Where does your faith come from?

I am atheist. Mostly because I have never had any faith in God whatsoever. I was raised Christian.
Now, I'm just curious where your faith comes from; what keeps it going; why you have it; etc.
I am open to hearing from any religion, from Christian, to...

Buddhist, to Satanist (did I spell that right?).
I will even hear why you have no faith, if you don't have any.

Also, please don't try to convert me, and please stay civil.

my faith comes from experiences, knowledge, and logic. facts even.

such as the simple fact, that which if the earth was any closer or farther away from the sun, life would not be possible. coincidence...hmmm...maybe?

how its not even a 1 in a trillion chance that life just suddenly **accidentaly happend** in regards to cause and effect, or even if you want to call it, snowball effect, from clashing atoms in the middle of nowhere (space).

or the simple realization that the big bang came from something, some cause. That those atoms which clashed came from somewhere, and did not just for some reason, happen, to exist.

that there is a known rule in our universe that everything has a balance. that there are 2 dimensions, 1) that which exists, and 2) that which does not exist.

and this is realized by our own observations of things that right now exist. for example:

matter cannot be created nor destroyed. or in other words, nothing can come from the nothing, into the world of existence, and vise versa. nothing can suddenly BE.

so all this, in which we see, hear, smell, feel, taste, came from a random sudden BIG BANG of atoms and the like, that came from the realm of non-existence?

the universe itself and the cosmos, can be a good example of our observation of the things that exist. And the stars and the sun and planets, and the like, also exist. but from nothingness? could it be? if so how? will we ever know?

why is it then, that after a time of cause and effect from a random explosion, to what is existing today, that there lives a bieng alive (humans) in the universe with a mind and intelligence, that rarely (if rare can even be the word used to express) came to be out of a 1 in a who knows how many trillion chances...to even question its own existence???

could this **life**, that we know, non-logically exist, simply and unexplainably, JUST, to exist?

is it even possible, for it to exist, without there being a 1st cause to start this off???

the real question lies in...

Who caused this snowball effect, in which gives me the ability to question it?

faith, does not just need to be based on religion, but of thought.

and then the only faith that makes sense, with in which why everything exists, what is the purpose for everything, would be the understanding that there is a God, who caused everything to happen, even evolution could have been His doing.

and somewhere down the line, humans decided to disobey the almighty reason for this universe, and became disconnected.

then over a period of thousands of years (maybe more!) God, being the reason for everything, came down to earth Himself, to make a bridge, one that would connect us back with Him.

and that bieng the ultimate sacrifice, of dying by human hands, to carry all our disobediences, and forgive us. and this for all those who wish to be forgiven.

who said God needed to be created? if we can imagine another realm, NOT OURS, in which death does not exist, in which things dont need to be created, is their a need for a beginning? ofcourse our limited brains can barely understand.

just think about it. simply question: why..?

I am christian.
it took me awhile to understand it, and keep my faith.
there is proof that God is real, because if you believe in him
and pray he will help you get through hard times.
He's certainly helped me a lot.

im christian also and my faith comes from the lord
and he always comes threw for me know matter what

my faith comes from God. I have prayed and asked his Son Jesus to come into my life. I trust him based on past experiences, and my growing up in the church.
He is all I know, I truly beleive that there is a God, All I have to do is watch a sunset or hear a newborn baby cry, I know known of that are accidents. My prayers to you to ask the Lord to come into your life, don't be caught at the judgement without having confessed Christ. there is no chance once you die.

athletaforlife, YOU REALLY should've recapped your main idea in your answer. because it's hard to figure out what your TRULY talking about..like I'm not saying either one of us is stupid lol, but it's hard for me to understand what you're saying in your paragraph. ANYWAY, I choose to believe in God because it feels real to me. although I grew up in a Christian home, it doesn't necessarily mean I had to stay spiritual. but I did b/c it seemed right. like when something wonderful happens to someone, I AUTOMATICALLY know God has blessed them. I don't know..I really can't explain it. but it's real to me, and that's all I know

hmmm. I thought I made it somewhat clear that belief in a God seems reasonable and logical.

and that then you just need to find the faith that makes more sense.

my faith of being a Christian is not solely on believing, but on thinking logically. a rational thinking process.

I was christian, a lot of really bad stuffed happened to me for years, I was really sick, and I asked for help over and over again from God and nothing happened but I got sicker. Then I started looking at other religions in my downtime, and Wicca made sense to me, a lot more then any thing else, So I learned about it for 2 years give or take and started fallowing it, It and other pagan beliefs, and slowly I got better physically as well as mentally. scene then I have seen many things to make my faith even stronger.

***such as the simple fact, that which if the earth was any closer or farther away from the sun, life would not be possible. coincidence...hmmm...maybe?***

If the earth wasn't suitable for life, you wouldn't be here discussing it - so you can hardly use it as evidence of unlikeliness.

***matter cannot be created nor destroyed. or in other words, nothing can come from the nothing, into the world of existence, and vise versa. nothing can suddenly BE.

so all this, in which we see, hear, smell, feel, taste, came from a random sudden BIG BANG of atoms and the like, that came from the realm of non-existence?***

Actually, while that's true in net, it's not absolute. Quantum Physics says that matter is constantly being created and destroyed on a microscopic scale. It's possible the entire universe is one enormous quantum vacuum fluctuation.

***then over a period of thousands of years (maybe more!) God, being the reason for everything, came down to earth Himself, to make a bridge, one that would connect us back with Him.***

So, uh, the universe seems complicated, therefore Christianity? I think you're missing a few steps in your chain of deductive reasoning.

*** such as the simple fact, that which if the earth was any closer or farther away from the sun, life would not be possible. coincidence...hmmm...maybe?

how its not even a 1 in a trillion chance that life just suddenly **accidentaly happend** in regards to cause and effect, or even if you want to call it, snowball effect, from clashing atoms in the middle of nowhere (space). ***

Where are you getting the 1 in a trillion figure? But lets use that figure, even though you just made it up.

Since there are about 70 sextillion (70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars/solar systems in the known universe, and if there is a 1 in a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) chance that a solar system will have the right conditions that lets intelligent life to evolve on one of its planets, that would mean there must be about 70 billion planets with intelligent life on them.

When you think of the infinite vastness of the universe, it is not a stretch to believe that there must be many planets like ours. That is not coincidence, it is simple probability. It is also using logic and reasoning instead of faith in something so completely unknowable, and unprovable as a diety.

***So, uh, the universe seems complicated, therefore Christianity? I think you're missing a few steps in your chain of deductive reasoning.***

well lets not just JUMP ahead to christianity. FIRST we have to accept that there COULD be a chance of a God correct?

***Where are you getting the 1 in a trillion figure? But lets use that figure, even though you just made it up.***

I admit I did make it up, only because I know the number is so vast and infinite it cant really be calculated that easily. but you sextillion number only supports my arguement. thanks

***well lets not just JUMP ahead to christianity. FIRST we have to accept that there COULD be a chance of a God correct?***

That's kind of my point: Even if, for the sake of argument, we grant you that there must be some sort of deity, that doesn't in any way imply the particular religion you happen to believe in is true.

And besides, nobody is denying the _possibility_ of a god - we're simply pointing out that there's absolutely zero evidence for one.

***I admit I did make it up, only because I know the number is so vast and infinite it cant really be calculated that easily. but you sextillion number only supports my arguement. thanks***

Did you read his argument? If live is 1 in a trillion, there should still be billions of lifeforms.

*** I admit I did make it up, only because I know the number is so vast and infinite it cant really be calculated that easily. but you sextillion number only supports my arguement. thanks ***

How does it support your argument? According to the number you provided (1 in a trillion) there has to be somewhere around 70 billion planets with life on them. 70 sextillion divided by 1 trillion is 70 billion. When you realize the amount of stars in the universe, logic and probability tells us there must be many many planets out there with life on them.

Even if there is a 1 in 10 trillion chance, there woudl still be 7 billion planets with life on them. Even with 1 in a quadrillion there would still be about 70 million life supporting planets.

In the face of these numbers, your argument that it is improbable for the conditions to happen naturally does not make any logical sense. Please explain in detail how I am wrong.

oops. I wasnt reading it properly last time regarding the 1 in a trillion chance you posted. apologies.

but I understand your point. you are not wrong.

I have one question though for my own knowlegde:

what is the chance of life coming to be like we theorize ours did? what would that number be?

athleta4life
It's probably not as big a coincidence as you think. Nine planets circle the sun, it's likely, more than you make out to be, that one of these nine would be at the correct distance to sustain life.

Matter, space, energy has always been, is and(as far as we can tell) always will be(sound familiar?). Even those who believe in the big bang(I don't), it's evident that there was something there before the bang.

You seem to take whacks at the -chance- of things happening. Might I ask if you taken a serious look in the mirror recently?
In explaining chance(yes I'm quoting this for it can not be put better)
Human beings use the concept of chance because they do not know everything there is to know about something. For instance, we say that there is one chance out of six of a dice falling on a certain number, simply because we cannot calculate all the factors behind each throw. If we could, we would know for sure what number it would fall on. It's simple physics.(epic quote, aye)

Christians say God created everything. Before God, there was nothing, thus god created everything from nothing, everything was created from nothing. Ludicrous, but that's what your faith implies.
Another thing to ponder, why could God create ANYTHING? God, being the only being in existence at the time, would have no exterior motivations, no needs, and no feelings to motivate him to do anything, including create. If God created anything at all it would be from pure whim- from CHANCE

Another question, since there was nothing before God, what created God, and why? Or did he just appear from nothingness? If so, how?