beth

I'd like for all the Christians in here to tell why they believe. What proofs do you base your faith on? What experience do you base your faith on? How do you know that your god is real?

spurly

Blondegoddess, I can't believe this thread has been up almost all day and still remains unanswered. I will do my best to answer this thread, and hope that I will not be surrounded by sharks circling to take me under water :-) . (By the way, I love you guys, I really do. You challenge my faith and make me think - even you starboy.)

Here are a few reasons why I believe, I may come up with more later and add them.

1) Christianity is the belief system that seems to give the best answers to the following life questions: 1) Where did I come from? 2) What is my purpose in existing? and 3) Where am I going? Christianity is coherent from beginning to end. We came from the heart of God who created us to have a love relationship with us. 2) Our purpose is to live in a relationship of love with God, to glorify him and enjoy him forever. And we are heading to a love relationship with God that will last forever.

2) Christianity also clearly answers the question of the problem of evil. Where did it come and why does it exist?

3) Christianity is based on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I know that many atheists here don't believe that these events happened, however, I am convinced that they did. (I could go into my reasons for that, but that would make this a very long post.) And if that event happened, which I believe it did, then it validates everything else Jesus ever said or did.

4) Christianity has brought me great peace and forgiveness where once there was only guilt and shame.

5) And I can not discount the influence of my family and friends on my spiritual development. Through their love and concern, they showed me the love of God.

Those are some of the reasons I believe.

Kevin

Godot

Let me start off by saying that whether or not you choose to believe is a personal choice. The fact that you believe, spurly, is ultimately of no consequence to me; I would simply like to make sure that the foundations of your belief are as strong as you think they are.
I would refute this by saying that christianity is the belief system that *you* are most comfortable in accepting. Check your ego and presuppositions at the door: does the answer remain the same?

I would contend that evil is intrinsic to the nature of man as a consequence of our immersion in the real world. It did not come into being: it has always been there. The story you allude to is allegorical for our baser nature rearing its ugly head, nothing more.

I only contend that the ressurection never occured. I am fully prepared to accept that there was a historical figure named Jesus of Nazareth. I also suspect he was merely a socialist carpenter suffering from psychological delusions of a god complex. He probably had some good ideas, but I doubt the veracity of the bible to tell them with any accuracy.
As to your last sentence: do you mean what he actually said and did, or merely what was recorded for posterity? His biography will have been heavily edited by subsequent generations of his followers so they could proselytise more effectively to their particular audience.

Congratulations, I'm happy for you (honestly). Not everyone has such beneficial support infrastructure in place in their lives.
The beauty and self-sacrifice of our fellow man does not suggest the existence of god (unless you're looking for it there). Spiritual development is not limited to the providence of the judeo-christian god (not that I think you were trying to say that); some of us atheist types would argue that they have a high degree of spiritual development.

braces_for_impact

Spurly, thanks for having the courage to answer the main question of the tread. I was wondering if you'd elucidate a bit. Specifically...

See, I asked myself these questions when I was a Christian, and I absolutley felt that Christianity came up short in answering these most basic of all questions. So could you explain why exactly Christianity was preferred against other religions in answering these three questions? What other religions have you studied and believed in order to make an informed and comparitive decision? And finally, could you state what answers you have actually derived for these three questions from your faith?

Here I have to dissagree. Could you please elaborate on how the Christian belief system has explained away the problem of evil, this was a particular area of mine which I found Christianity lacking.

As for reason number three, I'll skip this one, I'm a bit tired of this discussion...

See, again I found the opposite. I think Christianity seems to teach that man is worthless sinners and that value only comes from an outside source. How do you see this?

This one is great, though I would say that they are showing you their love. Give them some credit!

Anyway, you may not have intended to go into depth with this, and it's not my intent to bait you in anyway, I'm just curious how someone can come to the complete opposite of my conclusions about the same subject. Kind of like I wonder how it's possible someone can find my favorite food disgusting, know what I mean?

spurly

I don't have time to answer you right now, but I will do my best to get back to it by Sunday night. I am going to be off-line for a while. Have a great weekend.

Kevin