Why do you believe what you believe.

☺☻I am just carious, I am a christian and I believe that There is One God and he wants us to follow him and learn from His Word the Bible so that we will have a better understanding of him...I don't believe Jesus is God and believe that Jesus was a Very...

High up person that we need to respect and learn from also but God is our main focus. You can also call me a Antidisestablishmentarian Basically meaning Members of the free church.

So, you could try and give the best answer you can that would be great...Try and think about it before answering to quickly.☺☻

jusebox: At this point in history it isn't even provable that Jesus existed. There are surprisingly few extra-Biblical references to Jesus and some of the few are suspected to be forgeries by many scholars. Christians use circular logic. The Bible is true because it is the word of God and Jesus and God exists because the Bible says so. I see nothing in Christianity that makes it unique among the religions that have come before and since. In fact, it often seems like an amalgamation of earlier religions. Remember that Zoroaster came centuries before Jesus and said many of the same things. When you look at the stories of Jesus, Horus, Krishna, Osiris, Baccus, Mithra, etc. there are so many parallels that the hero-savior story seems archetypal.

I am a deist. I used to consider myself Christian, but I didn't really fall under that category I.t.o. what I believed. Then I discovered deism (with a bit of help.lol) and realised that my beliefs fall directly under that category.

I believe the following:
There is a higher power out there, because the world seems just to complicated for it to have been chance. Also we cannot fully explain exactly how the universe created, there are only theories to it.

I don't care what that higher power is, I call it a God but it doesn't have a name and I don't follow any religious books, to me they are just people's experiences of the world.

Also I don't care what happens to me when I die, I can become part of the earth for all that I care. If there is a God, he/she will take care of it. I don't have to worry.

...why do you believe what you believe...?

Good question! I often wonder about that too when I hear people 'reasoning' about their religion.

Here's what I believe: God being pure cannot even look upon sin - man, even in his very best state is a sinner - on judgement day, either: your sins are covered by the blood-shed sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross (salvation and only salvation - being a nice person isn't good enough - even at our very best, we are but filthy rags), and remembered no more or they are not (your sins are not covered) - where God's great love comes into play is, He provided a WAY (Jesus) for us not to perish and live in Heaven with Him (He certainly didn't have to do this but did because He loved us so) - if you read carefully John 3:16, this is exactly what it says - each person will either accept or reject, you must decide for yourself and yes, it's so important, it has eternal consequences - He Loves you and wants you to accept God's free gift to man - Jesus - there will come a time when He cannot be found.

Clarification to my previous entry: last sentence should read: there will come a time when Salvation is no longer possible.

Until I was 12 I was raised as a Presbyterian and believed all the main tenets of Christianity. My mom went back to college part time when I started Kindergarten which was a real eye opener for her. Her classes on world history and anthropology gave her new perspective on her own religion and classes in philosophy and logic allowed her to see the fallacies that it was built upon. When I was 12 I was spouting off about evil godless communist Soviets and my mom told me that she no longer believed in God and she was not evil and not a communist (dyed in wool Republican to this day in fact).

This was rather traumatic for me. She had raised me as a Christian and I believed that I felt God's presence everywhere. I knew that my mom was a good person so this shattered my stereotype of atheists. She told me why she no longer believed and her arguments were sound and well thought out.

I had to decide what I believed though. I had a very difficult 2 weeks. I vacillated between agreeing with my mom that Christianity was absurd and praying as hard as I could for God to forgive me and to steer my mom back to Christianity. At the end of the 2 weeks reason won out over myth and superstition and I've been an atheist ever since.

I'm a christian and I believe in God just because I NEED something to believe in. I can't go through this troublesome life not believing that something is better out there and that someone is watching over me through all my darkest hours. I've tried and if I didn't find god I would have gone through with my suicide attempt. Living with two alcoholic parents (one being abusive) living in constant poverty, and not being given the chances to succeed is part of my everyday life. and I would probably break down and be depressed right now, but the thought that god will get me through it, that after this life I'll spend eternity with him, and the thought that he loves me no matter what I do wrong...it comfortes me to a point where I know I can take on one more day. I hope this helped
3 take care

Hey Just kind of going off of your testimony FilletofSpam. But In the world today we all have the same evidence. We should all know that evolution happened on some kind of level ( either Macro or Micro). But each belief ( Lets just use Evolutionist and Creationist) are based off of presuppositions. Given this, depending on what you base your presupposition off of ( The thoughts and beliefs you use to input into the evidence given to form out your world view) is what you will get in the end formula. Like say if you believe that the world is billions of years old..you would not believe in The Bible being true simply because the timeline in the Bible would go back to only 6000 years. That would make the answer to your formula of beliefs come out WAY different than the answer to what Christians would use. I would challenge you to use The Bible and test the evidence given there and study it. I find it really hard to be an Atheist and I have a certain respect for those people who are. because it is really hard to believe and even PROVE that there isn't a God. But I will be praying for you. I hope that God shows you Truth in your studies. And I would consider looking at the Person of Jesus Christ. because He is the Image of the Invisible God - Colossians 3:15. If His claims and His statements and teachings don't measure out to His Life, Death, and Resurrection (If it happened) then I would understand why all would question if there is a God. If you have any questions on where to start I would be glad to help you

***because it is really hard to believe and even PROVE that there isn't a God.***

I don't call it 'really hard' ...I call it impossible...

Agreed! Correction : Impossible

Only someone who believes that Jesus is God and that He died on the cross and rose again on the third day to provide us Salvation is a Christian. If you don't have such a belief you are not a Christian. Such people should refrain from refrain from calling themselves a Christian and insulting Jesus Christ.

If your talking about me I am not insulting Jesus Christ I never said I didn't believe he died on the cross for our sins I just said I don't believe he is God. I have done a lot of research for myself and what I read out of the Bible is different then what you might read...So please don't say I'm Insulting Jesus Christ because that is not my intent I still believe he died for my sins and rose again.

John 10:30 I (Jesus) and the Father are One

Jesus did not use the words I AM GOD. Christ had a certain wordplay about the way he spoke. The Jews knew exactly what he was saying because on many occasions, they picked up stones to throw at Him for making claims and forgiving people. Which is God's job. So I would ask why in the world would Jesus forgive people if He wasn't in the Authority to do so

Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

“Immanuel” literally means: “God with us.” See also Matthew 1:23; Jesus was “God with us.”

Oh here is another one

John 8:58-59: ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.”

Remember Exodus 3:13-14? When Moses asked God who he should refer to Him as?

13 But Moses protested, If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, `The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' they won't believe me. They will ask, `Which god are you talking about? What is his name?' Then what should I tell them?

14 God replied, I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS.* Just tell them, `I AM has sent me to you.' 2

Here is a little info about that verse (John 10:30)

There is no reason to take this verse to mean that Christ was saying that he and the Father make up “one God.” The phrase was a common one, and even today if someone used it, people would know exactly what he meant—he and his father are very much alike. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his ministry there, he said that he had planted the seed and Apollos had watered it. Then he said, “he who plants and he who waters are one” (1 Cor. 3:8 - KJV). In the Greek texts, the wording of Paul is the same as that in John 10:30, yet no one claims that Paul and Apollos make up “one being.” Furthermore, the NIV translates 1 Corinthians 3:8 as “he who plants and he who waters have one purpose.” Why translate the phrase as “are one” in one place, but as “have one purpose” in another place? In this case, translating the same phrase in two different ways obscures the clear meaning of Christ’s statement in John 10:30: Christ always did the Father’s will; he and God have “one purpose.”

John 20:27-29: “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

Notice how Jesus did not Repute Thomas saying this to Him?

Then tell me if that is what He meant when He said this...Why did the Jews want Him crucified for Blasphemy?

Also tell me why in Titus, Paul referred to Him as God? Titus 2:13-14 13 while we look forward to that wonderful event when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.

14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right.

15 You must teach these things and encourage your people to do them, correcting them when necessary. You have the authority to do this, so don't let anyone ignore you or disregard what you say.

Isaiah 7:14

Some people believe that because Jesus was to be called “Immanuel” (“God with us”), he must be God incarnate. That is not the case, and for a full explanation of this, see the note on

Matthew 1:23.

1. The name can be translated as, “God with us” or “God is with us.” We know that God was with the people in Jesus Christ, and Jesus himself said that if one had seen him, he had seen the Father.

2. The significance of the name is symbolic. God was with us, not literally, but in His Son, as 2 Cor. 5:19 (NASB) indicates: “That God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.” It is important to read exactly what was written: God was in Christ, not God was Christ. Symbolism in names can be seen throughout the Bible. It is not unique to Jesus Christ. Many people were given names that would cause great problems if believed literally. Are we to believe that Elijah was “God Jehovah,” or that Bithiah, a daughter of Pharaoh, was the sister of Jesus because her name is “daughter of Jehovah?” Are we to believe that Dibri, not Jesus, was the “Promise of Jehovah,” or that Eliab was the real Messiah since his name means “My God [is my] father?” Of course not. It would be a great mistake to claim that the meaning of a name proves a literal truth. We know that Jesus’ name is very significant—it communicates the truth that, as the Son of God and as the image of God, God is with us in Jesus, but the name does not make Jesus God. For more on the fact that calling something does not make it that thing, see the notes on Jeremiah 23:6.