I dont get it.

[stormpool3710]

I have dont believe in God. And I dont think I ever will again. [The reason for this is becasue the last five or so years of my life have been very difficult, and the only thing that helped me through it was the Great Mother, a celtic religion] But I was wondering, what made you all believe in God? i'm not doing this to be mean, or snippy, offesive or anything, I'm just curious, so please dont take this the wrong way.

[B]

I believe in God and offer no apology for my belief. The last 5 years of my life have been horrendous. I believe that the only reason that I can respond to you is because of my belief. I am quite a bit different than many other Christians in that I believe that most religions have something of value for me to learn.

I have friends who are Greek and Hebrew scholars who tell me that there are names for God that literally mean Mother/Father God. I don't see that in my Bible because my Bible was translated by men. Men who had their own agendas.

What we generally seek when we feel the need to connect with a being greater than man is a relationship. I have seen many of my friends stray away from God into paganism and watched many return to the One True God afterwards. Just keep your mind open and stay away from those would brow beat you and you will find your way home again. While you are into paganism though, make sure that you learn the lessons of meditation and grounding yourself well. Say hello to the Great Mother from me please.

[♥Emma♥]

Well I read the Bible and have 100% in it's competency.
The bible tells us of the foundation of God and his son Jesus.
I know there's a lot of other religious out there.. but I personally don't put my faith in those..however I do believe in Christianity and the Bible.

So what sparked by belief in God is because of one, I was raised into believing it, and two, I read the Bible and have come to an understanding on my own that he does exist. The Bible have even explained the makeup of mankind and the earth even before scientists did.

To name one, In the bible at Isaiah 40:22 - It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

Even back in Christopher Columbus's day when people believed the world was flat, the Bible had long foretold that the earth was circular shaped.

So I do believe that God created the earth and does exist.

[Chantreya [Chani]]

When I was young, I only believed in it because my parents did. And family is your biggest influence growing up, psychology has proved that time and time again. Family generally presses most of your beliefs and such on you without real intention to (or perhaps with, whatever).

As people grow older, they realize that they have different beliefs than their parents. They are influenced by friends and becoming an individual, learning to think for themself. I still believe firmly in God.

He has helped me out in the rough times. I know that He always answers my prayers, even though the answer is sometimes no. He never neglects me, He just sometimes chooses to refuse my prayers and I believe that it is because He has an ulterior motive, something better to come out of it all. I'm pessimistic and I don't always see the light when I'm in the shadows, but I will believe in Him not only in the good times, but in the bad as well.

[Benjiboy180]

Ok, I am just going to throw this out here. Take it as you will.

I cannot tell you that I believe in God because of facts. I cannot point to an amazing flash of light and an amazing voice of God telling me to repent. Let's face it, very very very few people experience that. Paul is the only one who I know that actually falls in that category. I just want to point out why most non-Christians (especially scientific ones) refuse to believe in God. And I am not in any way pointing this at any person, especially not Stormpool who posted the initial question. But so many people have such deeper reasons than facts to believe in a God that they cannot feel. Here is my story.

I grew up in your typical "Christian" home with your typical "Christian" parents. I knew of God, and I even knew him, to an extent, but it wasn't anything that truly seeped into every aspect of my life. I was the youngest of three boys. My oldest brother was the good one. He got good grades, was pretty good at sports, was a great cook, graduated college. He was handsome, nice, a gentleman. Everything my parents wanted in a child. Now for my next brother. He was the rebel. Your typical punk kid who got busted for underage drinking. Went to crazy parties. Had loads of girlfriends. Basically made up for my oldest brother's lack of rebellion. Then along came me. I was a shy, reserved, head-in-the-clouds child. I was extremely easy to keep entertained, and was content in my own imaginary world. Because of this, my parents spent most of their attention on my older brothers and I was left on the back burner.

Well, once they moved out things were better right? Wrong. We adopted two little boys with learning disabilities (both whom I love to death). But again, my other siblings took the focus. By this time I was a teen. A very vulnerable time in one's life. It took a while, but I realized that I didn't know what love was. My family had been founded on this fake love that tried to pass the real deal. I could see right through it though. Then, something happened to crack the filth out into the open. My parents got divorced out of the blue. It took me by complete surprise.

There was no love there. At all. None. My mom then got remarried for her own reasons and thought nothing of my brothers and I. The only one I had to turn to then was either myself, or this God that I had always heard was so great and loving. I tried to work things out myself. I tried to find love. But I couldn't. It wasn't until my sophomore year that I finally gave God a shot. I was doubting Him and wondering about his very existence when He slowly wrapped his arms around me and showed me love for the first time in my entire life. Because of that, I know that God is there. There is absolutely no other explanation. That love could not have come from inside myself. I had tried so hard so many times before. It didn't come from a person because I had no one. It was from God.

This probably won't change your life. This probably won't instantly convert you. But you might as well give it a try. Why not? What do you have to loose. Just ask God, in your mind even, to love you. He will. He will comfort you when no one can. If it doesn't happen, you can just go back to the way you did things before. Nothing at all can be lost. Except if I am right. You then will loose your pain and sorrow. That doesn't mean that you will never feel it again, but God can help you through it. It's worth a shot, right?

God Bless,
Benji

[sparkpaw]

I am a Christian- but I am of the extreme variety...in other words, you can have a controversy as to whether I AM Christian, or NOT.

Basically- the Bible to me is merely a wonderful history book. Maybe God did write it, but, then again, I'd prefer to read the original scrolls that the Bible was founded on, why? Because King James translated it, and perhaps he wanted to control his subjects, as for the NIV- I see no difference in the text.

As for the whole controversy of Created in God's image and evolution...let me throw this in there: [This is kind of two points]

1) Perhaps we ARE [or WERE] made in God's image- as Apes. But, we evolved. Evolution MUST take hold some time, correct?

2) I believe that God is a spiritual being [duh] and we ARE created in his image. We are all spirits, floating, in a sense, around a world also composed of Spirit Particles. After all, God did make the Earth and everything, correct? So, he made us ALL of himself, but US especially in his image. Yet He gave us gifts. One major gift- is our intellect. A thing that we are fully known for. Sure, a monkey can pick things up like we can, but can they build guns like we can? So, part of our intellect is the ability to make ourselves see what we identify everything as. Bob over there looks almost EXACTLY like John. They are even Identical twins. But we tend to notice a slight difference, why? Personality. Our 'Spirit-selves' can percieve personalities rather quickly, so we immediately place an image on them to satisfy our want for seperate identities. [Am I making sense at ALL?] Also, Bob does not see John the same way John sees himself, not even the same way Jane sees John. Why might this be? Because each 'spirit' percieves another 'spirit' completely differently. God knows each of us and keeps us all seperate, we can do the same. Each of us percieve God differently. We can all believe in the Bible, but each of us will have a diffirent favorite passage, all because of how we percieve of it.

[Phew!] I seriously hope that made sense, and I'm not even done!

I believe in Mother Earth, and Father Time, and man other Gods. This is where I deviate HUGELY from Christianity. BUT, all of these Gods, they are like us, they are all a PART of God. Perhaps God has a life, because I know we all do, and if we are made in his image, shouldn't we do as he does? So, he needs seperate entities to watch things for us. Mother Nature balances the Earth, and attempts to keep us in line. How? Death. Hurricane Katrina, Tsunami's, Earthquakes in China. Maybe she even created the environment for Hitler to grow up in so he could choose his path.

But, I'll try not to go too much further.

[..::XuzI::..]

What made me, well #1 my parents are christian

but #2, everything is here, trees, grass, wood, clouds, water.

No man can make it, plus, how is the earth a perfect distance from the sun?