i can't answer your question (i'm an atheist, too, but a spiritual one. some people say it can't make sense but... whatever), but i'll say that i think jesus was a remarkable person, a genious, and the nicest person in the world.

Hillsong United, check em out.

I'm Christian, but I also believe in evolution over creationism, though I think that it's really a bit of both. Anyways, for me it just makes more sense to believe in God than not to. Humans are so small and insignificant in relation to the world, universe, galaxy, other galaxies, etc. Human brains are so small by comparison that there's no way we can accurately comprehend the intricacies and details of, well, everything. Therefore for me, faith seems like the smartest option and the most well-educated decision, as I know for a fact that the human brain can not make sense of everything. On top of that, to not believe in a higher power is to believe that there is not power greater than human beings, and I just can't believe that considering our relative size and significance.

To put it as simply as possible, God gave me faith, and it is because of faith that I believe. Think of faith a a conduit, a means to get life from where God is to where we are. It carries life. It enables the believer to believe. We cannot get faith on our own. We may certainly ask for it. We can call out to God for it. I remember praying the "if You are there, show me" prayer, and God, at just the right time, did. It is not because of good things I do that I believe I have eternal life. It is because I believe that Jesus did for me all the good things necessary to have eternal life. I believe in His ability-- not mine. So faith enables the benefits of Jesus to come to me.

It helps to try to understand that the word "faith" is something slightly different from the meaning it is often given. If you ask me "Why do you have faith?", I say, Because God gave it to me. But if you say "Why do you believe?", I will tell you, "Because God gave me faith". Then if you ask me, "What do you believe?", I will tell you the Gospel, which is that Jesus has obtained for me eternal life by what He did, not by what I do.

It's harder to say there isn't a god than to say there is.

Make of that what you will.

ok....you asked for a story...
i was born eight weeks early. twenty years ago, that was considered a lot. it was late at night, and the scheduled doctor was not in to deliver or help. turns out thats a good thing. he missed a lot of things that led to my being born so early and was seemingly pretty incompetent when it comes down to it. another doctor filled in and, with the help of a med student doing rounds late at night, got me out with a C section. the med student took me, knowing something was wrong, and performed a test that she had only just learned that week in class. otherwise, the test wouldnt have been done. she found that i had two things wrong. first, my throat didnt connect to my stomach. and second, my throat DID connect to my windpipe. my first feeding would have killed me. i was baptized by someone...i dont know who. my mom was near death and my dad wasnt allowed to see me so no one was around cept me and the mystery baptizer i guess haha...i was zipped into surgery and...well, here i am. the story of my series of coincidences kind of birth was the one that kick started my faith. i cant quite call it a coincidence. just sounds too weird. kay so flash forward...
i only recently started praying the rosary consistently, for a special intention (which i would appreciate if you could pray for too). since i began praying it, ive seen a rose every day. im really not batty, honest. i just dedicated myself as much as i could to god through mary. its tough, and i often get distracted but if i pray it, without a doubt i have seen one every day. not particularly a real rose, its a bit different all the time. tattoos, pictures, gardens, clothing, even on a quilt being made by a friend this weekend. i thought i had strong ish faith before, but...the physical reminders are truly comforting. before this i bounced between "there is beyond a doubt a god." and "does god really exist at all?" now i often ask "where is god?" but im not bouncing between those incredible extremes that i was. i havent seen my rose yet today...

oh...nevermind. there in the Minis bouquet below this comment box.
haha, just when i think its too late and ive stopped getting my little gift from heaven...they pop up.

@bbaayylliiee@xanga - Erm...that's exactly point of science.  Every fact that is proven false is another fact gained. That's the only way science can improve. We'll never know it all, but we're always knowing more.

I don't understand it either, but nor can I understand being an atheist.
Seriously, both beliefs completely confuse/baffle me.

How can you fully believe and commit to a vague single deity that may have created the entire world/universe, something so vast and magnificent? It just seems so foolish and I've prayed and I don't feel a thing. :/
But, how could you completely dismiss the idea with only science. Yes, science is great and all but you can't disprove God's existence, it defies logic or science, it runs on faith, that's the whole idea.
I can't commit to either ideology when there is so much in the universe we don't and probably will never know. Humans are pretty insignificant in the scope of... well, everything. And if there is a God, I don't see the point in trying to understand him or his ways; if he's God, chances are as a person I wouldn't completely get them anyway. He's to powerful and things he does my mind may not comprehend. I don't know if there is a God, anything is possible, maybe there are even Gods. I don't deny or commit to His existence, nor does it really matter to me.

The only thing I'm sure of is my life and the people who I love around me. I can commit to them, they're right in front of me. Why can't I just love myself, why do I need His approval?
Then, why can't there be a God that governs the laws of science? He is powerful and all knowing... why couldn't he control evolution, why couldn't it be his own invention?
I'm not going to spend it trying to explain any concrete beliefs to people if I'm not totally convinced of them. And I just don't see how anyone can be completely convinced of either a God or there being no God. The idea is totally foreign to me.

If God did give me life, I am truly thankful.
If not... well, okay then. Thank you Big Bang.
But, I find it insulting to pretend I completely understand God when I, and many other people, probably never will.
I also find it insulting to completely deny His existence when the only proof I have is science, which is useless and incomparable to the concept of faith.

Someone explain it to me?

I suppose I believe in God because I know that I will never possibly know everything. And I feel pain deeper than that explained by chemicals inside my brain. If for no other reason than to explain why things are the way they are and why they are able to be fixed, I believe in God.

I gave up on god...

@landlockedeyes@xanga - "The fact that I've had enough of believing in people. Or trying to."-AGREED.

Mom is an agnostic Humanist of sorts that sometimes believes in a higher power, sometimes not. Dad is a staunch Atheist with years of Catholic schooling baggage. We were raised in a Methodist church but I quit at the end of elementary school because the kids were rude and gossipy. I know I felt the presence of God during the years I went to church, but I didn't fully understand it. For about a decade I flitted around between philosophies and theologies, more searching than anything. I'd stick with something for a few years, really get into it, but it didn't feel right. Eventually, after a series of events, I became very bitter and latched onto Atheism. Now, I know Atheists who aren't bitter, but for me, I had just lost all hope, and it turned me to that. I'm extremely scientically/logic-directed, so that didn't help at all.

Then, in the past year, I discovered that there were some rude and downright mean people within the communities I was a part of. I witnessed people at a gay rights march vandalize property and I got into an argument with an Atheist that quickly turned into a very Angry Atheist moment for him. These moments lifted the veil from my eyes of sorts. I remembered how I had left the church because people were not moral enough. Maybe I had judged too soon, but I suppose it's all worked itself out. I discovered that maybe we are moral, maybe we aren't, but the real truth is that none of us are moral and good all the time. And so I started to investigate the Christian faith, and talk about it with others, and I went through some serious intellectual hurdles as I wrestled with how to approach the Bible.

I believe in evolution. I believe that the universe is 14 or so billion years old. I do not believe that homosexuality is a sin. But these things I am not certain are even that important in the grand scheme of things. During my research, I started to believe that Jesus was the most important part, that to believe that the Bible was "inspired" by God, but written by the fallible hand of man is not against Christianity, just a different take. Yes, there are many views on that issue, ranging from very liberal to very fundamentalist. I know many Christians, even if they're not fundamentalists, believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God. I however believe that on top of what we know to be allegory, much more could also fall under allegory and story-telling over historical truth telling. I feel that Jesus is the central part. Believing that He is your savior is the key, and the details just cause us disagreement and separation. I suppose I might be a mixture between Deism and Theism, but more Theistic. God created the universe through natural mechanisms, God is a part of the universe, but not always in ways that we can tell. Most things that happen have a natural secondary cause, something observable through science, etc., but God is the primary cause behind it all. I'm still trying to figure out how some Biblical stories from the Old Testament fit into my faith. I believe that the story of Eden is just a story, but that gives us trouble. The Garden of Eden shows us how sin/people's idiocy came into the world. Without it, there must be another cause. I would just say that it is Free Will, no need for a Garden, but I suppose we needed the story to illustrate the idea, just like Jesus talks a whole bunch about sowing seeds in the New Testament to explain his ideas. Now, did the idea of the Garden of Eden come from men, or did God give it to us to explain how humans have free will and sometimes use that will to do the wrong thing and eventually we forgot that it was just a parable and eventually took it as truth? I'm gonna go with the latter.

To my friends, what I have come to believe in the past 5 months is shocking. Most of my friends are Atheists, but they were all raised in Christian homes to some degree. Even my one Christian friend is weirded out. I have been such a staunch advocate for Agnosticism at the very least, but Atheism as well for so long, believing that science can answer the important questions and philosophy can take us the rest of the way, that to hear me talk about God now, to discuss the Resurrection as if it actually happened, is I suppose, confusing, interesting, weird, etc. I didn't realize that science and faith aren't in competition until this year. God created science, and they are in harmony, no matter how hard we try to pretend that they cannot coexist. Faith sustains our souls, but science tells us how we were created to have souls in the first place.

So, many Christians will disagree with my personal beliefs. They might call it Christian Light, or something similar. I'm okay with that. I know how I feel about it, and God knows my heart and sincerity in my beliefs and need for Him. Maybe I'm just a silly girl, but I guess I'll find out one day. Or not (old Atheist skepticism rising to the front).

By the way, evolution is sheer foolishness.  Its like looking at the chicago skyline and saying that all those building didnt have a builder or designer but evolved from metal in the ground.  Or looking at a car and saying that it is impossible for there to have been a builder.  If someone told you that no person built your home but it simply evolved out of the trees, water deposits, metal deposits, etc, you would call that person a fool.  But that is no different then saying that all life evolved from a mud puddle... Human beings create things everyday and it is never beyond the realm of belief to think that a human being actually created something but take it to the next level and say that God made all things, then we're getting a bit crazy.  Scripture says that "the fool says in his heart there is no God" - and my evolution friends, your fools.  Behind it all is a sheer denial of truth and a heart that is desperately wicked and wants to fulfill all the desires of the flesh in sin rather than submit to God.  If you admit He is real, then you are held accountable to Him and no longer the master of your destiny but belong to Him.  You close your eyes deliberately because you hate the truth and the truth is not in you.  Repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and live...