Christians: Do you CHOOSE to believe in God? or do you have evidence?

Question

I think that believing in God is an obvious choice, because there really isn't any evidence that God exists, outside of one book. Plus there is so much evidence AGAINST what the bible says. So it must be a CHOICE to go against all of the reality right? I mean you choose to believe in Creationsim, or that the earth is 6000 years old, or that Noah actually took 2 of each species, or that Moses was 700 years old as fact. But there isn't evidence. Yet there is more evidence that the earth is 4.4 billion years old. That evolution created our species, and that the earth is round and 2 +2 = 4. But to go against that is to make a choice NOT to believe the reality right?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but where are all of the science books showing evidence of Noah's arc, or the 6000 year old theory. Why would scientists cover that up? What is there motivation for lying. Don't they just follow the evidence? It makes no sense...

Answer 1

You need to do some more research. There are many other writings about Jesus and his works outside of the Christian Bible. And scientist do follow evidence but many times their theories are wrong. Right now scientist are changing their minds about "findings" about every 5 years. There is evidence that Noah's arc did happen. There have been many fossils of animals from lets say Africa are found in the Americas and fish fossils found in places that suggest water was in the strangest places. Try a book called Grand Canyon: Monument to Catastrophe by
S. A. Austin.

Answer 2

We all have evidence, it is our choice to believe it or not. As far as the evidence for Noah's arc, you might want to just hit a websearch about it, there is a LOT on it. However, scientists like to say its a hoax because then they might have to recant their theories. Scientists arent nessisarily "lying" about the age of the earth but they use faulty methods in dating things and already go on an assumption that the Earth IS several billion years old. Dating the Earth scientifically, never accounts for very important things like natural disasters. They look at a cliff and say the water has hit that cliff for X billion years to make it that way... they dont account that a hurricane can make a cliff in less than an hour. Carbon dating only works if the carbons have not changed in all this time, but carbons have changed a LOT in just the past 100 years.

The fact is, a lot of people dont want to believe there is anything smarter than man and that they may be held accountable for bad choices in life, so its easier for a lot of people to just claim God doesn't exist. As far as evolution goes, there is only evidence that things change within a group, but nothing at all to support something changing from one group to another ie. Lizards to birds, apes to humans etc.

Answer 3

Everybody has a choice to believe God or not believe ( I believe).But you need to understand there are evidence all around us,I mean the Universe wasn't made by itself,neither were we ,everything was made by God and there is evidence in the Bible to.And the thing with these Scientists,they don't know everything just because they can't find evidence of the Noahs arc doesn't mean there isn't proof that there is a God we aren't made to know everything,God knows everything he is the Creator, like I said Everything on this Earth and the planets around us ,the stars, the Universe wasn't made by itself.God is our Father,our Saviour,our Creator and I will be praying for you and all the athiests tonight,I hope God will open your eyes one day and he will and I hope you will believe.

Answer 4

It is a choice. But if the choice I make helps me to live a better life while I am on earth.... why not? Why can't god an science both be right? In different ways? Isn't there more than one way to get to an answer in almost everything in life anyway?

Muslims believe in a higher being that created our world also. But, the do not believe in Jesus Christ and therefore are not Christians. Neither are the Jews. So maybe you should rephrase your question to not just single out the christian faith.

Answer 5

All "religions" are fake, they are a bunch of made up stories that get handed from parents to children like a bad virus.

In this day and age, it is verging on silly to believe in any of these ancient (and cleary wrong) books. These books are fairy stories for adults.

One poster replied... "The book is our evidence" ... LOL the bible is just a book, that is not evidence. So, on that premise, the fact that "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a book, must mean that Goldilocks exists !

The question asker has basically solved the question by saying "because there really isn't any evidence that God exists, outside of one book"

You can prove to yourself RIGHT NOW that god does not exist.
http://whydoesgodhateamputees.com/

Get real people - there is no jesus or god... it has all be made up by MAN :-)

Answer 6

I am following the evidence...there is strong archeological evidence confirming over 2500 sites mentioned in the Bible, right where it told us where these sites would be. There are third party writings confirming many of the events in the Book of Acts, from sources antagonistic and sympathetic. The Dead Sea Scrolls also provided predated (1200 years earlier) versions of much of the Old Testament, including nearly the entire book of Isaiah, and confirmed the text that we use today with an error rate of about one tenth of one percent. I could go on, and on...

Let's take only one of your examples, evolution...why aren't there any missing links? Why the need to create hoaxes to "fill in the gaps?" And, if we gradually evolved from lower life forms, why the sudden surge of new species in the Cambrian era?

The story of creation as stated in the Bible doesn't preclude the age of the universe being the same as you state, as the Hebrew word used for "day" simply meant a period of time. It comes down to faith...you prefer to believe that God doesn't exist, and I do.

Christians are not lying to anyone, and I don't believe that the Bible is lying to anyone, either.

Answer 7

I come from the opinion that both the Bible and science are reconciliable... you're right... alot of what the Bible quotes isn't factual if you take it literally. But think about it... God wants to inspire some scholar a couple thousand years ago to sit down and write His word... what's He going to say? "In the Beginning, was the Big Bang followed by formation of stars in fields of interstellar dust held together by gravity... then came platypuses." He inspired the writers in language they could understand, "First darkness then light, the sea and the earth and animals and people" the sequence of which pretty much follows how scientifically we might explain it.

So I don't really see much of an irreconciliable conflict there. We're progressing in our scientific knowledge, allowing us to explain how it happened... if only we as a society could start appreciating why it happened.

Answer 8

I was raised christian and do believe in god, but have never understood the stupidity in beleiving something as absurd as turning water into wine. Its a good book, and we should live by its morals, but dont take it litterally! We should all strive to live as good people, christian or satanist or atheist, doesnt matter what religion really. I know that humans invent for what is unexplainable. We know how and why the sun raises and sets, but indians a long time ago had a god for that. We will find out in due time how we got here exactly and where we go, til then, doesnt matter what everyone else thinks, just believe what you want to because its as right as any genius cause NOBODY KNOWS.

Answer 9

I believe because of my faith and I do not believe you meant any harm in this question. Many people have this question...you just asked what many are afraid to ask. It's not my place to judge you for asking it.

I don't want to believe there was a huge "bang" and poof the Earth was here. As well, I don't want to believe humans evolved from apes. That's my choice though and I would not want to try and convince you or others otherwise.

One day we will all know the answer.

Answer 10

Hopefully for some of them it's faith. I don't know whether or not that's a choice, but it is an intellectually honest way to reconcile belief with the absence of evidence. I hope that we atheists can grant them that much. Certainly if there were more faith among believers and less insistence that there is evidence* the world would be a better place. For example, Cara's answer (below) is simply wonderful. It's honest and reasonable, and we should compliment believers who act like she just did. My hat's off to you, lady.

* Examples of which are always either so vague as to be meaningless, so false as to be mishonest, or so poorly reasoned as to do nothing but demonstrate the dull-wittedness of the believer.