Proving the Existence of God

I frequently like to read science related articles. I also enjoy participating in the discussions in places like Ars Technica. But invariably there are people who love to use the opportunity of some theory or interesting discovery to disparage religion, invariably claiming that science, and scientific thinking are incompatible with religion.

I can speak with specificity only to my own case, but this simply is not the case. Let me elucidate.

In any discipline there are two paths to knowledge. First the scientific method, or second, just ask someone who knows. The scientific method,(observe, hypothesize, test, observe, alter hypothesis, test... repeat), is slow, painful, and subject to a number of pitfalls from researcher bias, to faulty assumptions. Since we cannot be competent in every field (and don't have enough time to test every hypothesis) The second method is the one by which we gain a lot of our knowledge, especially abstract knowledge.

It is this second way to gain knowledge for which the faithless like to criticize believers. Even though they employ the same kind of "faith" every day. They just choose to place their faith in different sources than I do. If they find the arguments of Charles Darwin, or Carl Sagan, or the hate spewing Richard Dawkins more compelling than the arguments of Moses or Isaiah, they are still expressing faith in something they themselves did not conclude scientifically.

Heres where I take issue with them. I may "believe" in the creation story as expressed in scripture, but in day to day expression of my faith I have tested and retested my hypothesis that there is a God. I know that God exists! And furthermore, I know how anyone can come to this same knowledge. But there is a catch. God has not always answered my prayers. My observation is this: God is not willing to be treated as a curiosity. He is not willing to answer every question about everything we might want to ask. But when I express a sincere willingness to do whatever he wants me to, I have consistently found that God has revealed himself to me (as long as I followed through and kept my commitment).

There you go. If you don't believe, or just don't know if God is there, go test my hypothesis. Ask God if he exists and tell him that you will do whatever he tells you if he does exist and does reveal himself to you.

See where that gets you.