How do you convince someone to believe in God?

Answer 1

• The answer is obvious, a person prefers to find their own way in these matters. Leave your friend alone or you'll have neither a convert or a friend.You might also ask yourself what an atheist would have to do to convince you that there is no God. An atheist will be as strong in his convictions as you are. What will you do if his arguments are better than yours?
• Give verifiable, testable, and repeatable evidence that your deity actually exists. Do not make the fallacy of circular logic, arguments from personal incredulity, arguments from emotion, or attempt to use Pascal's Wager.
• Faith being the ability to believe in something despite evidence against it, or a lack of evidence for it, you could convert an atheist to theism by giving them absolute proof of the existence of god.
• An Atheist would most probably require evidence of the existence of a God. This would have to be evidence which anyone could demonstrate, as such there may be no way to convince an Atheist through your own personal experience e.g "I just know there's a God.
• Most Atheists also accept that they could be wrong in their skepticism and if God should choose to clinch the matter at any time by revealing him-/her-/itself, they will naturally amend their beliefs accordingly.
• You might be able to convince an atheist of the proof of a god by having the god show himself (do tricks on command) but this would not translate into the atheist caring that there was a god or have any desire to be closer to him.
• Do not however consider that making an atheist believe in a god is the same as making an atheist want to love or worship the god you convinced him believe in. Many atheists start their development of their worldview by noticing the uncaring and illogical behavior of the gods of most religions.
• All you need to do to convince an atheist to believe in your God is to persuade your God to show up and perform miracles in front of the atheist such as raising the dead, healing the sick and turning water into wine. The other way to convince an atheist to believe in your God is to demonstrate to them that they can have some emotional benefit that they strongly desire such as friendship, sex, acceptance, safety or hope if they are prepared to abandon reason and accept a God without any evidence. The first method seems unlikely to work as Gods don't seem to be showing up and performing miracles in front of atheists these days. The second method has a chance of working if your atheist is lonely, depressed or sick and is not committed to reason.
• Consider how you would feel if the shoe were on the other foot. If one of your friends was a user of hard drugs, a swinger, Pastafarian (worshipping the Flying Spaghetti Monster), a member of the Church of the Subgenius (or any of the more mainline religions like Moslem's, Hindu or Buddhist) and asked you to come to meet with him and his friends. Assuming it was pretty obvious that your friend fully expected that you would "see the light" and join up after this introduction. How would you feel? The answer is obvious, a person prefers to find their own way in these matters. Leave your friend alone or you'll have neither a convert or a friend.
• The only way to convince an atheist that there is a God is actually introduce him to God and the only way you can possibly do that is to know yourself where to find that god and then to reveal him? her? it?. The passion and feeling for good and evil is no different in an atheist then it is in a religious person. The atheist however can always say he is good for goodness sake.
• Any arguments that a 4 year old would present to an adult to convince them that there is really a monster under the bed would be just as effective in convincing the atheist that there was really a god. Many people mistakenly believe that atheists haven't heard the "truth" and that is the reason they don't believe in god(s). This is not however true. Atheists generally have researched their position and determined its validity. The problem then is that arguments to an atheist may result in a well reasoned retort that the theist is converted. As an aside, convincing someone that there is a god(s) does not convince them that the being is worthy of love or respect. Many gods in mankind's history have been capricious, vindictive and bloodthirsty.
• Don't try to force everything upon someone at once. The best way of showing there is a God is to be nice (Don't criticize or yell, otherwise you will just be turning the person away) and to live a life of God so that God may show Himself to others through you (People will see how much God has changed your life and follow your footsteps seeking to change their lives) Talk about God but don't force the conversion because then it would make yourself sound like a proud person who thinks he knows everything and it would turn the person away. "Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words" Also, trust in God and leave it into God's hands because man alone can't do anything but God can do everything; just be an instrument for God and don't preach out as if you are doing it because it's God's work. Evangelize in a way God would (Being gentle, always for the good of others, kind and loving, selflessly).
• If you need to ask that question you obviously do not have what you need to prove your own belief there is a God. Religious belief is unquestioning faith in the absence of proof. How do you convince anyone of anything in the absence of proof and why would you seek to do that. Atheism is grounded in reality. Save your efforts and put them to better use. You would be overstepping the rules of good behavior to persist in trying to convince an atheist something is true if you have no proof of its veracity yourself.
• Keep in mind that a number of 'atheists' were raised in a religious family or surrounded by religious community. To say that atheists are ignorant of many religious beliefs and faiths is probably not accurate. Most atheists have already heard whatever you want to say to persuade them. Religious belief should be something personal and even better if it's from self discovery. Besides, which religions, God, or Gods are you trying to convince people that exist. How do you know one is more 'right' than another? What you tell them is only from your point of view and belief. What about the many other point of views and beliefs. What's right for you may not be right for another, even within in the same religion. This is why there are so many variants/sects/denominations/etc. exist within the same religion.
• Postulate a God that can withstand the scrutiny of the scientific method.
• The best way to convince an atheist, assuming he or she is willing to be convinced, is with evidence. Biblical references don't count, neither do prophecies. Since there is no known evidence, the next best way is through logical arguments (remember, the majority, if not all, of the religious arguments have at least one fallacy, avoid those. No appeals to emotion, authority, personal experience, etc...). If that doesn't work, then save your time, because you have lost. You will not recover from that.
• Appended is a Flowchart for debating the issue of god. Note that the first step is that neither side holds themselves above changing their opinion. The Christian must be just as willing to concede that he is wrong and there is no god if the atheists evidence is reasonable.

Answer 2

Quite literally, you do not. Faith is the work of God and God alone. Beyond making someone aware of God's word, you have no responsibility. God withholds the gift of faith from whom he will, and no one has the gift unless it is given by God. So attempting to force or cajole someone into believing is not going to do anything but alienate. You can't even ask God himself to do it; God's choices about who will receive the gift were made in eternity past. Of course you can ask, but your personal will in the matter will not hold sway with him. All you can do is pray, witness (once or twice without badgering) and then trust. Be at peace; it's not your work to make it happen.

Let me rephrase the question a little: How do you get an atheist to believe in Allah? Would you answer in the same way? Pray to Allah and his prophet? As for the question, a believer can get an atheist to believe in God by presenting extraordinary evidence for God's existence, and the God must withstand the scrutiny of the scientic method, which was what all scientific theories have done.

Answer 3

you must have really convincing evidence.

Or you could just start your argument with "Once Upon A Time..." and then wonder why they give you THAT look...

Answer
The existence of God may be a postulate, but people have tried to prove God's existence through the ages by using logical proofs. Saint Thomas Aquinas' "The Five Ways" and Saint Anselm's and Descartes' "ontological proofs" are examples helpful for a reader looking for proof of God. The logic of the proofs are verifiable valid, but the truth or clarity of the premises contained within them are questionable and have lead to much criticism and analysis of the proofs. In any case, these proofs are interesting metaphysically and ontologically, and thought provoking.

Answer:
A proof that meets the same standards as a proof in a scientific study would be required. It would have to a be a double blind study where neither the people providing the tests or the people interpreting the data knew what proof for either side would look like. The test would require that the "god" jump through hoops on a repeatable basis (always heal the sick etc.) at the demand of the study leader.

Answer

You must first be able to define what you mean by the word god, as there is not a single definition, but many. You must be able to logically harmonize all of the attributes of the god you are advocating. You must be able to prove to the atheist beyond a reasonable doubt that the god you are advocating does, indeed, exist.

Answer 4

You cant. You try to push your religion onto someone and they will try harder to push it away. The best way is to use the art of suggestion, ask questions and (this sounds harsh but it isn't) prey on their weaknesses. Don't make it sound like they have to believe something ridiculous like the whole ressurection story, because for a non-believer this is nothing more than a fairy story. Just talk about better things, passion, comfort and guidence. Slowly work god into all of these.

Good Example:

They've lost a friend - God will never leave you, he'll be closer than any friend, he's bigger than any earthly problem.

Bad Example:

Well if you read all The Bible you'll see this--and this--then Jesus did this--and that, ect.

Answer 5

This will depend on the atheist you are thinking about trying to convert, but in general you will be putting forth a great deal of effort to try to convince someone to return to a religion he/she left. Many, although not all, atheists in the US were raised within a religious tradition; in the US the various denominations of Christianity are the most common. Therefore, a good number of atheists were raised as Christians then, for a variety of reasons, decided to abandon their religious upbringing.

I can give you three stories relating how someone can go from being Christian to being atheist. One person was deeply religious (Baptist) until his late teens, when he heard a televangelist describing how a felon with three convictions should automatically be sentenced to death. This person asked how a person who, by all rights, should be advocating that felons could be saved and become a good person would instead be advocating killing them indiscriminately. This led to more questions about the foundations of the faith and he eventually walked away from it.

Another person was raised Catholic - Mass on Sunday, catechism on Wednesday, etc. In high school she started asking questions that she couldn't get satisfactory answers to. For a few years she alternated between desperate belief and cynical unbelief; as she kept reading the Bible and thinking about what she had been taught and told all her life, the questions and inconsistencies kept accumulating until she could no longer tolerate the mantle of being 'Catholic' - she's be atheist ever since.

A third person was raised nondenominational Christian: Christian preschool, Christian day care before and after school, strongly conservative Christian community. In fourth grade she overheard one of the day care teachers tell another student that she deferred all decision making in her family to her husband because the Bible instructs women to submit to their husbands. This girl found the statement at radical odds with her independence and self sufficiency and began to question the tenets of conservative Christianity. By high school, she had consciously denounced Christianity; after working in the real world a few years and continuing to ask questions and investigate religious traditions, she decided atheism was the only "religion" she could believe and hold to.

Incidentally, those three people are my father, my mother and myself - please don't try to convert any of us, as you will be met with annoyance (my mother), anger (my father) or a very harsh logical argument as to why the person who needs to convert is you (myself). If Christianity works for you, that's fine by us; atheism works for us and we'd appreciate not having you force your religious beliefs on us.

Answer:

Consider how you would feel if the shoe were on the other foot. If one of your friends was a user of hard drugs, a swinger, Pastifarian (worshipping the Flying Spaghetti Monster), a member of the Church of the Subgenius (or any of the more mainline religions like Moslem, Hindu or Buddhist) and asked you to come to meet with him and his friends. Assuming it was pretty obvious that your friend fully expected that you would "see the light" and join up after this introduction. How would you feel?

The answer is obvious, a person prefers to find their own way in these matters. Leave your friend alone or you'll have neither a convert or a friend.

Answer: It will, indeed, depend on the person as some are more free to changing their mind on a topic than others.

Also, if they have already left religion, it would be more difficult still because they probably have already drawn up their own conclusions on what religion is as a whole to them having had experiences of their own within it.

Furthermore, it would depend on if they are open to having beliefs in something that is not always tangible, or if they live strictly by the code of "unless it's determined a hardfact by many intelligent minds, I will not follow".

In any case, you can only explain to them how Christianity helps and affects you, clear up any misunderstandings they may have about it, answer any questions they have, tell them what you don't know as a human being yourself, and first and foremost, ask them if they are open to ever changing their mind.

If not, it can't be changed by you and you can walk away knowing you did try for them but didn't force upon them, and you can still pray for them from one human to another.

If so, then you can tell them you're open to helping them find what they are looking for whenever they do decide to walk that path.

Answer 6

Most likely, an Atheist already knows quite a bit about various gods, which was a deciding factor of deciding to call themselves an Atheist. It's a common fallacy that people think someone is an atheist simply because they just don't know about god. Most atheists have thought very heavily about god claims and just come to the conclusion that it's not justifiable without ignoring evidence to the contrary.

As a simple example, consider what a 5 year old would have to tell you about the tooth fairy to make you consider leaving any tooth you loose under your pillow in the confident expectation of finding a shiny coin there when you wake up.

Answer 7

Why try? It's unlikely that you'll be able convince anyone - if there was a convincing argument, there probably wouldn't be any atheists.

However, most theologians think that the ontological argument is the most convincing - although, it has to be said it isn't that convincing. The argument goes like this:

"Consider the most perfect being; one aspect of perfection is existence, so if you can consider the most perfect being it must exist."

The problem with the argument is that you can use it to "prove" that pretty much anything exists; "Consider the most perfect unicorn...", obviously, unicorns don't exist so it isn't a helpful argument.

An earlier argument was the creator; how did animals, stars, plants and planets come into existence? When no-one knew, a god creator could (obviously) explain anything.

As science advances, however, the argument becomes weaker and becomes the creator of "gaps" - where there's a gap in knowledge, god will fill it; but as knowledge increases, the gaps become smaller and smaller so its not considered a strong argument nowadays.

Answer 8

It is simple - simply prove that God exists using normal scientific criteria for proof. As a wow type presentation, you could, for instance, get God to do simple tricks like change water into wine or regrow an amputated limb on someone. Perhaps duplicate a Biblical proof like making pi equal 3 instead of 3.1415, iron float, a bat be a bird, or raise the dead. Of course a God that you can order around like a trained puppy isn't all that impressive.

To improve your chances you might want to avoid all the fallacious arguments like "The Bible says ...", "Everyone knows that ...", "My pastor who is a learned man says..."

Of course if you are putting your atheist friend to the test you might want to set ground rules like each of you agrees that if the other has a more convincing argument the other will convert to that point of view. You might want to agree which God you want to convince your friend is supposed to believe in. Believing in your particular God is a differentlt problem that accepting his acceptance of Thor, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Ptah.

Answer 9

You don't. You leave them alone and respect their right to live their life as they choose to live their life. Atheism is an intellectual decision. Religious faith requires belief in the absence of proof. You have no right to argue with another person who has chosen not to have any religious aspect in their life. They have the right to please themselves, to be true to themselves, and you have no right to interfere with that process. If you speak of family members, love them and accept their decision. Relate to them on every other level and resist trying to persuade them to "believe". Religion is an extremely personal choice. Allow them the same right you allow yourself: to make your own decision.

Answer 10

All you can do is talk to them politely about your belief, and only when and as long as they are willing to carry on the conversation. See also:

Is there any basis for belief in God?