Lovely Lil started a thread that said it had external evidence of Jesus' which I think proved rather useless and ultimately ended in debate about God's existence. She said she wanted to start another thread about proof that God exists so I figured I would. So this thread would be for actual proof of God. In an attempt to get some actual points put down here from theists and atheists alike I want to curb a couple of the arguments that will indoubtably cause a roundabout argument.
Here goes with the list:
Prophesies: if you're going to use them make sure they can be proven as being written BEFORE they were fulfilled. Make sure they're not self-fulfilling; as in someone purposely doing what's noted in the prophesy with the express purpose of fulfilling said prophesy. If someone wrote someone fulfilled a prophesy and had access to the original prophesy AND was writing the fulfillment of the prophesy that's not compelling evidence.
Scientific Knowledge: If you're going to use this argument make sure it's knowledge that was CLEARLY not known at the time of the writing, and also that the scientific knowledge is the reason for it being mentioned. For instance Israelites not eating pork did not specify the reason for such was to avoid trichinosis they were just told not to eat pork. Greek scholars had theorized a heliocentric universe before the bible stated it and independent of any divine claims so the "circle" of the Earth argument might not really fly here.
Miracles: If you're going to use these make sure they are verifiable by more than one person, and that person should not be in any highly emotional or altered state. Also miracles are not a close-calls, they are something impossible occurring when someone asks God for it to happen. As for Faith Healing please don't bring this up unless it is verifiable by more than one source and those sources cannot be in a highly excitable or altered state. Curing stuttering, demon-possession, hiccups, speaking in tongues and the like are not good evidence, if there is a story of cancer then there should be multiple examples of the person having cancer then verifiable proof that the cancer had been cured.
Direct Manifestation: If you're going to bring this up (like Mary's appearances) make sure there are multiple witnesses to this manifestation and that none of which are in the aforementioned highly emotional state or an altered state.
Religion: If you're going to use religion, can you avoid mentioning the growing numbers, lots of religions have growing numbers the growth doesn't mean one specifically is right and proof of God. Make sure there's not internal factions, if they can't agree on what God is why is one definition proof of God? Make sure the Religion hasn't been responsible for atrocities, not just members themselves (avoiding personal attack fallacy) but if the religion at some point had the power to commit atrocities BECAUSE of their God, they're better left out. Did they even win all of these holy wars to begin with?
Personal Experience: Conversion stories, subjective evidence are not hard concrete evidence. Anyone can have a moment of weakness. It would be assuming that people can have completely convincing subjective experiences and not be incorrect. Since this is mostly a board of Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses we all know people can be completely convinced of something in their heart and be wrong.
Finally if you're going to use Creationism, can we steer clear of Michael Behe, Stephen C. Meyer, William Dembski and the various other Discovery Institute's minions. If you quote one study that proves a young earth, but someone else quotes 5 studies that disprove that you'll find it hard to convince anyone here. Also when someone performs an experiment with the express purpose of proving an "intelligent designer" then the agenda is a bit skewed and can produce questionable results. Closely linked with intelligent design is the use of creation itself as the proof, which is a fallacy in and of itself, if creation needs a creator because it exists then the creator himself needs a creator because he exists. And I've seen beautiful paintings that were caused by 2 paint buckets being dropped onto a canvas due to a flood in a basement so let's avoid the painting analogy could we?
This thread is for external (outside the bible), observable (by people who are not crazy), and verifiable (can be proved) evidence of God.