Why do you believe in God?

[logical thinking]

Why do you believe in God?

What specific argument or evidence is it, that persuades you?

Can you please outline the argument or piece of evidence that you believe is the STRONGEST reason to believe in God?

For example, is it the beauty and majesty of trees? Is it the Kalam Cosmological argument? Pascal's wager? Is it that you witnessed what you believe is a miracle? Is it the fact that you think the Bible contains prophecies? Is it because it feels good to believe in something greater than yourself?

Why do you believe in God?

[ttruscott]

Why do you believe in God?

HE talked to me, somehow. It was words and sometimes conversion but the how was unclear though the meaning was clear. A knowledge that if GOD was talking to me it was exactly what HE wanted me to hear.

The difference between hearing HIM and my own thoughts in my head was that I learned new stuff I would never have thought up myself.

The most important thing was that as I was "becoming" you might say, a Christian, I knew I was a fake Christian loving sin and so I prayed daily throughout each day for a year to be given a repentant heart. It ended with a massive and overwhelming experience, an understanding with huuuuge emotional content, of my guilt and how much suffering I had caused everyone around me. I came to believe this guilt killed me spiritually and then I was reborn and life carried on as the weight and feelings of all consuming sorrow of guilt slowly lifted over the months until I realised I had a strength and a bit of new natural(?) way to not be so cruel, hateful nor as much a user.

That cemented it. I have never been the same and thank GOD for that! I'm certainly no Dalai Lama or even saintly but I am a new person who is getting better. This is my witness and why I accept that the Spirit who did this for me is YHWH....no one else was around at this time.

It has little value to anyone else of course so I don't talk about it much.

[logical thinking]

[logical thinking]

If all you've got is personal testimony, as in the cases you cite, I would agree. There is nothing here for science to examine, so I'd say it is not that science cannot explain these events, it is that you've presented nothing for science to even comment on. Even in this forum personal testimony is not considered evidence.

Okay – so once we exclude all evidence that cannot be explained scientifically, there’s no evidence for miracles – which are by definition events that cannot explained scientifically.

I would win every argument I made on this board if I excluded all evidence contra my argument.

What are you talking about? We are not excluding evidence that cannot be explained scientifically!

The evidence you provided can be EASILY explained scientifically, like this: PEOPLE TEND TO MAKE STUFF UP.

There you go. Perfectly simple and easy scientific explanation for bigfoot, alien abductions, bleeding statues of the virgin mary, men bringing fish to monks, flying zombies and other silly fairy tales.


Can you please explain why we should exclude the simplest most obvious explanations ever, for silly fairy tales? Somebody made it up. Why should we ignore that obvious answer to your question?

[logical thinking]

[logical thinking]

Why do you believe in God?

HE talked to me, somehow. It was words and sometimes conversion but the how was unclear though the meaning was clear. A knowledge that if GOD was talking to me it was exactly what HE wanted me to hear.

The difference between hearing HIM and my own thoughts in my head was that I learned new stuff I would never have thought up myself.

What did you learn?

[Tired of the Nonsense]

Why do you believe in God?

What specific argument or evidence is it, that persuades you?

Can you please outline the argument or piece of evidence that you believe is the STRONGEST reason to believe in God?

For example, is it the beauty and majesty of trees? Is it the Kalam Cosmological argument? Pascal's wager? Is it that you witnessed what you believe is a miracle? Is it the fact that you think the Bible contains prophecies? Is it because it feels good to believe in something greater than yourself?

Why do you believe in God?

When people encounter a question for which there is no immediate or obvious answer, there is a tendency to make up an answer that they find appealing, and then to declare the question answered. Others however prefer to seek for the actual answer, even though the actual answer may be too big or too complex to be answered all at once. Many a curious investigator has passed on not knowing the entire answer to the puzzle, but having themselves contributed a piece to the puzzle.

And, no we do not yet possess all of the pieces to the puzzle. But we do have enough in place to determine that the answer to the puzzle probably has very little in common with any answer that was simply made up and declared to be true. Which really should come as no surprise to anyone. And yet many still find the possibility that their particular made up answer is not true to be unthinkable. One reason for this of course is that the actual answer is so complex, the number of it's pieces so vast, that it is very difficult for everyone to comprehend. Which makes the simplicity of the comforting made up answer more appealing and easier to cling to.

[1213]

[Replying to post 6 by RonE], [Replying to post 21 by marco], [Replying to post 33 by logical thinking]

I'm curious what "great knowledge and wisdom" you think we would not have but via the bible? Examples?

Can you give me an example f knowledge in the Bible that could have only come from God?

First I want to say, you don’t have to agree that Bible has great wisdom and knowledge. That is anyway subjective opinion. I just answered to the opening question why I believe. If you have read the Bible and don’t see the wisdom and knowledge, there is not much that I can do to change your opinion.

But still, here are few things that I meant with great wisdom and knowledge and reasons why I think it is great book.

1. Knew impressively what will happen to Jews long before the thing has begun. Bible says Jews will be scattered and later gathered back, as we may nowadays see happening.

I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
Leviticus 26:33

…then Yahweh your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where Yahweh your God has scattered you. If any of your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there will Yahweh your God gather you, and from there will he bring you back:
Deuteronomy 30:1-4

2. Knowledge about the great flood and how it happened. Best explanation for why for example continents, oil fields, certain fossils, ancient coast lines, orogenic mountains exist as we can observe.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/r.berg/index_eng.html

3. But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
Mat. 5:44-45

4. Is allegedly book written by Jews and still paint picture that tells also the bad things about them not only good as usually people do.

5. And maybe the greatest thing is how by examples Bible tells how things go, if for example person does something wrong. In my opinion the great teachings are not always simple lines, but longer story that tells truth about humans. For me Bible has been great teacher and helped me to cope with many situations and helped me to understand many things also about myself. But obviously you could say that any book could do the same. I don’t believe that.

6. Bible seems to be the most hated book in the world. That also tells in my opinion that it has something truthful in it that some people don’t want to accept. If it would be just ordinary book, people would not care about it so much.

7. Bible has promises that I feel has come true. For example Bible promises wisdom for everyone that asks it. Of course you could say that I have no wisdom, or that I would have it anyway. However, I believe things go just as the Bible tells.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
James 1:5

8. And I think it has been correct about future and people also in this:

But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof. Turn away from these, also.
2 Tim. 3:1-5

[1213]

For me Bible is the greatest reason to believe. And that is because it has great knowledge and wisdom that I think people would not have without God.

In order to call something "great knowledge", you must first demonstrate that it is in fact knowledge (i.e that it is in fact true)

Name one piece of knowledge or wisdom in the Bible that would not exist if the Bible was never written?

I think this would not exist without Bible:

But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
Mat. 5:44-45

[JLB32168]

[Willum]

[Replying to JLB32168]

A singularity is easy...
You know that photons (light particles) pass through each other without interacting. An infinite number of photons can pass through the same place at the same time and not interact.

Photons are bosons, and bosons have this property that they can be in the same place at the same time.
So, there are these things called Z bosons, that have mass. So, if you get enough massive bosons together, gravity forces them into a single point or singularity.

Cool, huh?