Burden of Proof

Shasta'sAunt wrote: If this were the cae we would have no need for laws or punishment. Everyone would just automatically do the moral and ethical thing.

I did say that our natural instincts can be distorted by bad parenting and indoctrination with false teachings.  It is for those people that we need laws and punishment.

I trust my own instincts, but I was not born all knowledgeable.

Nor was I, but I think as a mature adult I have all the knowledge I need to be a good person.  Frankly, I think you do too.

I think it is clear. But perhaps I have a different standard than you. I don't need God to appear in Times Square and announce Himself. I see God's Work in the perfection of reproduction, the genius behind the mechanics of sight and sound, a million different ways.

And you cannot imagine that these things could have evolved naturally.  That is the fundamental difference between us.

Prophets are just human beings like the rest of us. They receive the Word of God because of their strong moral character and total submission. A question, if you were going to elect a treasurer for your town or city, would you elect someone who had a scrupulous reputation for honesty and truthfulness whose life was an open book, or would you elect a three time felon who had done prison time for theft and robbery and who refused to answer any personal questions?

As you pointed out in "Higher Authority", prophets are not earthly rulers (and I don't know why you allow Muhammad as an exception).  They are messengers, and messengers have no authority except to transmit the message.  The only qualifications required are a good memory to remember the message, and the integrity and reliability to transmit it without errors or alterations.  Most ordinary people could do the job.

I don't know. Why aren't we all Albert Einstein or Vincent Van Gogh, or Mozart, or Hemingway, or Michael Jordan? Why do we need teachers or coaches or trainers? Why aren't we all born with a complete education, knowing everything there is to know about everything, with the ability to perform any task, partake in any sport, create great art, and write insightful literature?

All good questions.  Why does God save His best work for only a few lucky people, and leave the rest of us to muddle along with inferior abilities and incomplete information?  The Quran says that Allah guides who He wills, and leads others astray.  It never made any sense to me.

Chrysalis wrote: Do you mean on an individual level? Isnt a bit arrogant to expect a personal miracle, or personal sign? We need to realises that we are but an atom (if not smaller) in this universe...

In other words, it really doesn't matter to God whether we believe or not.  That is my opinion; and yes, perhaps it is arrogant to expect otherwise.
 

Generally speaking, the majority of people (humankind) DO believe in God, and/or a Higher Power, Creator. . . that means that God apparently DID make His existence quite clear to a vast majority of us. Some of us want our own individual, personal, customized signs - which is a bit arrogant, considering that we have signs all around us.

The majority of people believe in a huge variety of different Gods, so if it's the same God in each case, He's doing a lousy job of making His existence clear.  The fact that religious myths are so prevalent shows that people want God to exist, which (as I said to Nur_Ilahi in "Does God exist") is a very different question from whether He actually does exist.