Can you explain, why/how it is you have faith?

[waltzingparrot]

I've just been remembering a conversation I had with an elderly man at church about where his faith had come from. In his 50s, his wife was rushed into hospital and he was told to expect the worse. On his way home from the hospital, he passed our church, saw it was open and felt compelled to come in. He said people were so warm and friendly to him and as he sat there, he got this overwhelming whoosh from head to toe and this complete feeling of peace descended on him and he just knew everything would be alright. He knew this was God and he and his wife have been coming to church every week since for the past thirty odd years. It's easy to see that an experience like that would bring you to God.

I on the other hand, have never had an overwhelming experience. I'd love to. I feel my reason is very weak. I was brought up in a Christian family and I suppose it's always been there despite my dabble in Buddhism in my late teens and not going to church in my 20s/30s. But I remember one day looking out the window at the houses, cars, people and thinking This is mad. Our planet is the only planet with all this going on. It is mad, isn't it? And I asked myself, is
all this here because there's a God, or because there isn't? The more logical answer, for me, was 'because there is'. I'm certain that our God created this world for us.

Bogardicia I agree with you about the claim that Jesus' disciples must have been telling the truth because to say what they did put them in danger and got the persecuted.

Religious people do all sorts of crazy things that endanger them or even kill them.

37 members of the Heavens Gate cult committed ritual suicide a few years ago because they believed in an alien apocalypse coming from the Halley-Bopp comet.

Just becuase they believed it so much that they were willing to die has no bearing on whether it was true or not.

Pretty obvious really.

And @Bogardicia I don't mean you.

@bourbonne can you link me to where it acceptable to ask such questions?

Ha cross post! I really dont mean to impose or offend!

@Bogardicia

Ha cross post! I really dont mean to impose or offend!

No, I'm sorry, I'd only got halfway down the first page and hadn't even seen your posts! As you were

I was raised by an atheist family. I don’t have anything specific that has made me have faith. I just know that god has always looked after me. He gives me strength when I need it and is a comfort to me.

I didn't want to be a Christian. At uni they were seriously uncool and boring. I ended up having an encounter with the God I didn't believe in. It was a bit embarrassing really as I was studying philosophy and all my tutors were hard line atheists but I decided to find out more about faith. I went to loads of services and read stuff and talked to lots of people. I found a real peace in the service of holy communion. Fast forward forty years and I think my life has made more sense with faith in it. I might be wrong of course but I get glimpses of the other and that helps in the dry times. Something more solid than glimpses would be nice but it doesn't seem to work like that.

[quote peapotter]@Babdoc I completely agree. Our universe is finely tuned for life. Either there are infinite universes, or a creator, or both. There is no evidence yet for other universes, there is quite a lot of evidence for a creator.

Einstein said the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. Why should evolved beings have any understanding of the laws that govern the universe? Why should simple mathematical laws govern the world and our tiny brains be able to comprehend even a few of them? Even quantum mechanics is beautiful mathematically although it makes no logical sense. It’s as if someone wants us to understand.

That said, my faith as a Christian is in more than a creator. And that comes from answered prayers, transformed lives, historicity of Jesus and seeing miracles. It has been a slow journey but Christianity definitely works.

For the OP, i have been a committed Christian for 22 years now, and had a “eureka” style miracle just 4 years ago. It is nice to have but looking back the many years of smaller stuff have been more significant.[/quote]
Thank you for the last paragraph. I know God has gently supported me a million times over, so in my heart of hearts I don't need that eureka moment.

@bourbonne

Apologies *@waltzingparrot* for coming over all thread-police on your thread

Police away!

It is lovely to hear everyone's stories. Thank you all for sharing.

I don't understand it myself. I have cursed God many times for abandoning me.. but I still believe in Him, even if He hasn't guided me to the right solution (yet). So I think it's more of that my faith refuses to leave me! I'm still hoping for that moment.

@waltzingparrot

I was born again last summer to my own surprise. I learnt so much since then and would be happy to share if you’re interested?

Yes, I had a giant experience with God. It practically blew me off my feet. But the tremendous peace, that stayed with me for a full week afterwards, blissed me out enough to allay my protests. It was a kind of thick peace, but light and fresh with an acute clarity at the same time.

That's how I came by faith - to my immense surprise. I've not really got into the theology of it because, well, I experienced it and it didn't need explaining, to me. I find the whole wrangle of faith and theology tiresome when you can get on and experience it (though I appreciate we all have different styles etc).

For me, God is a relationship. I have to keep an eye open for other perspectives otherwise, like Sunscreen song, I can get too soft

I have faith because without it what would life be about?

Why does life have to be 'about' something?

Humanity is just a bunch of pointless talking monkeys. You only exist because your parents procreated. There is no higher or hidden 'meaning' to life.

I have faith as it gives my life a purpose, comforts me in difficult times, and gives me a sense of peace and contentment.

I am still stunned sometimes that I have a faith. I started going to church kind of thinking it would be something else I could cross off my list of things I had tried and hadn't changed my life. I had been to Quaker meetings, read all sorts of emotional education books, been to meditation classes etc. Nothing against those things, but they didn't have much impact I guess. But God, wow, in the end I couldn't deny His existence. It was lots of things, big and small. Answered prayers, the Bible making so much sense and just such a sense of love, acceptance of me as I am. I feel my perception of myself and the world has been altered so much by my faith and for the better. It is not easy sometimes and I still have lots of questions about the Bible, but I am OK with that.

@springydaff that sounds interesting. PM me if you care to share. I love hearing about conversion experiences. My own was fairly overwhelming but personal to me. Quite a lot of internal shifting and difficult to describe.

I think its deluded to see life as meaningless. The whole universe blows me away as so clearly created. We are such a tiny insignificant blip and yet faith gives us dignity and a place in the cosmos that stretches beyond this life and world we know. It's very exciting.

The universe blows me away as well, but there's nothing whatsoever about it that suggests it was 'created', at least, not in the sense of having a creator being at the controls.

That being itself would also surely be a part of the universe, so it would have had to create itself, which is nonsensical. If it exists beside the universe, then begs the question of what/where/when is the nature of where that exists and who or what created that? The universe is also a specific age, so what was this creator being doing before it got around to creating our universe?

Once again, the entire notion of a creator being just adds a wholly unnecessary and needless layer of complexity that creates yet more unreconcilable contradictions. The universe functions perfectly well, including it's origin, without the need for the nonsensical human fantasy notion of a creator being.

For me, it’s been personal encounters with God rather than any particular sort of logic that gave my faith. I’ve felt God looking after me, felt his love, and I just “know”.

I studied Classics at university and the historicity and accuracy of the New Testament holds up as well as you’d expect of a collection of texts from that time (some discrepancies but mostly supported by other evidence). I don’t think that would have been enough to convince me if I hadn’t experienced God myself, but I’m happy to accept it in light of my personal experiences.

I also just love the teachings of Jesus. Christianity has a reputation for being very traditional and behind the times (and the various churches have a lot to answer for), but Jesus himself was an absolute radical. He upturned every expectation of what the Messiah would look like, he rejected many of the religious laws and social norms of his time and he actively sought out those on the fringes of society. “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away”- exactly what I would want to say to every pervy teacher who complains about young girls baring their shoulders. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven”. I know I don’t manage to live up to the standards set by Jesus (nobody can!) but I do love them.

Like most people, my faith has come from personal experiences of God, which is not surprising since God wants us to have a personal relationship with Him. Not lightning bolt moments but special moments nonetheless.

I agree that Jesus was radical in His day. He still is radical now. It is radical to follow Him and 'not conform to the pattern of this world'. Hard sometimes but ultimately worth it.

There is a very funny country song by Brad Paisley called 'Those Crazy Christians'. It ends with

They look to Heaven their whole life,
And I think "What if they're wrong?" but what if they're right?
You know it's funny, much as I'm baffled by it all
If I ever really needed help, well you know who I'd call.
It's those crazy Christians.

At the end of the day, Christianity done right helps everyone and hurts nobody. If you don't believe, you don't believe, but there's really no need for the anger you get from some people.