservation of energy/mass teaches that mass can not be created or destroyed only changed, but the only explanation that scientists can come up with for how the universe came into existence is that all mass was concentrated in one tiny point in space which than exploded. So in my mind something must have created that matter.

What created the thing that created that matter?
Its just adding a middle man.
The answer Christians would give to this situation is "God created the singularity before the big bang" [Assuming they believe in the big bang].
The question that stems from this is what created god?
At some point there is something that has to have existed without something else to create it. Why this has to be a deity and not simply the universe/singularity-before-the-universe is beyond me.

If someone far smarter than me can explain how the universe just pooped into being I may very well give up on higher powers existing. Until then I chose to believe in a non-interfering deity because to accept that the universe simply came into being messes up a huge part of my understanding of the world. Once the universe can exist from nothing then so could anything. So instead of evolving from apes a group of humans large enough to sustain a population just appeared on the Earth, after all while we may be living and intelligent we are made mass just like the self-creating universe.

 

[Knife]

If you were forced to choose some person, place, thing, or event throughout all of human history as "most likely to have been the result of supernatural or divine influence (christian or otherwise)", what would it be?

No, you aren't allowed to choose "nothing, because I don't believe in that shit" as the whole point is to see what people end up picking when forced to actually choose, and that isn't an answer, it's a refusal to answer.

Reading some of the comments on this thread I came to realise that what you wrote and what you meant may have been 2 different things. That is to say your phrasing sucks and that's why you're getting unwanted answers (that may seem like unwillingness to participate in hypothetical discussion).

Your question if I now understand it correctly should be something like this:
"If you believed in the supernatural, what person, place, thing, or event throughout all of human history would have most likely been the result of supernatural or divine influence (christian or otherwise)"

I suggest you edit your OP.

Captcha: more chocolate

The gods of captcha demand more chocolate sacrifice.

 

[MagunBFP]

Why? Thats like saying to a Christian... "If something proved the Christian faith to be false, what do you think it would be?"

No it's really not. And your spectacular arrogance in reducing people's faith to a "crutch" is not beneficial to your appearance.

A better analogy would be asking a Christian, "If you were an atheist, what would your strongest/most personally important reason be?"

In regards to my arrogance, people agreeing that something they don't know or understand much have been caused by an agency that is both all powerful and unknowable is pretty much my definition of a crutch. I didn't mean to drink until I blacked out, the devil made me do it... OMG that city was wiped off the map obviously god punished them for their lack of faith, etc, etc.

You pose a question that is similar but doesn't really capture the same as the flavour as the OPs

If you were forced to choose some person, place, thing, or event throughout all of human history as "most likely to have been the result of supernatural or divine influence (christian or otherwise)", what would it be?

There is no "if you were someone else" or other condition it's simply "you have to choose something somewhere and say god was responsible and you can't say that god was responsible for nothing, so atheist what event do you think the god/supernatural agency that you don't believe in was responsible for?" in otherwords, "atheist, deny your belief and attribute something to the divine"

 

[Adventurer2626]

I guess just the existence of everything if I had to choose. I don't believe in anything "outside" the universe or reality. Nothing "super"natural. I think that everything is a part of the same thing and anything that seems unusual or incomprehensible is just missing context or we are applying the wrong rules. The closest I've got is the question of why everything is here. Why it's the way it is and not another way.

 

[balladbird]

I'm sorry OP. Frankly I agree that your question actually would benefit from answers from atheists, but apparently some people can't avoid the urge to be contradictory or irritating.

Why? Thats like saying to a Christian... "If something proved the Christian faith to be false, what do you think it would be?"

Not really. that analogue is emotionally charged, because one can assume that, for a christian, their religion is an important part of who they are, and thus asking them to respond to something that proves a part of themselves false is an act designed to irritate them. If someone is a skeptic or an Atheist and claims to be so for the sake of being reasonable, they shouldn't be so emotionally attached to the non-existence of god that OP's question is ANYTHING like the one you described.

Skeptics and Atheists are always saying that their way of thinking is based on reason, and thus not analogous to religious zeal, that would see them hold fast to beliefs even when logic showed that they were wrong.

Honestly, the responses in this thread are the reason I can't be bothered to associate with organized atheists or the online atheist community. Getting so indignant at being asked a hypothetical question is proof that you're really not so different from the religious people you look down on.

"If, hypothetically, rationality were reversed, and you were in a situation where it was reasonable for even yourself to assume that divine intervention or an otherwise illogical situation were responsible, that is, that there was evidence at hand to support such a theory, what kind of situation would it be?"

this isn't a question it's impossible for any skeptic or atheist to answer, unless they're so emotional about their way of thinking as to make it indistinguishable from religious passion. I advise people who feel this way to do some self reflection. remember that indignation is an emotion, and if you really want to serve the advance of logic and reason, you're better served to do so with as little emotional attachment to facts as possible. After all, the paradigms of rational thought shift frequently.

As to the OP, well, I don't know if I really count as an atheist, or as an agnostic with misotheistic tendencies, but to hell with semantics!

Hitler's career definitely gets a nod from me. How does such a simple, imbecile of a man. A horrid tactician, subpar politician, and pedestrian writer, find all the coincidences and good fortunes necessary to unite vastly more competent people beneath him, enjoy nearly 2 years of unbroken victories, both military and political, and survive hundreds of assassination attempts? if I were to wager on divine intervention, it'd be there.

More optimistically, I've always been inspired by stories that showcase the strength of the human will. Men like Benkei the warrior monk, or Dian Wei of Cao Han, individuals who were so single-mindedly determined to accomplish their goal that they continued to fight even after sustaining wounds that guaranteed they were dead on their feet. I'd like to think that such tales are proof that free will and personality can transcend the bounds of life that contain them... but alas, my disposition doesn't allow me to think such a thing.

 

[Resetti's_Replicas]

To answer the OP's question: Smart rational well-educated adults believing in the most anti-scientific thing you could possibly imagine.

 

[MagunBFP]

What makes me believe that there is either some higher power is science itself. That is to say that the law of conservation of energy/mass teaches that mass can not be created or destroyed only changed, but the only explanation that scientists can come up with for how the universe came into existence is that all mass was concentrated in one tiny point in space which than exploded. So in my mind something must have created that matter.

What created the thing that created that matter?
Its just adding a middle man.
The answer Christians would give to this situation is "God created the singularity before the big bang" [Assuming they believe in the big bang].
The question that stems from this is what created god?
At some point there is something that has to have existed without something else to create it. Why this has to be a deity and not simply the universe/singularity-before-the-universe is beyond me.

If someone far smarter than me can explain how the universe just pooped into being I may very well give up on higher powers existing. Until then I chose to believe in a non-interfering deity because to accept that the universe simply came into being messes up a huge part of my understanding of the world. Once the universe can exist from nothing then so could anything. So instead of evolving from apes a group of humans large enough to sustain a population just appeared on the Earth, after all while we may be living and intelligent we are made mass just like the self-creating universe.

So because you don't know better you believe a supernatural entity was responsible for stuff? Before you understood how electricity works did you think magic operated your TV? Or before you understood what makes rain and thunder did you also believe they were the work of the gods? Just because you don't know something doesn't mean a higher power did it, that's just lazy thinking and you should thank your higher power that there are people who don't think like that because its those people that gave us the reasons and knowledge that we have today.

With your example of "pop, stuff just appeared fully formed" you're ignoring the wealth of evidence that demonstrates that didn't happen. Whether you believe that "god" made the universe spontaneously appear or that science did the same thing doesn't change the events that we do know about that happened afterwards.

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

Platypuses. You know someone's fucking with biologists with those things.

Alternatively, the concept of music. A series of particle vibrations manifesting as sound occur near you, and your mood changes instantly. It would be nice to believe that someone gave us that.

I don't, frankly, but hey, there's a pretty damn good feeling to be had in the knowledge that something that beautiful came about by chance, too.

CAPTCHA: bless you

CAPTCHA shows more religious tolerance than most of the forum. Interesting.