And don't say god. I'm looking for a specific action or event that occured either by your will or not, that changed your life to one of faith in god and/or the bible. If you've had it all along, I guess...uh...don't worry about it.
Don't say "God"? Well what if that is the answer? Asking in that manner is kind of like saying "What does 2+2 equal?, but don't say 4 and don't give me any kind of numbers, equations, or mathematics". Still, I'll bite. For me there was no great event so to speak. I was standing there in a church, on a saturday night with a few ther people around. I was an atheist at the time and I was standing there thinking "This is BULLSHIT bullSHIT BULLshit BuLlShIt, all a bunch of crap makes no fucking sense shitshitshitshit" thinking really hard too, like I was fighting something when out of seemingly nowhere BANGZAP!! I "got it" nobody had been trying to convert me as I had kept my atheism under wraps, I wasn't looking for God or any such sillyness I was just "zapped" by God with knowledge of the truth of the ministry of Christ. And there you have it. No great dramitic event like you see in the movies. Why it was me and not somebody else that he chose, well I don't rightly know. And it seems a bit odd since I was a big fat ol' atheist and everything.
That was what I was looking for, thanks. Faith isn't a logical thing. You have to see a thing a certain way. We all see the same visual information, but you have to interpret it as something that you otherwise wouldn't have. I want to know what made you see things that way, 'cause you (probably) didn't always see them that way. So no defining point of conversion or anything?
Laziness and an inferior mind gave me my faith. I have faith that science journals are accurate, because I believe the scientific method is sound, and that peer review is the best means that we have to arrive at a generally accepted, rational belief. I dont have the mind to do the science myself, so i trust that the scientists' methodology is correct, because a bunch of other scientists have replicated the situation and found the same result. Theres a big difference between having faith for actual reasons and having faith because you get a certain feeling when you eat jesusbread.
God did (sorry that's just theologically correct) Logic isn't a logical thing either, which is why rationalism fails. What's your point here?
That's not what I asked. God is not an event. God doesn't take place. What were the circumstances around your evolving or suddenly gaining a faith in god? Yes. You're right. Logic isn't logical.
True, God isn't an event, which is why I said it is correct to say that God gave me my faith. Events don't give you anything, perhaps events are the cause of one something, but they don't give. Well then perhaps you could show me how you affirm the laws of logic without being circular?
I honestly can't remember for God, but to make a long story short for the "and/or" it was grade 11 (so 2/3 years ago) and I had concocted this theology similar to that of a Baha'i, but my own allowing for the divinity of Krsna and Jesus, and the non-divinity of Moses, Muhammad and such. I liked it, and it made me happy... Anyways, I was prayed everynight, either to Krishna or Jesus it didn't really matter to me cause well, they were the same god. At a performance of our "Meth play" in a neighbouring town, I lost a book of mine, a journal of sorts and I just stopped prayig to Krishna, i felt he couldn't help me...I had read the Bahavaghad Gita earlier in the school year (this incident took place around February) and I had been reading the New Testament I received from the Gideons people back in grade 5 (yay for public schools ). I came to believe that the "all paths are the same" idea was wrong and everything just made more sense. i won't lie, my friends probobly influenced me a bit but it wasn't proselytizing so much as it was just association and talking with them about their faith... Whatever, I know it isn't much (and some of the details have probobly been altered by my horrible memory), and some of you will probobly think I am have blind faith or I was doing it to fit in (I too have thought this) or whatnot but I don't really care (this sounds kinda abrasive when I read it, but it isn't inteded that way...I am way too apologetic). I believe...
I guess this was directed toward me... Yes red is red, I wasn't arguing against that. I probably wasn't as clear as I should have been though. I should have said something like being logical isn't completely logical, and requires faith. For example, if someone were to say, "We cannot except arguments like, 'God exist because he wrote the Bible and the Bible says He exist, therefore He exist.' arguments like those only beg the question, and cannot be excepted if we wish to be honest and examine all evidence objectively. The use of logic or reason is the only valid way to examine the truth or falsity of any statement which claims to be factual." This may sound like a completely logical and objective statement, and one that is strongly opposed to "the irrationality of faith," but it is not. We could question how one knows that logic is the only means of examining the truth or falsity of a statement. Did he come to that conclusion by logic? If so, then he's simply begging the question which is not a logical thing to do. Or did he come to that conclusion by some means other than logic? If so, then he (1) is not being completely logical since he’s not using logic (2) contradicted himself by showing that logic isn't the only way to examine the truth or falsity of a statement. Either way, he must be irrational to affirm his rationality. I believe the proper stance is that faith produces reason. Without faith in certain un-provable “axioms,” knowledge is impossible.
From an early age, about 8 or 10, I just decided that good was the path to choose. Things in the Bible confirmed what I already felt. The connections I tell about at my website didn't hurt either.
Studying the prophecies of the Bible and see how many of them were fulfilled throuhout history and are even today being fulfilled. Another side would be the spiritual aspect of it all. Demons... I have listen to some takes of exorcisms and the things these people/demons say about Jesus is nuts but very interesting. My father has had some encounters with demons and I have as well... Knowing that there is a Dark Side and knowing that this "dark side" hates Jesus gave me a lot of faith in what I believe.
I was around 10th grade, when I decided the whole hating god/religion thing that every teenager goes through was stupid and found something to believe in.
First, I can tell you what killed my faith: Sitting in Episcopal school, age 7, second grade, and listening to the priest explain how the Original Sin of Adam and Eve tainted all succeeding human generations and condemned them to hell...this didn't make sense...why did I or anyone else deserve to be sent to hell for eternity because of the sin of someone else? I shut down right there. What rekindled it: I was transferred into public school in third grade and stayed in spiritual hibernation, attending church only as long my parents demanded it, until I discovered the eastern and particularly Vedic schools of thought...at long last, religious teachings that presented a reasonable God and made reasonable sense in relation to scientific knowledge and human diversity; in regard to sin and evil, a full acceptance of the these horrible aspects of existence and an emphasis on absolute personal accountability for the origin of one's own sinful nature; in regard to the worth of the individual, a philosophy that teaches that human beings and indeed all living beings are in essence eternal and purely spiritual, not soulless or worthless and corrupt, created by an irrational God.
I was raised in a full gospel and baptist mix home and as teenager, I fought against christianity and went to the wiccan relgion. I read tarot cards and did all the nature loving things involved in wicca. In the end I had a very frightening and enlightening experience when I was 18. I called my mother's house in fear and she was waiting by the phone for me to call because she awoke in fear for me. My boyfriend(athiest no longer), 2 other friends and myself went to my mothers and went to church the next morning. I have never lost my faith for one second since that time in my life 9 yrs. ago and I never will.
