Do you know WHY you believe what you believe?

Question

Have you had "personal experience(s)" which have led you to believe what you do, or are you 'adopting' the beliefs passed onto you by family...

I use to be an agnostic (actually borderline atheist) until I actually questioned why I thought - what I thought. (I realized it was ideas passed on to me by parents...)

When I opened myself up to God ~ He "revealed" himself to me.
I did have a personal encounter...and my beliefs are NOT what is "dictated" to me by some 'preacher'... I discovered them through a relationship with Christ. (This is something many can't comprehend...nor can you, until you try yourself.)

I've studied God's Word. I've prayed for his Holy Spirit to help me understand...He has.

Have you ever seriously tried it?
If not, what gives you room to argue that God isn't real?
You have no proof to back up your claim...where as I have. God changed me.

God Bless.

okay for the "vague/general response people:"

WHY?

Answer 1

Red,

Yes, I have had personal experiences that have led me to believe what I do. Instead of it being a case where curiosity killed the cat, it is curiosity saved a human.

I have had 2 or 3 personal experiences of supernatural origin. I am glad to hear you have had some of your own. These experiences are a revelation for us to wake up to what we cannot see. God bless you and your family.

Answer 2

It's funny, but I was convinced by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, even though I had always thought the Bible was an errant book that had been copied and changed by men to fit their political agendas. And that's what ultimately convinced me! I still find it amazing! It was a personal encounter with God via his Holy Spirit...I'm so thankful for it. I prayed then, too, even though I was an agnostic. More or less. I believed in God...kind of. My beliefs were a little too vague and "open-minded." I would have fit in well with the Universalist Unitarians.

But I often consider this point, because many people are convinced that you are brainwashed into Christianity (or born into it) or are convinced by sophistry, but that definitely wasn't the case for me. It was a truly personal, genuine encounter...

I'm so happy to hear that you had a similar experience and now know Jesus!! Praise God!

Answer 3

I had the same experience, but in my case my parents were Christian. Once I realized that I only thought the way I did because that was all that had been taught to me, I began to explore other ways of thinking, which led me to my current religion, which I deeply believe to be right for me.

I, too, have read the Bible, several times, in fact. It holds no spiritual significance for me. Please don't assume that people have no proof for the things that they believe until you have heard their story. That is as ignorant a way to think as believing something just because that's what your parents taught you, without having personal experience to back it up. Most kids don't learn that something is hot because their parents told them it was, not really LEARN it; they learn when they touch something that they've been told it's hot and realize what that means--or doesn't mean. We've been telling our daughter that soda tastes gross because we dont' want her to have it at the age of two; it's not good for her. The truth will come to her when she tries it herself and decides if she likes it or if we were right, not until then.

Answer 4

It not that I have never believed before, I born Catholic and did all my Catholic things, then I left in search of something more filling I attended nondenominational churches, that was a bit much for me, so I joined a Baptist church and really liked it, I was born again, baptize in the name of Jesus, then I started reading the Bible going to bible study. I guess my mistake was when I started asking question, because the answers didn't make since, so after battling that for 2 years I left, and I know in my heart that there is no God that would have made us to suffer as much as this God asks us to, and for what an internal life of madness, think he is responsible for our actions because he created us, without understanding what freewill is, and why we the very creation made from the earth with his will be responsible for his creation,
Yes man is destructive, but it because he was taught to be.
Yes we could be living a life that makes us unhappy and turn to god and our life changes, but its because we want to change it was our will, and we used God as our savior, but in fact it was just an illusion

Answer 5

I believe as I do through Faith. The mind may look at the rational, or what you can see, feel, hear or taste, but sometimes you're inspired by words or thoughts to look inside yourself, to find your own path to a faith that each person has, no matter what religion or belief, each person has some kind of faith they feel inside.
I'm not a christian and have never been drawn to follow that path. To me, too much of it was built on the slaughter of others, to make converts and take what wasn't theirs. But Christian or Pagan, people are still people. We all have good and bad among us. It's all how you choose to live your life that matters. At least to me. Follow where you faith leads you, but give others the same right as well.

Answer 6

I believe the sky is blue because thats what people have told me my whole life. I believe in communicating with the English language because thats what I've been taught. Had I not been introduced to a social situation in life, perhaps my brain would have come up with its own ideas about what color the sky is. My beliefs are dependant upon my experiences in life; it would seem as though yours are too.

Answer 7

What you just said please understand it has for me personally, a much sweet taste of honey..., though lol... , for sometime a long time now I have learn to repress such fillings, because i have been to many times misinterpret....this is the best way fr my self to show you I ahve had such experiences more than once, so I am not alone in the world, and you too.

Answer 8

Reason tells me that gods and goddesses are products of the human imagination. In the absence of valid argument or evidence for the existence of deities, disbelief is the only justifiable position.

Answer 9

The only God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.He is the Lamb, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of All, Jesus Christ, the Father, the Son of God, etc. I serve Him and only Him.

Answer 10

Show me the physical proof then I will believe. Science hasn't even proved a Dog or higher spiritual being exists. Do you realize the bible was written by penal colonists?

Answer 11

Because it's true.

May God Bless