How much proof do you need before you believe?

Belief in God is not about seeing God, nor is a lack of belief due to not seeing God. Belief in God is a choice you make about how you want to interpret the evidence for God's existence that has been presented to you. 

Say a man was to begin speaking to you about his wife whom you had never met. It would be odd if you did not believe in her existence, even if you had never heard of her or seen her before. It is more than likely that you would take the man for his word. If for some reason you did not believe the man you may ask him to show you some proof that she exists, such as her photo I.D., marriage certificate or social security number. If the man was able to produce these documents, then this would be taken as proof of the wife's existence. The more evidence provided the more you would believe in her. The evidence could be documentary evidence or hearsay evidence, such as stories told about her by other people.

Upon production of all this evidence, most people would be more than satisfied that the wife existed without a shred of doubt in their mind, however they have still not had actual proof that she exists or met her. It could be that the evidence produced is false, or has been tampered with or photoshopped or perhaps the people who have told you stories about her are delusional or liars. 

Hebrews 11:1 states "faith is the evidence of things not seen".

Believing that the wife exists after seeing her passport or other documents is to have faith in those documents that she exists. The documents are the "evidence of things not seen" - for you have not at this point seen the wife. 

In the same way we have evidence to show God exists. There is documentary evidence in the Bible, which is given weight through the way it all adds up and coincides; and there is hearsay evidence through people's stories about Jesus and God, both given in the Bible itself and by billions of people in the world today. 

It is possible to prove God's existence. The proof of God is in the evidence for God; just as the proof of the man's wife mentioned above is in the evidence presented about her. Believing in God is not about whether there is proof of God, it is about the choice you make as to whether to believe in the evidence you have been shown, which is the proof for God. 

People who choose not to believe snub the evidence and give reasons as to why it is untrustworthy. They will say the Bible has been made by man or the people who claim to know God are unstable or religious nuts. Usually these people have never actually considered the evidence for themselves in any real way, yet they are adamant that their conclusion is correct - these people would not make good detectives. If you were to doubt the legitimacy of the wife's passport in the above example, you could take steps to ensure it was valid. You could look for the watermark or check the pages and customs stamps to see if it is genuine. In the same way, if you doubt the legitimacy of the evidence for God you should take steps to see if it is genuine and not just refuse to consider it.   

When making your choice to believe or not to believe, make sure you study the evidence itself, rather than listening to what other people tell you. With such an important topic, it is crucial that you make the decision based on your own mind, not on the mind of others. 

In the same way that you would scrutinise and analyse the wife's passport or birth certificate to make sure it is genuine, you should scrutinise and analyse the evidence for God. Before making a choice, read the Bible for yourself. Then you can be in a position to make your choice on your own.

You can also speak to those who claim to know God to see if their accounts add up. You may think this contradicts the advice to make the decision on your own, but it does not. In a criminal court case, in addition to the documentary evidence the prosecution gathers the statements of the witnesses who claim to have witnessed the crime. These statements give weight to what the truth is. The more the witness statements corroborate with each other, the more the statements are taken as 'proof' of what actually happened. The prosecution would not gather statements from people who do not claim to know what happened or do not claim to have been there, because their statements are irrelevant. You are trying to determine whether God is real as people say He is, therefore consider the accounts of those who claim to know Him. Witness testimonies are good enough for courts of law and in the same way the testimonies of Born Again Christians are good evidence for God.

The objective of this site is not to persuade but rather to present the evidence. The more overwhelming the evidence, the more common sense the answer becomes. 

-BACChristian