Tonight, at work, one of my co-workers asked me, "What made you believe in God?"
I replied that this wasn't always so, that not all that long ago I was a rather rude and blunt atheist. I told him that the Bible tells me three things (at least):
- All Christians are called to tell others about God.
- Those who seek Him will find Him.
- Faith is a gift from God.
"One day I met a Christian who decided to tell me what he believed. For once, I was cordial about it and listened openly. From that day on, I thought about what he told me and one day, I simply believed it."
I told him that the way I figured it, God has given me the gift of faith and though I have many times rejected what God has said and rebelled against it so that I could be regarded as a terrible Christian (if I could be identified as one at all), I have always come back to a simple faith.
So I guess that's why I believe. Maybe one day you'll believe too.
What made you believe in God? If you don't believe in God, what makes you not believe?
True
Comments (55)
Because I have found that simple faith in myself, and it has always been enough for me.
I believe in God when I realized He protected me and has guided me in life in a way that could have been entirely different if He was not with me.
I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when the Holy Spirit riped out my stony heart and gave me the gift of faith! I was blind but now i see! Thank you Lord for setting your sights on me and giving me life and making me one of your called out ones!
Because Christ revealed Himself to me through one of His faithful servants.
Beautiful post. I believe in God for as long as I could remember, and know deep down without him I wouldn;t be here today. I done had many close calls, but he spared my life. God Bless! :)
I believed in god when he gave me strength to go on..that's when I believed and still do.
I think the first time I realized that god couldn't exist was when I had this thought that somewhere in the world there is man that hasn't heard of Jesus. He's a simple farmer who does what he can to provide for his family. He doesn't cheat, lie, steal, get drunk, or solicit prostitutes. Folks who know him would say he is a kind and helpful man who is always cheerful. Your god already has a plan in motion to send this man's immortals soul to hell to burn for eternity because he had never heard of Jesus.
Your god is almighty and powerful and he could have spoken to the man one late evening while he was tending his farm. The many could have heard a voice in the sky telling him to accept Jesus in his heart. Your god could have sent an angel to warn this man. Hell he could have sent a human messenger. He didn't and now he is going to send this man to hell to suffer pain that in my opinion no one deserves to suffer for ETERNITY let alone this poor man. Even with my simple mind I can tell there is something wrong with that yet your almighty god doesn't see a problem. I don't care how mysterious your god's works are. That is evil.
When you realize that 99% of people are born into their religions you start to understand that all religions are all false and there is no god.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - All Man is sinner. We are the messengers. How do you know this man was not exposed? How do you know if this man has ever wondered if there was a higher being? If He seeks God, then God will reveal himself to him.
in general, what helped me lose my faith was the realization that other religions even existed. i was raised to believe that God's existence was as scientifically proven as gravity, antibiotics, or the formation of clouds. i thought everyone in the world was Christian. the only other religion i remember knowing about was Judaism, and it was presented to me as more of an ethnic group. i thought we had Noah's Ark in a museum somewhere. i thought we found Jesus' tomb to be as clearly marked as my grandmother's at the cemetery down the street. in short, i thought Christianity had been proven beyond all doubt.
as i got older, faith was described to me more clearly, especially in terms of its relationship to/differences with holding actual knowledge. and simultaneously, i began to study the existence of other religions. i began to learn about religious conflicts. and in general, i started paying attention. i learned about pro-life protestors. i learned about the Religious Right. and i learned of how my Southern Baptist grandmother doesn't believe Catholics are true Christians, but rather demon worshipers.
and... i just didn't get it. throughout history, most of the world appears to have been willing to die, rape, murder, steal, discriminate, and annihilate... for what? something that we have no more evidence of than Santa Claus? something that appears to be so relative to where, when, and into what social class you're born into that being a religion seems like less of a choice than a social contract?
as i've gotten older, i've become existentialist. i believe that people make their own purposes in life, and that some will always choose that purpose to be religion. but i do believe it's a choice, not a universal reality. i understand that religion and faith can bring about wonderful things. i just don't believe it's enough to outweigh the bad. if i ever come to believe in God, i will never adhere to a specific religion. and my belief will never be absolute. i'll come to believe because it makes me feel better personally. it wouldn't change me any more than deciding to "believe" that Pluto is no longer a planet. but really, i just cannot bring myself to side with so much hate and ignorance, all in the name of being comforted. no one should have to suffer or die just so someone else can feel better about their lives by believing in God.
Love convinced me.
Reading the above two comments from @too_pretty_to_die@xanga - and @Ancient_Scribe@xanga - right after the other really touches me.
Beautiful post, by the way.
I don't believe in God. I was raised Presbyterian and when I was around 10 or so I decided to stop attending church with my parents. I don't believe because of several reasons, mainly because I can't walk up to anyone named God and see him/her standing there and shake their hand. I suppose it's a lot like the whole Santa-thing to me. Parents tell their children about Santa so they be good all year long, and in turn they are rewarded with gifts for their good behavior. God is like Santa to me. If you're good in life, you'll get the gift of going to heaven. I like the idea of religion -- that you should live your life with good morals and are good to others -- but I think you should just do that out of the kindness of your own heart, no to go to heaven or to please some guy in the sky.
Also, I have several friends that are very much into religion. They are more sinful than I'll ever be. I don't need religion to be a good person, I do it because I want to be respected. Several of my friends went to church every week and did a lot of community service, then they'd go do hardcore drugs and sleep around with guys 10 years older than they were (and they were around 14/15 at the time), then ask for forgiveness. It's quite sad.
Love and grace showed me the way.
The fact that Jesus was willing to suffer and die for us -- this is Love. If I'm loved this much, it would be terrible for me to reject God, and to not believe. The least I can do is try to be the best Christian I can.
God revealed himself to me, it actually was not a one time thing. It was a progress, there was no sinners prayer. He just started working in my heart. At first I actually rejected him, I refused to go to church with my then girlfriend. But God has a creative way of doing things. He softened my heart, while my girlfriend was sick, so I decided to go just to make her happy. The great thing about God was he started working in my life before I was even convinced. My very first prayer, he answered the same day, I got an apartment, even though my credit was trash, but it was part of a bigger plan he was doing in my life. He took me out of a life of sin. Even after that, I still continued to fight him, I was rebellious in going to church. I noticed one thing as I think back, I believed in God, but I wasn't convinced in Jesus. It wasn't until he reveal Christ to me that my life truly began to transform. God, out of his wonderful love, patiently worked in my life for almost 6 months, while I continued to reject him, but then he changed my heart, and let belief in. I realized that was his plan all along.
I knew about God from an early age since I was taught it.
I started believing because of several odd and frightening experiences.
Who knows? Maybe I'll be lucky and find out it was schizophrenia all along.
Fear made me believe in God. Until I was a teen, the thought of ultimate death, fear of us being on our own, the thought of nature and the universe being utterly indifferent about my/our well-being, the thought of there being no universal justice - good people often get off poorly and bad people often get away with it, that suffering existed for no good reason...the thought of these things scared the bejesus out of me, or well, into me :)
After a while I became able to hold rationality above emotional responses like that...and my religiosity scattered away like cock roaches when a light is turned on (hint, symbolism
Throughout my teen years, I wondered if there was a God. I was really afraid of dying because if God wasn't real, what happened? We just slept forever? The whole thought of no life after death terrified me to the point where if I thought about it, I wouldn't go to sleep. Throughout HS, I went to a Christian church a couple of times, and everytime I went I found myself crying for no good reason. But church was "too early" for me, and I just stopped altogether until last year. My boyfriend has been Christian all of his life, and he was always at church, keeping busy, playing music. He never tried to convert me at all. I just became intrigued by what ever it was that was keeping him so into church. So I started going to this other church and praying and reading at home, to see what this God stuff was all about.
One day, my BF came over and talked to me about feeling guilty about the lust we had caved into a little while back. Well, the lust he caved into. I didn't view sex as a problem at all. All my life, I had been a really lusty, sexual person. Once in a while, I felt bad about it even though I didn't really believe in God. But I spent all my life justifying it, too. Even to religious ppl, I'd argue, "Well, I love so-and-so, I don't see why having sex with them is wrong." But all of a sudden, I felt really really terrible. In that moment, I know God was convicting me and calling me back to Him, to the way I should've been all my life. After my BF left, I sat alone in my room and cried for hours, thinking back on the terrible things I had done. In that moment, all of my doubts melted away. I felt God softening my heart in a crazy way. That's when I knew. I have done some terrible things to people I know and love, and the most response it had elicited from me was deep guilt, crying. Not that I was heartless, but it's just that this sadness and bitterness I felt was indescribable. There was no way that as a human I could feel this sorry towards someone I couldn't even see. That regret I felt was being felt in the depths of me, my spirit and soul. And I just knew. And the best part was that thru all of that sadness, I somehow felt more hopeful and happy than ever. Because God didn't hate me, even if I messed up!
Since that day, God has continuously shown me that He is real. I don't believe in God like it's some kind of faith. I know, with 100% certainty that God is real and alive. I believe it more than I believe in the air that I breathe.
I have always known and believed that God existed. I was homeschooled growing up, and Bible was one of the subjects I did. However, I wasn't always on speaking terms with him. I had been told by well meaning church officials, that the reason by Dad was disabled was because my family did not have enough faith in God. If only we really believed, then my dad would be healed. Not suprisingly, comments like this, turned me away from God and the church that I attended at the time. It also sent me into depression, as I considered the whole thing to be partly my fault. This was deepened, after my father, in anger one day, said that it was our (my brothers and I) fault that he had attempted suicide.
So I decided that since I was evidently to blame for his two suicide attempts, and my ack of faith was keeping him disabled, I decided that everything would be better if I died. So I thought about suicide, and it seemed better and better, so I got down my dad's gun, made sure it was loaded, and held it.
However, the chorus to a song that I had heard from somewhere, I am not sure where, popped into my head. It went as follows
"Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives."
I could not shake those lyrics from my head, I listened to them, and I put the gun away, I attended a couple of youth rallies, entitled Acquire The Fire. I saw the love and passion that those who attended had, and I wanted what they had. So I started doing some reseach about what these people had that I wanted. At the second ATF event I went to, I went forward and asked Jesus into my live.
So, when did I believe that God existed? always. When was I saved and asked Jesus to be my Lord and Saviour? February 13th 1998 10pm Sacramento California, at the Arco Arena. A day I will not forget.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - No person will ever go to Hell because they did not believe in Jesus Christ. They will go because they are sinners... If there is any person who is without sin they have no need to be saved and will go to heaven without ever hearing of Christ.
I truly hope that understanding this will chip away at your atheism which seems to be built on some very false conclusions about the Christian God.
Grace and peace!
~Michael
@Ancient_Scribe@xanga - Yes.
I think the Holy Spirit speaks to people in many different ways. Some people, like myself, have always known. I wasn't raised particularly religious but I desired God on a deeply internal level. When my mom stopped going to mass I would catch rides with the neighbors, when I could drive I would go on my own. It wasn't for the social aspect, until my junior year of high school I almost always sat through mass alone but week after week, month after month something compelled me. I would often cry throughout mass because I was so moved by the Spirit. This may be common in some Protestant denominations but I assure you it is NOT common at Catholic mass, lol! So deep down I've always believed, through trials and tribulations, through denomination hopping (including a stint of Buddhism with my formerly atheist husband) and long stretches of not attending mass, but my belief in God never wavered.
Now why I am still a Catholic (and more of a Catholic than ever) is an entirely different story but it is not as simple as "because I was born into it" although I do thank God everyday for the grace of the sacraments I received as a child even if I didn't recognize the gifts I was given at the time.
@bubbelcat@momaroo - Wonderful! Thanks for sharing this with everyone! Now I will know another Xangan in the Eucharist!
I believed in God because it was indoctrinated in me. I stopped believing not only because I realized the reason I believed was not enough to justify my belief, but also because I was tired of being told to rely on someone who I never felt cared about me when I was at my lowest point.
That said, I am very happy some people find solace in it and don't think less of those who do.
The extended version of my story is here: http://unabridgedtales.xanga.com/731226131/i-was-never-happy-as-a-christian/
Other reasons I don't quite believe are outlined in this post, though some have evolved: http://www.revelife.com/728643451/my-qualms-with-christian-doctrine-as-i-understand-it/
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - *bows down* This tops any religion-bashing I was going to do. I agree 120%.
But seriously, if you really think about it, there can't be a magical man floating in the sky. I mean, honestly, just with your reasonable thoughts, think about some gigantic guy with a beard watching you from a cloud. We even KNOW what's up there. We've SEEN that there is no "heaven". And yet people continue to put this made-up foolishness into their kids heads. My parents forced Christianity onto me and I never believed it after like 4th or 5th grade. I kept telling my mom she was being stupid for thinking there was a real "God". I will always use my one famous phrase, "I outgrew God just like I outgrew santa and the easter bunny." It's just another make believe thing in the religion full of lies and made up stories.
One more thing. A human being wrote the Bible. Human beings lie. Therefore, anything written by a human being with no real evidence to back it up has plenty of reasonable doubt. The Bible is just a made up story that a bunch of guys decided to write about their friends, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
/end rant.
xX Ame ~*~ Hana Xx
I always believed on some level that god was real. When I was 11, my best friend drowned. She was 14 years old. The night of her funeral as I was laying down in bed, I looked up and saw her standing at the foot of my bed. Her lips never moved, but I clearly heard her voice say, "Im alright, Sissy (my childhood nickname), Im alright." She was draped in white and had beautiful glow to her. The sight of her terrified me, nonetheless... She vanished into thin air and I went running into my mothers arms and told her what had happened. I wouldn't come out of my room for days after that. My mind couldn't comprehend any of it. Three days after her funeral, I woke up with some energy but still fuzzy headed. I walked into the kitchen and reached for the phone. I told my mother, "Im going to call Ginnie and see what she's doing today!" Immediately my brain flashed "WARNING" in my head and the horrified look on my mother's face scared me that for a second I had lost my mind. Realizing that calling her was something I could never do again threw me into hysterics and I went back to bed. Later in the day, I decided to take a walk. I headed for a clearing in the woods behind my house. It was a favorite spot of ours. I sat for hours, talking out loud to myself and nature. I asked God repeatedly why he took her away from us. After a while I started to feel calm and my prayers changed into pleas to keep her safe, always. Somehow, out and alone in nature, I was able to comprehend that God was keeping her safe and that was the reason she wanted me to know she was alright.
Over time, I've come to find that the best people don't always live very long... It would make being on earth to much desired when all our souls really want is to go home to God and to the loved ones who left us along the way.