Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all about faith. I'm the type of person who is curious and must have answers to questions. Being a Christian, it's very hard to let go of these questions and realize that we will never know the answer. While it might sound like a cop-out, it really is all about having faith.

I look at it like this: What if Christians have it all wrong? What is there is no God/Jesus/heaven? Well, I'm out nothing. I die and that's it. But if I'm right, wow......what a beautiful and glorious thing it will be!!!!!

I have nothing to lose if Jesus Christ/God turn out to be illusions, but *everything* to lose if they are real. In addition, believing in God has brought me peace and strength at difficult times.

Ha! That's pretty ironic: I'm an atheist, and live my life as though this were the only live we get. But I truly believe if there were some sort of omnipotent, omniscient being who shepherds us all that there's no way he'd allow people of goodwill to be "consigned to Hell" for the crime of not believing in Him without evidence. So while I don't believe, I have nothing to lose if such a God actually exists. Yay!

Anonymous wrote:It's all about faith. I'm the type of person who is curious and must have answers to questions. Being a Christian, it's very hard to let go of these questions and realize that we will never know the answer. While it might sound like a cop-out, it really is all about having faith.

I look at it like this: What if Christians have it all wrong? What is there is no God/Jesus/heaven? Well, I'm out nothing. I die and that's it. But if I'm right, wow......what a beautiful and glorious thing it will be!!!!!

I have nothing to lose if Jesus Christ/God turn out to be illusions, but *everything* to lose if they are real. In addition, believing in God has brought me peace and strength at difficult times.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those who have prayed and felt a divine presence - that's great. It doesn't mean that Divinity = human child born of a virgin mother in a manger and later tried as a criminal, hung on a cross, killed, buried, rose again.

In other words, Divinity there may be. We humans have dressed it up in all these myths. Maybe Christianity is just one more set of myths, like Zeus or Isis or Mithra or Kronos, and so on....

You clearly don't know what you're talking about.

It's not just "praying and feeling a presence", dude!

Okay, dude, if that's not it, let us know what "it" is then. Otherwise, lay off the paternalism.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all about faith. I'm the type of person who is curious and must have answers to questions. Being a Christian, it's very hard to let go of these questions and realize that we will never know the answer. While it might sound like a cop-out, it really is all about having faith.

I look at it like this: What if Christians have it all wrong? What is there is no God/Jesus/heaven? Well, I'm out nothing. I die and that's it. But if I'm right, wow......what a beautiful and glorious thing it will be!!!!!

I have nothing to lose if Jesus Christ/God turn out to be illusions, but *everything* to lose if they are real. In addition, believing in God has brought me peace and strength at difficult times.

I don't mean to be rude, honestly. But that is Pascal's Wager, which is illogical. It is not 50/50, or your god or no god.

What if you are wrong and the Muslims are right? You'll go to their hell. There are thousands of religions, not just yours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those who have prayed and felt a divine presence - that's great. It doesn't mean that Divinity = human child born of a virgin mother in a manger and later tried as a criminal, hung on a cross, killed, buried, rose again.

In other words, Divinity there may be. We humans have dressed it up in all these myths. Maybe Christianity is just one more set of myths, like Zeus or Isis or Mithra or Kronos, and so on....

You clearly don't know what you're talking about.

It's not just "praying and feeling a presence", dude!

Anonymous wrote:It's all about faith. I'm the type of person who is curious and must have answers to questions. Being a Christian, it's very hard to let go of these questions and realize that we will never know the answer. While it might sound like a cop-out, it really is all about having faith.

I look at it like this: What if Christians have it all wrong? What is there is no God/Jesus/heaven? Well, I'm out nothing. I die and that's it. But if I'm right, wow......what a beautiful and glorious thing it will be!!!!!

I have nothing to lose if Jesus Christ/God turn out to be illusions, but *everything* to lose if they are real. In addition, believing in God has brought me peace and strength at difficult times.

Anonymous wrote:It's all about faith. I'm the type of person who is curious and must have answers to questions. Being a Christian, it's very hard to let go of these questions and realize that we will never know the answer. While it might sound like a cop-out, it really is all about having faith.

I look at it like this: What if Christians have it all wrong? What is there is no God/Jesus/heaven? Well, I'm out nothing. I die and that's it. But if I'm right, wow......what a beautiful and glorious thing it will be!!!!!

I have nothing to lose if Jesus Christ/God turn out to be illusions, but *everything* to lose if they are real. In addition, believing in God has brought me peace and strength at difficult times.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i only know it because i've experienced things that confirm my faith. and it is faith because it's believing in things that can't be proven.

Would you be open to sharing the things that confirm your faith? Just curious. I absolutely am not egging you on to mock you later, I am genuinely curious.

Anonymous wrote:I know you think I'm a troll.... so let's move beyond that first off.

I really wonder if I'm missing some historical fact on which I can place confidence in the Jesus/Christianity stuff. I see people who genuinely believe, smart people who have made ministry their life's work ... and I wonder how they KNOW that all of it is real and why they are so confident that they are willing to base their careers on it. I admire their convictions (not the over-the-top evangelical pushy types), but I don't have the same conviction. I feel uncomfortable asking friends this b/c I fear that (a) they may not have an answer and (b) they may feel that they need to defend their beliefs.

It's certainly socially acceptable to be Christian in the US, but beyond family heritage and cultural acceptance, ... what give you the confidence that you're on the right track with Christianity?

I'm looking more for historical answers, "evidence" if you will, that the Jesus stuff is real. Although I've heard all the Bible stories and spent a good bit of time in church in my days, I just keep thinking I must be missing some bit of info. that glues it all together.

Anonymous wrote:Those who have prayed and felt a divine presence - that's great. It doesn't mean that Divinity = human child born of a virgin mother in a manger and later tried as a criminal, hung on a cross, killed, buried, rose again.

In other words, Divinity there may be. We humans have dressed it up in all these myths. Maybe Christianity is just one more set of myths, like Zeus or Isis or Mithra or Kronos, and so on....

Anonymous wrote:Those who have prayed and felt a divine presence - that's great. It doesn't mean that Divinity = human child born of a virgin mother in a manger and later tried as a criminal, hung on a cross, killed, buried, rose again.

In other words, Divinity there may be. We humans have dressed it up in all these myths. Maybe Christianity is just one more set of myths, like Zeus or Isis or Mithra or Kronos, and so on....

Anonymous wrote:I find it fascinating that the PPs who did not answer the OP's question, but took a moment to take a swipe at belief in Jesus, cited such reasons as "it's just how they were raised" or "you believe whatever myths you learn as a child" or "it's all faith, no reason." No one has taken the different possibilities about Jesus and the resurrection head-on. There are only so many. And they are either true or false. If you keep removing the ones that prove unreasonable, you are left with...what?

Just take the Resurrection. If it happened, Jesus rose from the dead. If it did not happen, what are the answers to these questions:

#1 Who moved the stone?
#2 Who took the body?
#3 Who started the Resurrection myth and why? What profit did they get from their lie?

There are real possibilities, with the option to accept or reject the data, the premises, the conclusions. But I never see that here.

And the most puzzling rejection of all is "it's just how you were raised," ignoring the millions of adult converts, or the fact that Christianity began with conversion, by necessity. As for those who never heard the name Jesus or the story of the Resurrection--they had nothing to accept or reject. They way they knew God has no bearing on Who God actually is. Jesus, if he is who he said he was, is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. In addition to a Jewish man who was crucified by the Romans.

So if you are reading this thread, you have the opportunity and the cognitive capacity to address the various possibilities and own your conclusion. Go for it.