What makes you believe? Tell me your story.

I was in a thread earlier today asking Atheists why they do not believe in Christianity (they should have said "any God") anyway a thought came to mind. Atheism just like any belief system (religion) must have their justifications for their beliefs.

Now my question is for all beliefs systems: What gives you your faith in your beliefs? Now I'm not looking for anything like because the book says so or because I just feel it is right.

I am what I consider a spiritual person I have read many many books on religions and am familiar with most what I call pop religion (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, ect.) these are the popular religions of our time the last being the smallest. But I do not believe in an all powerful omnipotent being that lives in another realm. What I believe is that we are all divine beings and connected on a higher state of being than most realize. I used to be a believer in organized religion my family was all Lutheran but never forced it upon me. I cant really say when things changed for me for certain but I know I was in my early teens and at church (not a Lutheran Church I was already exploring ideas at this time) anyway the church was having like a youth alive thing and the group of people put on this skit the basically for all intensive purposes said if you listen to rock music you'll go to hell (grew up on it and love all the old stuff), if you do not pray you will got to hell, if you do not go to church you will go to hell, and on and on.... any this was shocking to me my Lutheran church leaders had never said things like this.... who is write here.... so I tried another church and another until I had attended all six denominations in my town. All of them I could find arguments in their beliefs and the only justification I would get is because that is what the book say or you have to have faith. So began my great personal spirituality discovery process. I read everything I could find on any religion, I kept thinking one of them has to be right this went on for year I read more stuff about native cultures like the Native Americans, the Toltec, Sumerians, ect.. I came to the conclusion that I have now(well 10 years ago), all major religion stems from the same core beliefs something far older than we have knowledge of and lost to time I would guess. I think that what I came to terms with is that organized religion is just a way to divide and what is important is the life you lead in the relationship with your divine being(whatever that may be) should be of no concern to anyone but you.

I would like to hear from every belief system that is represented on here with their defining moment of realization in their belief. Feel free to ask me any questions you have as well I love to discuss religion as long as it remains civil and just that a discussion not a recruitment.

Okay, I'll bite. I don't usually share any of this with anyone. I'm not a "Christian" anymore, but believe in the God of Abraham, study the OT as a book of myth and history, and pray every day. (/background)

I believe because every specific prayer I have prayed sincerely has been answered. I am careful about how I pray, and mainly express gratitude because there's little I need that hasn't been provided already.

But I have prayed for the healing of a friend who had Crohn's, and she was healed in such a way that amazed her specialist doctor. It returned later, to a lesser degree - but I had prayed for it to subside long enough for her to finish college, which it did, completely. I prayed for it to subside so thoroughly that no sign of it would remain. Her doctor said, "if you came into my office today for the first time, I would not be able to diagnose you". He had earlier told her she was one of the worst cases he had seen in his career and that her life expectancy was very short. That was truly a miracle in my mind.

I prayed for my husband to get well when he was extremely ill once, in the hospital with an illness that they couldn't figure out. His mother was trying to have him care flighted to a hospital where I would not have been able to see him, and I managed to convince her to wait 24 hours. Then I prayed hard for his fever to break within 24 hours so she would stand down. Exactly 24 hours later, not only had his fever broken, but they had solved his "mystery" illness and decided to release him from the hospital.

Once I prayed for a vehicle to go to college in. That same day I found a weird bug and became obsessed with identifying it. My search led me to the only entomologist in town, who sent it to the university I was about to attend (it is in their collection with me listed as the collector). Then he decided he liked me so well, and I was going to attend his alma mater, which none of his own kids had done, and he asked around & found out I needed a car. Within 48 hours of me praying for it, I was offered a nice used car for the purchase price of $1, from a person I had previously never heard of.

Do you want me to go on? I could go on all day.

Do I believe I'm anything special? No. But I have prayed with absolute faith, not as a test, and I have been answered again and again.

You can argue it's coincidence, and that is fine with me. I don't think these things have happened so that anyone else will believe. You can argue it is the universe answering back what I've sent out, etc. - and I don't mind if you believe that. But I believe that God has answered my faith, period.

reply to post by Schkeptick


Thank you for sharing that. I can see how that would instill you firmly in your beliefs. Can I ask what denomination? If not that is fine by me I just noticed

I'm not a "Christian" anymore, but believe in the God of Abraham, study the OT as a book of myth and history, and pray every day.

If your willing to elaborate what changed?

Originally posted by ParanoidAmerican
I was in a thread earlier today asking Atheists why they do not believe in Christianity (they should have said "any God") anyway a thought came to mind. Atheism just like any belief system (religion) must have their justifications for their beliefs.

Now my question is for all beliefs systems: What gives you your faith in your beliefs? Now I'm not looking for anything like because the book says so or because I just feel it is right.

Your thread has already failed.... you've made the mistake that people usually make when talking about atheism.
It's not a belief system, it's nothing like religion (No matter how many retarded creationist videos people post) and it is a lack of belief.... not a belief that god doesn't exist.

I don't believe that flying pink horses don't exist, they just don't... there is no evidence and nobody can prove their existence, but I'm not an Apinkhorsist..... I don't need to be because there is no evidence, hitherto, of their existence.

When people can grasp that fact, then maybe these "Atheist/religious" discussions will be a little more productive.

reply to post by blupblup


I guess this was not intended to be an Atheist discussion thread but more about that aha moment when a persons belief/s hits them. You answered not one of my questions but simply stated you don't believe in God do to lack of evidence. I am looking for the core of a persons belief and not looking to make judgments of any kind rather further educate myself and possible someone else sorry that beliefs offend you so much.

reply to post by ParanoidAmerican




I just about made sense of your post


Beliefs don't offend me, I believe everyone is entitled to believe or not believe whatever they wish, that is not my problem.... my problem is people who make threads and fail to even grasp the concepts/subjects that they're trying to talk about.

You're trying to talk about beliefs and belief systems and yet you don't even understand these concepts.

How can you possibly discuss this or hope to educate someone?

I am curious as to what it is I do not understand. You state that Atheism is not a belief system. Quote an Atheist-

–noun a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.

How can it not be if the simple basis of it is to believe nothing unless there is proof. The term belief system is just that that is what you believe.... correct?

You can not say, you do not believe in anything because then Atheism would nothing, it would not exists in that line of thinking.

reply to post by ParanoidAmerican


Hi PA - just saw your question. I've heard there's a way to see if people have replied to you, but haven't found it yet (still looking)...

For about ten years I had found myself very uncomfortable in Christian church settings. The behavior of "Christians", the hypocrisy. I started wondering about how the Bible itself says you'll know people by their actions. The actions I saw were appalling.

But also I had an internal struggle with the idea of the "trinity", of the idea that there is only one God, but we're supposed to pray to Jesus as God. That made me uncomfortable, and I didn't do it. More and more I went to church because I was "supposed" to, but didn't want anything to do with the ideas presented or the people.

We moved overseas and my husband was uncomfortable with the church here (we live in a muslim country and there is only one church, a very different denomination from what he grew up in). For the first time in ten years we weren't going anywhere, and I started studying the Bible on my own, without guidance, for the very first time.

I didn't get past Matthew chapter 1 on the NT before I thought, "Okay, I have to sort out for myself the problem of these so-called prophecies". Long story short - I couldn't sort it out. The writers of the NT made up "prophecies" to suit their own purposes, because they lived in a time where they wouldn't be double-checked by their audience. None of the prophecies for Jesus exist.

And if he wasn't foretold, then you're asking me to accept that a so-called unchanging God suddenly became schizophrenic. I can't buy it. Neither can I buy that God would suddenly decide to change from a unique belief system to something that copied earlier paganistic/hellenistic religions. No one who REALLY understands the faith of the Old Testament and knows about other religions can buy this, I promise. Only ignorance can keep Christianity intact.

So my faith in God remained strong - and by being able to let go of the idea of Christianity, I was able to let go of all the internal struggles I'd had with my faith. All the little problems I'd had were related to the inherent discrepancies of the religion. The beauty I found?

- I don't have to convert to anything. God doesn't require it.

- God doesn't require a belief in anything except for him. Was Jonah a true story or an allegory, a moral myth? Did Job really exist? Is the old testament a true history? It doesn't matter. It's probably mixed history & myth. The old testament is the story of the Jewish people's struggle to understand God, and it was written by MEN. It can only be understood in that context - it is full of wisdom, but it can't be seen as the "inerrant word of God from heaven". The only words straight from heaven were put on some stone blocks, and Moses broke those.

I'm still struggling with where I stand on the details. I'm also working on myself, too - to a new idea that what really matters every day is my actions. It matters how I behave, how I deal with others, my relationships with other people. Christianity doesn't teach that.

The world would be a much better place if all people were taught that their actions are of utmost importance and have long lasting consequences.

reply to post by Schkeptick


Thanks for responding, I really started this post to see what brought people to their beliefs but what I am coming to terms with is that it is easy to describe what changed your views but it is hard to describe why one believes what they do at least for me. I have recently over the last few months started reading everything I can find on Astro-Theology and it is really changing my views on modern religion and its origins. The best book I have read to date is Jordan Maxwell's book and another by Jan Irvin.
Thanks again for sharing I enjoy hearing everyone's stories I discuss this same thing with a group weekly we try to understand really what belief is exactly because so many find it hard to explain what really makes them feel the way the do.