Greetings all as suggested by one of the Gary's here is what I would consider to be criteria for acceptable proof for the existence of any diety. 1) Can not be made by man. 2) Can not be of the natural world. All dieties that are ever mentioned are described as being supernatural. 3) Must be tangible or otherwie measurable or observable. This last condition would mean that no proof is possible because anything that meets condition 3 will fail condition 2. So let me know what you all think Norman

First an atheist might accept your criteria especially #3... tangible...measurable....observable.

However if you are trying to persuade a believer or have a logical argument with them using that criteria, you will not get anywhere. They consider god to be not of this world.... even spiritual.... and as to being observable... that is up to god. If he wants you to see him or hear him you will. If he chooses not to reveal himself then you will not see or hear him. That is their way of explaining away his nonexistance.

You might as well run your head into the nearest brick wall than try to use your above logic to change anyone's mind.

Lastly, why do you as an atheist feel the need to come up with acceptable criteria for the existence of a deity? Do you seek proof of something that you say does not exist?

If you need proof, which story would you believe?

1. Nothing explodes into 200 billion universes. Life evolves on Earth.

2. Invisible being creates self. Creates earth, sun to light it and stars to decorate the sky. Creates man, but forgets how he did it and needs to take a rib out of him to create woman. After lots of incest and killing in his name, the invisible being decides he f'd up and has to destroy everything by flood and start all over again. Lots more incest ensues. 8 white people somehow evolve into Asians, Negroes, Indians and dozens of other races. Kangaroos and others of the millions of species on the ark somehow swim/fly/walk to their respective continents. People develop several thousand religions to worship being and only begotten son. Invisible being somehow tracks all of the followers of these religions to make sure they worship the invisible being according to the tenets of that particular religion. If they don't, they spend an eternity shoveling coal in a really hot place for a mean being the invisible being created. They call that hell. If they do, they spend an eternity on some cloud without the internet, sex, food, TV or anything else. Only thing to do all day/night is worship invisible being. They call that heaven. If you're Muslim and blew yourself up, you get 72 virgins, but you blew off your penis so you can't do anything with them.