Why do you believe in god?

Seriously.

I'm an atheist. Whenever I ask a christian this they always dodge the question and say "Because jesus loves me!" and never actually answer my question properly.

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I've been asked this question by atheists a number of times and have never answered the way you describe. The fact that Jesus does love me has a lot to do with my relationship with him, however. Maybe you need to be clearer, more specific about what kind of answer you want when you ask the question...

How do you know it was Jesus/God that created you? Whenever I ask this I always get "Shut up satanist" as my reply.

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You always get this answer? Well, you won't be able to say this anymore. The answer to your question begins (at least for me) with a look at the origins of the universe. Science tells us that something cannot come from nothing. In other words, there has to be a First Cause. It is impossible for the universe just to have happened, spontaneously, out of nothing. So what, or who, is this First Cause? The nature of the Universe suggests a Designer, or Creator. Its incredible balance, order, beauty, and complexity on both the cosmic and molecular levels are suggestive of a Maker. What does the nature of the Universe tell me about the nature of its Maker? More importantly, what does my own nature, my own physical make-up indicate about who God might be? This is how I move along toward the final answer to your question. Outlining it all would take a very long time. At least I haven't called you a Satanist and told you to shut up.

I don't understand. I was brought up in a christian home and went to church every sunday. Yet I never understood and thought that the concept of an old bearded man was comparable to the concept of a rabbit that hops all around the earth every easter. I thought the bible was a really long story-book....

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Old bearded man? Who's that? The Bible doesn't describe God that way. I think the caricature of God you were offered was no more real than the Easter Bunny.

I never understood that. God didn't love me. He was too busy caring for the hateful people. People like Fred Phelps.

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Do you hate Fred Phelps? If so, that would make you a hater, too, which means God loves you! Neat how that works out, eh? Seriously, though, your last remark above is kinda' silly, don't you think? It certainly doesn't describe the God of the Bible.

Peace to you.

"Because Jesus loves me" is the reason but one can also see belief in God in a scientific sense. Science says the laws of conservation & matter are that neither are created or destroyed. In Orthodox Christianity God's grace is understood as God's own presence and action in creation an attitude but also as an uncreated energy. So energy is seen as uncreated but matter as created but laws of science are just understood as from a creator.

I'd pretty much say the same thing as the previous posters. I've essentially believed in the existence of some deity or another for as long as I can remember. One of the reasons I became a physicist is because science (for some reason physics in specific) confirmed the belief in God that I already had. Now I feel it necessary to note that my reasons for belief in God are quite different from my reasons for becoming a Christian. I was raised to believe in God, but not in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I might perhaps attribute my belief in theism in general to environment and upbringing, but certainly not my belief that salvation is found only in Christ Jesus.

Puppet-kun said:

Seriously.

I'm an atheist. Whenever I ask a christian this they always dodge the question and say "Because jesus loves me!" and never actually answer my question properly. How do you know it was Jesus/God that created you? Whenever I ask this I always get "Shut up satanist" as my reply.

I don't understand. I was brought up in a christian home and went to church every sunday. Yet I never understood and thought that the concept of an old bearded man was comparable to the concept of a rabbit that hops all around the earth every easter. I thought the bible was a really long story-book....

I never understood that. God didn't love me. He was too busy caring for the hateful people. People like Fred Phelps.

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Hi, When I was 33, I attended a funeral. At that funeral were believing pastors, which I had no clue of then. During the funeral I imagine they gave the gospel, though I don't think I heard a word of it, as my attention was focused on something I can't explain. I can't recall now what I was sensing, but I was wholly distracted. Later I realized was the Holy Spirit (God) or that is was I believe it was. Nothing I could see, but a sense.

Anyway, after a few weeks went to the pastor of that church and said I was confused about things. Again is 20 years ago, and all I recall is him asking me two questions.

When I answered those two questions, asked him one back, then left the building, the leaves, trees, sky, clouds looks very different, and I can't explain that either. At the same time, I recall saying to myself, this is the truth (Jesus) and somehow I've always known that but supressed it.

Don't recall exactly how it went after, but began reading the bible, and learned much. I realized I had been born again at the moment in the pastors office and was a new creation in Christ.

I hungered for the bible and no one had told me what to do or not to do about anything. I happened to be in a very good church which the pastor knew it is Gods work in a person, not mans, and so the things which occurrd, such as no longer desired the things I used to be involved in, all came from God.

I didn't know a lot of things, and yet God was leading me to turn away from my former life, as again, no one told me anything, and anyway the reason I believe in God is because somehow I came to Jesus and I know God is truth.

Some come to Christ after hearing a message, some come other ways; I was one who came another way. But we all come to Christ thru Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why I believed when I believed, I have no clue or idea.

But since I've been in Christ and all this time I can't imagine or could never imagine life without God. Without knowing God or growing in God to the best of my ability and understanding.

I know God created me, because I take Genesis literally that God created all.

Since you went to church as a youth and you do not believe today, more than likely you didn't believe back then as you also said above.

More than likely I would imagine that what you know of God was passed on to you by others and it didn't make sense to you, or whatever you saw and heard didn't reach deep into your heart. There can be many reasons.

A friend of mine went to church all her life, and knows she heard the gospel many times, but she didn't come to Jesus till she was 33. When she speculates why she heard at 33 but didn't before, she thinks perhaps the churches she was at were dead (no God, no life, no Holy Spirit (God)), so no power, however she really has no idea, nor can she know.

Same may have occurred with where you were, but in no way means it did, as we have no idea for the most part what it is that brings us to Jesus, though some can clearly say, and explain, others can not.

If you think God was too busy caring for hateful people then you were not exposed to the truth of God and that's based on that statement you made, as if you were exposed to the truth of God you would know that God cares for all people, and that you bring up Phelps, further indicates that you may have broad brushed all Christians, and God with whatever understanding you had.

Some people look at others for who God is which is a big mistake, though is natural to do, and so they broadbrush who God is by what they hear from others, what they see others who are Christians do etc, and if one desires to know God, one would need to immerse in Jesus, and follow Jesus, and not look to others for their understanding and walk.

Though we can help each other, if our eyes are on others rather than Jesus, such as yours were on phelps, then of course you would not find truth there.

Christians will fail us, God never fails. Christians also believe things about God which are not truth about God and so they may fall away based on things they believe God did, which God did not do or has nothing to do with, so lots of stuff goes on.

God does love you and always has.

Thanks for the question,
take care,
tapero

How? Because there is way more evidence that God did than nothing did. I'm a christian spiritually first and intellectually second. The Bible has hundreds of detailed prophesies in it that has come true and more will be fulfilled. This is just one characteristic out of several that the Bible has. It could only be written by God. No other book period remotely comes close to this. You may want to read The Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell (it would stand up in a court of law) and Examine the Evidence by Muncaster (a former athiest). Also, www.reasons.org is about science and belief. A PhD in Chemistry started this website. Darwinism is a falsehood.

Biblical Evidence – This is a very small amount of information
out of large amounts of information out there.

Internal Evidences-Prophesies that are confirmed with Bible;

mentioning only a few – but there are hundreds.

Life of Christ
The Tribe of Judah, Gen. 49:10, Luke 3:23-28
(Genesis was written 4004 BC to 1689 BC)
(Luke’s time period is 60-70 AD)

Royal Line of David, Jer 23:5, Matt 1:1
(Jeremiah 760 to 698 BC)/(Matthew 60-70 AD)

Born of a Virgin, Isaiah 7:14/Matt 1:18-23
(Isaiah 760 to 698 BC)/(60-70 AD)

Rise of Empires
In the book of Daniel, Chapter 2 – four kingdoms are described in the interpretation
of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greek – Daniel 8:21, 10:20/ and a fourth great kingdom to follow which was part iron and clay – which is the
Roman Empire – during this empire, Christ came and the church was established – Daniel 2:44.

Historical Accuracy

The Bible is loaded with historical statements concerning events of hundreds of years ago, yet
none of them has been proven to be incorrect.
(Bible compared to other ancient documents)
New Testament – starts at 25 years – between the original and surviving copies
Homer- starts at 500 years/Demosthenes – at 1400 years/Plato – at 1200 years/
Caesar – at 1000 years

Number of Manuscript Copies

New Testament – 5,686/Homer – 643/Demosthenes – 200/Plato – 7/Caesar – 10

Consistency – Written by 40 men over a period of time exceeding 1400 years, and has no
Internal inconsistencies.

Claim of Inspiration- It claims to be spoken by God, 2 Tim 3:16-17). No other religious book makes such claims.


External Evidences

(Prophesies Outside the Bible)
These cities were prophesied to be destroyed and never to be built again- and they haven’t.
Niveveh – Nahum 1:10, 3:7, 15, Zephaniah 2:13-14
Babylon – Isaiah 13:1-22
Tyre -Ezekiel 26:1-28

Bible before Science

He hangs the earth on nothing – Job 26:7
(Job was written at least 1000 years ago – some scholars think it could have been even 3000
years ago)
Note: Man only knew the above for 350 years.
Earth is a sphere – Isaiah 40:22/Air has weight – Job 28:25/
Gravity – Job 26:7, Job 38: 31-33/Winds blow in cyclones, Eccl 1:6

Documents that Prove Bible is True

Gilgamesh Epic, The Sumerian King List, Mari Tablets, Babylonian Chronicles

Archealogical Evidence (Still adding to this list today- it hasn’t stopped)
Excavations of Ur, Location of Zoar, Ziggurats and the foundation of Tower of Babel

First of all if you don't believe in God, It will be hard for you to understand. You have to have a relationship with him, to feel his love and his connection with you. I believe in him Cause he is my life, he created me in his own image. Jesus died to save me from all my sin, and for someone to give their life, and to go through all the pain and suffering, and abandoment that he went through, just so I can ask for forgiveness, and be closer in my walk with him. That is just amazing. That gives me hope, and comfort, to know, no matter what I go through, Jesus is always got my back. Untill the day you accept Jesus as your savior, you will never know how that feeling feels, and If the day ever comes when you truly ask Jesus to forgive you of all that you have done, and that you know he died on the cross for you, is when you will have all your questions answered, and know why Christians believe in God.

Puppet-kun said:

Why do you believe in god?...

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Because it's rational to believe in God.

The "old bearded man" concept of God is a construct of very young children. Just because it doesn't hold up to scrutiny doesn't mean that there's no God.

And yes, God even takes care of folks like Phelps. But that doesn't mean he doesn't love you or wasn't taking care of you.

Because the universe declares His handiwork. Why do you deny this?

Puppet-kun said:

Seriously.

I'm an atheist. Whenever I ask a christian this they always dodge the question and say "Because jesus loves me!" and never actually answer my question properly. How do you know it was Jesus/God that created you? Whenever I ask this I always get "Shut up satanist" as my reply.

I don't understand. I was brought up in a christian home and went to church every sunday. Yet I never understood and thought that the concept of an old bearded man was comparable to the concept of a rabbit that hops all around the earth every easter. I thought the bible was a really long story-book....

I never understood that. God didn't love me. He was too busy caring for the hateful people. People like Fred Phelps.

Click to expand...

Similarly to how genes compete to survive, memes (ie. units of information) also do the same. Religion is an example of memetic that has evolved to best survive despite a lack of validity. From early religions, the ideas that are better suited to survive in the human mind have become prominent today.

Taking the Christian religion as an example, if you split the Bible between the Old & New Testament, you'll see an evolved set of morals espoused. This is due to that time period, the ideas of the New Testament were better suited to survive. There were many similar figures to Jesus & the ideas of the New Testament 2000 years ago (other figures who supposedly walked on water, resurrected the dead, etc). These superpowers were commonly talked about.

Now over the past 2000 years, the idea of Christianity (& religion in general) has continued to evolved to better suit itself. It's no longer the strict following of the Bible that it used to be. But rather than sticking strictly to its wording & have the religion die off, it adapts to maintain it's survival in a world where science & reason are slowly extinguishing it.

Some of its strengths are that it takes advantage of how children have evolved to believe their authority figures with little questioning. It also is a magnificent coping mechanism, promising eternal happiness just simply by handing your life to Jesus. We're lucky to be an animal capable of self-consciousness, but alongside that comes an understanding of own mortality. Religion gives us a loophole, so many people don't become crippled emotionally when a loved one passes on. Relgion is also tied in with ritual & community, which is a core of part of the human experience.

So humans are meme machines. Some of us contain Christian memes, others reason/science memes, others Islam memes. And as hosts of these memes, we see those containing the other memes as dangerous or at least transporting wrong/dangerous ideas in respect to the survival of our ideas/memes.

All other animals previous to us have merely been gene machines, transporting the survival of the best genes. But we have evolved into meme machines, and technology which is an extension of biological evolution continues to do the same thing. For example, the internet is an evolved technology which allows ideas (or memes) to better compete & survive.

So while it's previously been thought that genes have driven evolution, it's possible that since the evolution of man, that it's actually become memes. Genetically, we should be living to best produce our offspring, but people are starting to get ideas like living their life to fulfill their own happiness. This doesn't necessarily mean having as much children as possible, as we see in 1st world nations, where couples have less than 2 children on average, despite having better means than 3rd world couples to have many children.

I do hope with better technology, more sophisticated & truthful ideas will survive. Scientific ideas are not as easily digestible to human beings, but with these advancements in technology, I do see hope for these memes to reach more people.

charcoalpet said:

Similarly to how genes compete to survive, memes (ie. units of information) also do the same. Religion is an example of memetic that has evolved to best survive despite a lack of validity. From early religions, the ideas that are better suited to survive in the human mind have become prominent today.

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You are aware that memetics is a pseudoscience, are you not? It seems to you like an elegant theory that somehow explains religiosity. But there's a problem: it can't be tested. Memetics is non-falsifiable. There's no possible test that can even deduce the existence of such a thing as a meme. The definition of a meme as a "unit of information" is quite ill-defined. All information must be stored physically, and memetics advocates provide no mechanism for replication of a meme, or even a means to identify a replicated meme. If you extol the value of scientific knowledge, you can't simultaneously believe that memetics is genuine science. Memetics advocates must provide a testable theory. Otherwise, this belongs in the same trash bin as astrology.

On a sidenote, judging from the types of people who believe in memetic pseudoscience, I would suggest that it is perhaps an attempt for atheists to dress their religious belief in scientific garb. Seems quite dishonest to me, especially since these individuals level precisely the same charge against creationists and intelligent design advocates.

Why do I believe that God exists? Because I am not blind, that is why. A simple look around at the complexity and beauty (dare I say 'design'?) of the world is all that one needs to be convinced that there just has to be something more out there than nature itself (see Romans 1:20) ... it's the finding what and who that 'something' is that is the difficult part.

I like to think of it this way:

What takes more faith: believing that nature and natural processes just so happened to create our planet at the right size, with the right gravity and atmosphere, at the right distance away from the right sized and right coloured sun (that is, what is known as the anthropic principle), which was able to somehow create life from non-life, which somehow gained the right new and previously unseen instructions in the DNA to enable it to mutate and so on into human beings, or, to believe that some all powerful being just made (or created) what we see?

It requires less faith to believe the latter than to believe the, for practical purposes, impossible former. In fact, there are an increasing amount of agnostic scientists around ... scientists who are convinced for purely scientific reasons that there must be something else out there because they realise that nature by itself cannot adequately explain the creation (or origin) of what we see. Further more, I don't buy the evolutionary faith-tag that "With enough time, anything is possible" ... it's the materialistic equivalent of "God did it". If the chances of some event (not to mention multiple equally next-to-impossible events happening sequentially) is really essentially zero, then no matter how many years go past, it won't come through to fruition. It just isn't a logical or reasonable assertion to make...

The question that people should ask is not "Does [God] exist?" rather "Who is this [God]?" That is the question that I am seeking to find the answers to. For me, I've got a lot of misconceptions about God and everything through the observations and experiences in my life and it's something that I have to deal with myself before I can truly answer that question.
I think that the comparisons are laregly hopeful or fanciful, but at any rate...

~ Matt.

Definitions:
Anthropic Principle - The conclusion that the universe appears to be designed for the survival and well-being of mankind.

I know it is Jesus who created me, because He has prevented me from thinking anything else.

J.E.B.

I was raised in a Christian home all my life. I must have prayed the salvation prayer more than 6 times. I got interested in that magic stuff and started reading this demonic book. I did bad things. God was always like someone behind the scenes. He was like someone that I would run to in time of need, but when things got better, I’d forget about Him. I didn’t really know who He was. I always hear that He is God, that He created the stars, the sun and the moon. But if someone was to put a gun to my head and made me swear I believed that, I wouldn’t. I lived my life the way I wanted and almost died a few times. Many times He saved me out of my sin…and then I’d forget that He did it or I’ll just shrug it off and say that it was coincidence.

Then one day I started to search for Him with all my heart. I’ve been a real hypocrite and even my non-Christian friends started to point out what hypocrite Christian I was. This made me real angry. I was angry at myself for putting God down and always making Christianity look bad. I made Christians and non-Christians stumble because of how I lived. People who wanted to come to know God changed their mind because they saw how I was living. It came to the point where I wasn’t playing games anymore. It was either God or me. Either God is true, or I live the way I want to. So I went searching for God. And I because I was disobedient and was reading about demons….and also I was a big sinner living my life doing real bad things….I opened doors for demons.
And so when I started searching for God…there was demonic resistance. It happened only at night. I would get visits from demons. They would choke me and put pressure on me when I was praying. Most of the time I would be so weak in faith that the minute they sat on me and I couldn’t breath, I’d instantly stop praying and stopped focusing on God. One of them even laughed at me when that happened. I’d feel so guilty because my faith was so weak. It affected my grades, because I would be at school…too afraid for it to get dark, because I knew that I’d have to go to sleep soon. I had physical demonic attack for three nights in a row. I lost sleep and concentration. I try to think it was a dream but it kept happening and proving me wrong. That third night I had a strong demon visit me. Even though I prayed and prayed and stopped praying…it wouldn’t let go. It was the first time I actually felt hands around my neck. It felt like I was in a sea drowning….going deeper and deeper…for some reason I had that thought in my head. My husband was next to me and I couldn’t reach him. Even if I did, it wouldn’t do any good. I just continued to pray. And the demon resisted…and keep on holding on to me, until I was on my last supply of oxygen….and I remember telling the demon It doesn’t matter if you kill me…not matter what I will believe in God. If I die tonight I will still believe in God. In a way I was saying it to the demon, but it was directed to God.
Then blank…darkness.

I thought I died. The next morning I woke up. Remembered everything that had happened and I praised God and cried out loud. Something was different. My eyes had been opened, and everything looked different. I understood things, things that I’ve always learned but never understood. That day I went to school, saw the moon in daylight….and KNEW that God had made. No doubt. I KNEW. Someone could have put a gun to my head and I would still swear that God made it! My life became new that day. And God was glorified. And I cried….now knowing that all this time it was all true. The bible was true. It was too good to be true…and now it is! Thank God! I had so much joy I thought I would burst.

It would be a lie to say that I don't get encounters from demons anymore. They still come at night sometimes so that they can scare me. But when they are commanded to leave in the name of Jesus Christ....they are gone....fast. Praise the Lord, He has victory over death.

There's my confession. I hope you believe me...because if you don't, then it means you think I made it up. Have a nice day, and may you seek God so that He will reveal Himself to you.

Puppet-kun said:

Seriously.

I'm an atheist. Whenever I ask a christian this they always dodge the question and say "Because jesus loves me!" and never actually answer my question properly. How do you know it was Jesus/God that created you? Whenever I ask this I always get "Shut up satanist" as my reply.

I don't understand. I was brought up in a christian home and went to church every sunday. Yet I never understood and thought that the concept of an old bearded man was comparable to the concept of a rabbit that hops all around the earth every easter. I thought the bible was a really long story-book....

I never understood that. God didn't love me. He was too busy caring for the hateful people. People like Fred Phelps.

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