When I was twelve and a new-fledged Agnostic living in a United Methodist home, I was initially frightened that I had reached the wrong conclusion about the existence of God, and that He would strike me down for ever doubting Him.

I knew that Jesus was said to have said "never put the Lord your God to the test." However, it occurred to me that doing so would be far better than dismissing a personal, Christian God without ever giving Him a fair chance to defend Himself.

One weekend, I was passing time by emptying my piggy bank - yes, I still had one - and rolling the coins within to give to my parents for cash. Struck by a sudden inspiration, I opened one end of a newly-made roll of pennies. I looked skywards, and quietly - so my parents would not hear - told God,

"If You are real, I want You to make all these pennies land the same way. All heads, or all tails - You decide. It's such a minor miracle, and it will make me believe in You forever. You did far more to convince people in the times of the Bible - surely you can do this little thing for me".

With a snap of the wrist, I scattered the pennies across my bedroom, high enough that each had plenty of time to flip over before landing.

Needless to say, the Christian God let me down, and ever since then I have been Agnostic. Every now and then, however, I give the Almighty another chance.


Nanosecond: You have a valid point. However, the chance of all the pennies landing the same is only slightly more than one in one quadrillion (it is exactly one in 2^49). In the British way of naming numbers, this would be, BTW, one in one thousand billion - British or other foreign noders, correct me if I'm wrong.

For reference, this is less than a hundred-thousandth of the chance of picking a given person out of the population of the Earth. It is comparable with the chance of winning a very large lottery twice in a row. I'd say I'd be quite convinced if all fifty coins had landed the same.

This is a conflicting method of testing. The Law of Independent Events shows that although the chance of the pennies landing the way you want god to make them is always the same, if the pennies do land all right side up or wrong side up, you can't be sure if it was God's Will. However, you readily accept the converse.

1. If all the pennies land right side up, god may exist.

2. If the pennies don't land right side up, god doesn't exist.

Perhaps, god refused to take the test because he knew it would prove nothing.
Pakaran: You'd be convinced, but it still wouldn't prove it one way or the other. Also, if the chances are so low I wonder, then is it really that minor a miracle? You can point to a trillion even less likely miracles, but that doesn't make this one any easier. You're also assuming that god grants miracles.

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