If I've read correctly, helenecombs has had personal experiences that have convinced her the god is real. This is not accepted as proof by anyone here, however, it is proof enough for her or others like her. My own experiences were proof enough for me at one time.
What responders are doing is beneficial, despite how futile it may seem now. Reason cannot stand against one's personal 'proof', but it does find a spot somewhere inside one, and can be made to grow over time, as it did with me. This leads to a break between the (nearly) unbreakable core faith in one's proof, and the overlay of faith in the church, dogma, and reliance on scripture. Eventually, the theist may, while still holding to their personal 'proof' (one or more perceived miracles of some kind) begin to question the overlays, since they neither depend nor impinge on that individual's core faith.
There may or may not come a time in such a person's life, where they even question their core faith.
My first miracle, that is the first time I attributed something to god that benefited me, was as follows: I am near-sighted, so I've worn glasses from an early age. I was quite young, and was flipping a freshly sharpened pencil. It flew out of my hand and struck my glasses so forcefully that it left a mark. At that moment I 'realized' that if god had not made me near-sighted, I would have lost my eye, and god knew better than anyone else, how squeamish I was about anything related to the eye.
I have been losing my vision in both eyes for the past few years. I've had needles stuck in my eyes on a monthly basis. If I had retained even the smallest shred of faith from the pencil incident, it would have been obliterated by my current situation. It is clear, at very least, that god did not make me near-sighted for a purpose, since he's presumably so busy making me blind anyway.
The pencil incident set me up for a way of interpreting chance events as acts of a loving or sometimes angry god. Other experiences followed that reinforced this sort of interpretation. I collected them into a mound of evidence for god's existence and mode of operation.
I somewhat hope that helenecombs can retain her core faith, and is not so gravely challenged in her life so that she will consider its legitimacy: God is a delusion, but it can be a comforting one. However, those like helenecombs need to open their minds and listen to reason. All of the extraneous beliefs that are currently held, that do not directly relate to her core belief, and which in so many people do so much harm to our society need to wither away. She doesn't need to believe in creationist babble. She can at least safely reject all of the Pauline letters. She can ponder the vastness of the universe and all of the incredible things it contains without having to take a stand as to how such things came to be. She need not defend the bible (unless she had a vision of the bible and her life was subsequently saved) If she does at least this, and continues to keep an open mind, she will at least do no harm.
We may never make an impact on the core faiths of theists, but we should never tire of helping them rid themselves of all the crap they've been told to associate with that faith.
