When did you first realise that God existed?

Question

Did your parents tell you that God existed, or your teacher, or preacher, or did you read it in the Bible, or did you just wake up one day and discovered God existed?

Science doesn’t know yet if the universe was created or not. However, if we assume the universe was created, then it’s reasonable to assume there was a creator. That’s as far as science has progressed today. Some of the best brains in the world just don’t know.

Religious people don’t say we hope God exists, and we hope God is good, they state that God definitely does exist and then go on to provide a whole list of supporting evidence they call facts.

So if science doesn’t accept religious evidence that God exists, when did you first realise God existed and what supporting evidence do you have if any?

Answer 1

I don't believe in God. I just wanted to tell you that this is an excellent question. You asked it over 13 minutes ago. I wonder why theists are having such a difficult time coming up with coherent answers?

25 minutes have now passed. Still no coherent answers.

Answer 2

My encounters with God are somewhat of a subjective experience. But it should be because it is a personal experience. It is possible that my experiences where purely hallucinations. It is possible that my experiences where a misinterpretation of something else other than an encounter with God. It is also possible that my personal experience were real.

But the subjectivity of personal experiences does not render them false. A testimony of a witness is perhaps one of the strongest pieces of evidence that we have. For example, a person can be the sole witness a murder and be the single entity that makes or breaks a murder case. Additionally, everything we learn in science is learned through experience. Science is not instinctive, but rather acquired.

For the longest time, I rejected God. I thought God was this big bully in the sky. When I encountered God, I realized that he wasn't this big bully that I had imagined, but rather a loving and compassionate Father. This came at a point in my life when I realized how truly messed up I was and how benevolent God was. I for the first knew God existed. My experience told me that God was real, therefore I believe he was.

After "discovering" God's existence, I had to put it to the test. It seemed to me that if God existed, there would be some kind of evidence. The evidence was all around me, but I just didn't realize it. One night when I was looking at the stars, I thought to myself, how could this happen by accident. It was too beautiful, too magnificent, and too awesome to accept that it was purely accidental. I was not the first one to do this. Kepler himself wondered these same things. When he discovered the laws of planetary motion, he came to realize that the universe is ordered, and that order requires and orderer. This to him had to be God. I felt the same way.

Now, if such things are true, then God's existence is not purely existential and modal. It is possible that God's existence is real. I for one believe God is real based on rational arguments and empirical evidence.

Answer 3

God became a being when the first person did some one else wrong. And because they could not say they were sorry they made up A God to ask forgiveness, Just think of all the people hurt everyday by week people with no back bone.

Answer 4

There is NO evidence, it is one of the foundation questions of your worldview you must answer for yourself.

Do I live in a universe where there is a greater meaning to life other than “it happened by random chance”?

Do I live in a friendly universe or hostile universe? That is another foundation question (just to serve as an example there are more than one).

From these questions we build our worldview and the filters we interpret our life experiences through. I believe I live in a universe with a God and with a greater purpose and meaning to life because that makes me feel better than the alternative explanation and allows me to lead a fuller, richer life than I would otherwise. I think Michio Kaku sums up my feeling better than I could.

"I would say that I lean toward the God of Einstein and Spinoza; that is, a God of harmony, simplicity and elegance, rather than a personal God who interferes in human affairs," Kaku muses. "The universe is gorgeous, and it did not have to be that way. It could have been random, lifeless, ugly; but instead, is full of rich complexity and diversity."
--Michio Kaku. (One of the world's best-known theoretical physicists)

He has as much “proof” as any of us and yet he too chooses to believe there is a God. I choose to see order and purpose where others choose to see randomness and chaos.

Answer 5

God has always existed. I've known this all along. Faith separates the arrogant from those who remain humbly servient, and this is why mankind has not seen God in two thousand years, but He will return indeed. I see no reason to give you evidence of His existence if God Himself, who created this world, does not see it fit to reveal Himself to the world at this time.

Answer 6

over time. the pieces offered to me to help complete the picture weren't adding up. basically it was like cutting pieces into the jigsaw puzzle to make them fit. I didn't see it that way.

Answer 7

I don't think I realized it... I think it's more like, I remembered.