• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

What convinced you?

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Was just watching a debate between David Silverman and Alex McFarland and Alex during his opening statement, say that he have been a believer since he were 22 and have spend a huge amount of time, travelling around the world and studied this topic and that he is now firmly convince about the truth of Christianity.

Unfortunately he doesn't say what exactly convinced him which is fine as its not really what the debate is about.

For people interesting in which one im talking about:

But it made me wonder and have nothing to do with the debate, it was just something that struck me as being interesting to know. So what exactly made people here on the forum convinced about the truth of their beliefs. So what were the single most convincing argument or evidence for you to come to believe in a God?

(This is not meant as a debate thread, but merely out of curiosity)
A person can convince themselves of just about anything in their mind. It's not hard.

The giveaway is when a belief from somebody's mind is attempted to be applied with reality. It tells you the truth of the matter when they can't do it.
 

Koldo

Outstanding Member
Was just watching a debate between David Silverman and Alex McFarland and Alex during his opening statement, say that he have been a believer since he were 22 and have spend a huge amount of time, travelling around the world and studied this topic and that he is now firmly convince about the truth of Christianity.

Unfortunately he doesn't say what exactly convinced him which is fine as its not really what the debate is about.

For people interesting in which one im talking about:

But it made me wonder and have nothing to do with the debate, it was just something that struck me as being interesting to know. So what exactly made people here on the forum convinced about the truth of their beliefs. So what were the single most convincing argument or evidence for you to come to believe in a God?

(This is not meant as a debate thread, but merely out of curiosity)

I won't even read the other posts on this topic before this post of mine. My take on it is that most replies can be succinctly expressed as some form of: What convinced me was my own bias.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
What convinced me was a set of experiences, none dramatic. Over time, I started feeling that there was something beyond ordinary existence - that life had a purpose beyond mundane and basically meaningless biology. In terms of Plato's cave allegory, I became slowly aware that there was something outside the "Cave":

platoscave.gif


Then I started searching for some set of beliefs that would make sense - that would tie together the meaning of life, how justice and balance actually exist in spite of them not being apparent and so forth.
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
A person can convince themselves of just about anything in their mind. It's not hard.

The giveaway is when a belief from somebody's mind is attempted to be applied with reality. It tells you the truth of the matter when they can't do it.
I find it extremely difficult to convince my self about something I don't believe. For my self it might or might not be very special, but I started out not caring at all, to the point where I wouldn't even refer to my self as an atheist, first of all, because I doubt I would have known what the word meant at the time, but also because it simply weren't something I thought about.

It were all the terrorist things that started my "venture" and strangely got me very interested in beliefs and not only religious beliefs but in general, that everything we do or think we know is based on what beliefs we care to hold. So it made me wonder, how come when people have access to the same information they reach different conclusions? Since Christianity are the main religion in my country and having never read the bible, my knowledge were very limited to say the least. I knew who Moses and Jesus were, Adam and Eve all the very basic stuff. but knew obviously that religion are about believing and that a lot of people did, so thought I would try to read the bible with an open mind since so many people believed it, I might have missed something. And honestly it only took a very few pages, before I knew I were an atheist, but decided to read it anyway.

So to me the most convincing evidence were the bible.

It would be really difficult for me to convince my self that its actually true, as all the evidences that have "made" me an atheist, I would have to somehow ignore. or do you just mean people in general can convince themselves of whatever?
 
Last edited:

1213

Well-Known Member
...
But it made me wonder and have nothing to do with the debate, it was just something that struck me as being interesting to know. So what exactly made people here on the forum convinced about the truth of their beliefs. So what were the single most convincing argument or evidence for you to come to believe in a God?

I think I have always believed in God. It is just logical reason for existence. Things that have made my belief stronger are:

1. Things seem to happens as Bible tells. For example Jews were scattered and now long time after the prediction they have got their country back.

2. Bible gives the best explanation for why our planet looks like this. I think people would not have had that information without God. Are you a disciple of Jesus?

3. Bible God knows well people and how people act.

But most important thing for me is the teachings of good and right. Reason why I want to be loyal (faithful) to Bible God is that I think He is only good one and His teachings about right and wrong are the best.
 

robocop (actually)

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Was just watching a debate between David Silverman and Alex McFarland and Alex during his opening statement, say that he have been a believer since he were 22 and have spend a huge amount of time, travelling around the world and studied this topic and that he is now firmly convince about the truth of Christianity.

Unfortunately he doesn't say what exactly convinced him which is fine as its not really what the debate is about.

For people interesting in which one im talking about:

But it made me wonder and have nothing to do with the debate, it was just something that struck me as being interesting to know. So what exactly made people here on the forum convinced about the truth of their beliefs. So what were the single most convincing argument or evidence for you to come to believe in a God?

(This is not meant as a debate thread, but merely out of curiosity)

I had proof so I always believed in either God or Aliens. Living in accordance with God helped me to strip away the Alien part.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
Was just watching a debate between David Silverman and Alex McFarland and Alex during his opening statement, say that he have been a believer since he were 22 and have spend a huge amount of time, travelling around the world and studied this topic and that he is now firmly convince about the truth of Christianity.

Unfortunately he doesn't say what exactly convinced him which is fine as its not really what the debate is about.

For people interesting in which one im talking about:

But it made me wonder and have nothing to do with the debate, it was just something that struck me as being interesting to know. So what exactly made people here on the forum convinced about the truth of their beliefs. So what were the single most convincing argument or evidence for you to come to believe in a God?

(This is not meant as a debate thread, but merely out of curiosity)
being convinced as a believer requires no proof. that is what a believer is.
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
being convinced as a believer requires no proof. that is what a believer is.
Imagine that you have never heard about God and you meet a person on the street and he ask you "Have you heard of God?" would you then answer, "Well I do now, so ill believe in him" :)

Hopefully for any believer they need slightly more than that to convince them :D It doesn't need to be a proof, just an experience or explanation, something that convinced you.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
Imagine that you had never heard about God and you meet a person on the street and he tells you "You know about God in the heavens?" would you then answer, "Well I do now, so ill believe in God" :)

Hopefully for any believer they need slightly more than that to convince them :D It doesn't need to be a proof, just an experience or explanation, something that convinced you.

experience and belief aren't synonyms. they are opposites. experience means one knows something. belief means they don't.. you can't have experience and belief.

people who worship what they believe don't worship the same thing as those who know and worship. jesus was a gnostic. he wasn't a believer.



John 4:22
 

We Never Know

No Slack
being convinced as a believer requires no proof. that is what a believer is.

That's because it's all faith based. A believer doesn't have any evidence that a god does exist but chooses to believe a god does exist all on faith.
Nothing wrong with having faith same as there is nothing wrong with not having faith. It all relies upon the person and their choices.
 

sealchan

Well-Known Member
Was just watching a debate between David Silverman and Alex McFarland and Alex during his opening statement, say that he have been a believer since he were 22 and have spend a huge amount of time, travelling around the world and studied this topic and that he is now firmly convince about the truth of Christianity.

Unfortunately he doesn't say what exactly convinced him which is fine as its not really what the debate is about.

For people interesting in which one im talking about:

But it made me wonder and have nothing to do with the debate, it was just something that struck me as being interesting to know. So what exactly made people here on the forum convinced about the truth of their beliefs. So what were the single most convincing argument or evidence for you to come to believe in a God?

(This is not meant as a debate thread, but merely out of curiosity)

I had a pair of experiences that made an immediate impression on me as to my need to profess a faith in God in the Christian context. I also had a strong inclination to read non-fiction and on topics related to myth, science and psychology. The "sudden" experiences I had plus this philosophical study I gradually undertook both, no doubt, influenced my change from Christianity disliker to Christianity promoter/reformer.
 

Liu

Well-Known Member
I'm a pandeist, so not sure whether that counts as belief in a god, but: the existence of consciousness.

The reasoning goes as follows:
- The universe/existence seems to be one coherent something:
It consists of several different "worlds", including the physical universe, the subjective psyche, and the laws of logic, but they are interrelated, so it seems quite likely that they are part of a whole.
- Since this whole includes subjectivity/awareness/consciousness, and since this is something utterly different from physicality, it seems quite likely that subjectivity did not arise from physicality but is a fundamental characteristic of the universe.
- Therefore the universe could be described as a kind of deity.

That doesn't mean that this would necessarily be a personal deity like what theists proper believe in. Who knows whether the subjectivity aspect of the universe forms some coherent consciousness at some level larger than that of incarnated beings like us.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
The issue of religious faith has always been difficult sledding for me, even here in Michigan, as I have long had a strong science orientation. But starting about 4 years ago (I'm now 74), I had a long series of incidents that led me to "experience" things that I have explained here before but which would take a lengthy series of posts to explain but don't feel the need to go into that detail again.

These "experiences" went on for almost three years, and they were driving me nuts since it involved "premonitions" involving my old VERY Catholic girlfriend who changed my life 54 years ago when we both were working on our undergrad degrees, thus giving me a sense of direction, After two years, I was eventually able to verify these "premonitions" as being true. But since I've been happily married to another woman, also a very devout Catholic, for 52 years now, I knew that the Boss wouldn't want me to leave her, so what was this all about? I simply didn't know.

Then I kept on getting the impulse to visit the Catholic church were I went with my old college girlfriend several times way back then, but that would involve a three-hour drive. I finally told my wife what was happening, and she agreed I'd better go to that church, so several weeks later I did. I didn't know what to expect. Was I just going to think about my old girlfriend with tears in my eyes wondering what would have happened if I hadn't left her? Again, I didn't know what to expect.

But the end result was that during the mass, starting with the Lord's Prayer, it was like a curtain being lifted from my eyes, and I began to see what this was about, namely to bring me back into the Church that I had left 20 years previous, so I reconverted last summer and have been very happy about this decision as I've gotten heavily involved.

To say that "God works in mysterious ways" is an understatement as far as I'm concerned.
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
experience and belief aren't synonyms. they are opposites. experience means one knows something. belief means they don't.. you can't have experience and belief.

people who worship what they believe don't worship the same thing as those who know and worship. jesus was a gnostic. he wasn't a believer.



John 4:22
I don't see why experience and belief are opposites, its possible to have a certain amount experience about something without a complete knowledge of it and therefore fill the lack of experience with a belief. I don't see why that would be a problem?
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
That's because it's all faith based. A believer doesn't have any evidence that a god does exist but chooses to believe a god does exist all on faith.
Nothing wrong with having faith same as there is nothing wrong with not having faith. It all relies upon the person and their choices.

actually when faith is used to justify negative behavior against a neighbor, there is much that is wrong with it.

Jas 2:14-Jas 2:17 NKJV What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
I don't see why experience and belief are opposites, its possible to have a certain amount experience about something without a complete knowledge of it and therefore fill the lack of experience with a belief. I don't see why that would be a problem?

no one said you had to have complete knowledge of anything but believing has nothing to do with knowing. believing is before the fact and knowing is after the fact. belief comes before and knowledge comes afterwards.


its like forethought and afterthought. they are antonyms. hindsight is considered 20/20.
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
Simple reasons I believe in Setianism/Set

1. We can scientifically confirm the mind/consciousness can go against nature and has different properties from it.
How has this been scientifically confirmed? Science can only evaluate natural phenomena, so I don't see how this would be possible.

2. We can scientifically confirm the higher consciousness of humans arose across the species, exponentially, in a close amount of time, and ~100,000+ years after we have already evolved as a physiological species (Upper Paleolithic Revolution / UPR)
...
4. Nature does not work the way the UPR occurred.
What occurred in the UPR that you believe is naturally impossible, and how do you demonstrate this?
 

Nimos

Well-Known Member
no one said you had to have complete knowledge of anything but believing has nothing to do with knowing. believing is before the fact and knowing is after the fact. belief comes before and knowledge comes afterwards.


its like forethought and afterthought. they are antonyms. hindsight is considered 20/20.
Ok, I get what you are saying. I think its just a matter of wording. I agree that knowing is the opposite of believing.
 
Top