Divine Evidence Laws

As you might expect if you've read my previous posts, I have conversed with many Theists, sometimes quite passionately, during my third of a century as an Atheist, but this week's post wasn't something I'd thought of until first came online.
You see, this one was more of a revelation than an epiphany, it's been bubbling under in my subconscious for a good while, you know, one of those things that you know you know, but you don't know what it is yet! Anyway, after a recent conversation my muddy ponderings turned into a crystal spring and the nugget of a notion turned into a full blown blog, and my friends, what a whopper!
It struck me that were I to have some sort of brain lapse and suddenly feel the need to believe in the 'wishes and wants machine';
How would one choose a religion to follow?

After a while pondering the dilemma, I thought the sensible thing to do would be to start by discerning,

Which religion is most obviously the word of God/Gods??

Unfortunately, there are many Gospels, Creeds, Doctrines, Dogmas, and Tenets around the world, how would one choose between them?

By what criteria should one judge the divinity of each work???

I searched, but the only information I could find had been written by the already confused or convinced - neither of which, I am sure you'll agree, could be described as a reputable or reliable source of information!
So, I decided to write my own!

It's taken a few weeks but I think it's been worth it because what I now have is a clearly defined set of pointers and, even though I say so myself, what I think you'll agree is a 'top entry' into the list of Too Many Questions. So with a smiley face and relaxed attitude I give you

Crispy Sea's

Divine Evidence Laws (for discerning the divinity of a written work.)

Law 1. No Doubt. Upon completion of reading the perfect book, one should be left with no doubt or misunderstanding, but a complete comprehension of the meaning of the texts main message. This one is arguable I know; many believers would probably suggest that's what they have - fair point but this is only the first criteria, here comes number 2.

Law 2. No Explanation. No external human interpretation should be required for comprehension of the text, it should be easily understood by all ages and intellects. This point is much harder for a religious text to fulfill. It seems that regardless of which tenet you choose to read, the work is not instantly comprehensible, there are reams of external works purporting to explain what each 'good book' means by this or that sentence, paragraph, chapter etc. Indeed, is there any religious text out there that doesn't have at least one "this is what it means" book to accompany it? Could we have ruled out all current religions already? We are only at rule 2, now, here comes the eliminator.

Law 3. No Translation. The perfect book should be written in a language that every human, past, present, and future of every race, creed and colour could instantly read. I don't know what that would be, or how it could be achieved; I can't really get my head around it, but some sort of 'divine ethereal multi-language' (Polyglotics maybe?) that everyone would instantly understand without the need for translation; A truly divine script could be read by anybody because it is 'magically' readable by multiple people at the same time, like the 'comprehend languages spell' used in the old DnD games. Exactly the sort of thing that should be well within the reach of even a minor deity and would have completely obviated all this stupid tribal rivalry. Any God would know that humanity would have many languages; why would a god who wants the worship of all, write in the mono-language of a single 'tribe'? HE would know this to be finest way to cause arguments for eternity! Way to shoot your-divine-self in your divine foot!

If you know of a book that fulfills
Crispy Sea's
Divine Evidence Laws
please leave its title or isbn number below.
Thanks.

Of course, if a book were discovered, which could fulfill the criteria, it would instantly fall foul of Arthur C. Clarke's third law...

"Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic."
In this instance magic equates with divinity.
            ...and evidence, that it was not merely advanced technology, would then be required.


Addendum illustrating stupid tribal rivalry - "No Divine Evidence So No Benevolent God".


In a similar vein as the Divine Evidence Laws but with a wider remit check out Dr. Michael Shermer's Baloney Detection Kit...


This is one of the Too many questions

PEACE    
Crispy

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