On another forum I frequent (pro Mormon) someone claimed that because he prayed sincerely, without boredom or sneering or several other qualifiers I'm not going to go into, that God have given him evidence of His existence.

I pointed out that in 25 years as a faithful Christian I have prayed many times meeting all of those conditions and God still haven't given me any evidence of His existence.

So another genius comes on and says that it's because God knew I'd become an atheist one day.

Seriously; God withholds evidence of His existence from those who won't believe without evidence? Does this sound like the actions of a reasonable and rational deity to anyone? I'm just baffled by the argument.

The two arguments you referenced are silly. The God they describe is, indeed, irrational as you suggest. Here's how I see it. When people pray fervently to know whether God exists or to discern what God wants for them, all they are doing is convincing themselves of what they subconciously already believe. In other words, they pray until they brainwash themselves.

For in depth discussions of this phenomena may I suggest you read "Minds and Gods" by Todd Tremlin and "Religion Explained" by Pascal Boyer. Good stuff!

I am apparently a bad candidate for brainwashing 'cause I really tried.

Then again, I'm a bad candidate for hypnotism as well. Somehow, I'm not seeing a drawback here...

The last prayer I offered up to "god" was nearly 10 years ago. I told him that if he REALLY loved me (as everyone had told me he does) then he would appear to me with my deceased parents and deceased sweetheart. They could then all testify of the truthfulness of his gospel and the path I should be on. If I was not offered to join them at that time, in return I would then spend the rest of my days proclaiming his existence and the truthfulness of his gospel.

Oh, and they would also give me a 6-DVD set of the REAL history of the earth (you know, how it was formed, Adam and Eve, the Titanic sinking, Who shot Kennedy, etc.). It could be regular DVD's, blue-ray not required.

Still waiting.

In short, you will recieve the answer in God's time. I'm guessing that'll be about 30 seconds after your brain functions cease. ;)