One of the first questions that atheists ask of someone who believes in God is “where's the evidence?” What is meant by “God” is rarely clear and the term “Sky Daddy” has recently emerged as a way to dismiss those who think deeply about God as childish.
Normally we would clearly define what we mean before looking for evidence of its existence but, despite the many and varied ways to think of God, the question “where's the evidence?” comes up often enough that I want to deal with it in some detail here. To do so we will have to briefly discuss the complex nature of evidence in relation to a qualitative question like “does God exist?” Along the way I will offer some thoughts on how to think about God and why it's important to do so.