Believers: How and when did you start believing in God?
919797
i was born an atheist (without belief in god(s) as everyone is, taught Catholicism (Christianity with saints), and then born again atheist for 20 years.\n\nbelievers are born without belief also, but they are taught to believe in one form or another, usually starting at early childhood.\n\nit's hard to shake the effects of brainwashing when it starts so young. some, like myself, are lucky to break free of the superstition.
743652
I believe because Jesus changed my life. I was an atheist who found God after reluctantly visiting church a few times. I used to struggle with crippling depression and feelings of hopelessness. It's hard to even imagine those times not. My life has done a 180. All of my dreams have come true and I've moved on to new ones. I have actual friends and many more than I ever had before. I appreciate my family and I see thier love for me. My life is full. I rarely have time to get bored. Jesus did all this for me. He introduced me to God and the blessings haven't stopped flowing since. That's all the proof I need. That's all I need to believe.
441402
Well God. i did the 'help' prayer and God helped. i KNEW God existed when my youth leader prophecied over the youth group and he told me something i had thought not even talked about. i was left with two choices either my youth leader was physic or God existed. since then god has blessed me with a whole host of spiritual gifts and now i just KNOW.\n\nno one sees the wind you can only feel it. i have also studied evolution recently and that it is biochemically impossible. the more i learn about the New World Order, seal of solomon etc and illuminati on dollar bills it makes more sense... you cant argue with fact... the more i read the bible the more it makes sense. for example, the fact that psalm 22 talks about roman torture aka crucifixion which is not Jewish and yet it was written 1000 years before JC was born same as scripture in Daniel, Micah , Isiah etc\n\ni am now hoping to go to bible college and become a minister...\n\nthis is a paper i wrote enjoy...\n\nEvolutionary scientific discoveries unwittingly make the human creation in the book of Genesis feasible to the point of affirmation.\n\nIntroduction\n\nIn the beginning “male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1, 27) This statement has been contested ever since the Age of Enlightenment when human beings with their development of knowledge set about challenging God’s authority in the world around them. Immanuel Kant’s motto “Dare to know” really symbolises the dominant modernistic attitude that was and continues to be embraced by humanity. God has no problem with us gaining knowledge- he invented science and has got it to a perfect art seeing as he spoke all the necessary components into being. Indeed knowledge is God-given to the point that it is one of the fruits of the spirit. Besides, if God really wanted us to remain ignorant of the world he wouldn’t have given us the Word. I therefore want to emphasise that it is only when we think we got here on our own, without God that we come into dispute with God and the truth. But rejection is nothing new to God, who is neither surprised nor shocked by our choices or actions. Before God even created the world he had sent his son to die “it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him” (Isaiah 53, 10) and before he created the universe God knew we would “turn our backs on him and look(ed) the other way.” (Isaiah 53, 3). The fact that Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species caused some controversy and drove people to reject Jesus as the truth was not a ‘heavy blow’ for Him. For one thing, and I say this tongue-in-cheek, if God is anything like me he had probably gotten ‘bored’ of waiting. After all there’s quite a bit of waiting between before the Planck epoch (for those who are interested the Planck epoch is the time between zero and 10-43 seconds of the beginning of the universe) and 1859! Regardless of this publication and the later The Descent of Man (1871) His plan would still prevail over all His creation. The plan had already succeeded before we emerged on day six. Everything else had already been put in place: Jesus’ death and resurrection and all the animals and plants. EVERYTHING! God did NOT need our help or our approval and if he didn’t need it then, he certainly doesn’t need it NOW. What is interesting is that as God allows our knowledge to deepen and technology to improve evidence, particularly genetic and fossilised, appears to be pointing towards the feasibility if not the affirmation of the ‘story’ of Adam and Eve foretold in Genesis.\n\nAssumptions of the Author\n\nBefore I go any further I am making the following interpretations and/or assumptions:\n\n•Evolution (at least in humans) does occur but only within species. I believe that whilst other animals may evolve we wouldn’t as we are God’s chosen creation made in His image. He never changes and thus nor have (or will) we. Within our species implies that if women suddenly found blue-eyed men to be a turn-of
28409
I am a non-denominational, right-wing conservative, born-again, fundemetalist(in a nice way) Christian.\n\nI knew there had to be a God. But was this God personal, or some force? In 1971, I had a personal encounter after asking Christ to forgive my sins and fill me with His Spirit. This was at the peak of the Jesus People movement. (yes, I am an old Jesus Freak) From that moment on, I knew that He was a personal God. From that point on I have been trying to teach the Bible to whoever was curious or searching.
68917
I became a Christian when I was 14.  My grandma was living with us and had Alzheimer's disease.  There was a lot of fighting in my family.  I was watching TBN and Jan Crouch invited me to give my life to Christ.  She said that God wants to take me from where I am and do something amazing with my life.  I just have to trust Him.  So right then and there I bowed my head and asked Christ into my heart.\n\nSince then, God has done amazing things in my life.  Today, I'm a college graduate and will be pursuing a Master's degree in Special Education.  I was on my college newspaper and won a first place award in the entire state for my Opinion writing.  I give all the glory to God for my accomplishments.\n\nGod even rescued me from a cult.  I joined a cult when I was in college, and my spirit began to cry out for God.  Late at night, I went to the Christian church where I'd been baptized originally.  The (huge) church was completely empty as far as I could tell, but I saw a light under one door.  I put my hand on the door handle, opened the door, went in and prayed with the pastor in there.  After that I became active in the church again and seeing me later the pastor told me that the door I'd walked through was acutally locked -- he checked after I left, but I'd opened it like it was open.  I know a miracle happened there and God opened the door for me.\n\nOn an intellectual level, I've come to understand that God is more real than we have ever imagined.  I've read books such as "More than a Carpenter" by Josh McDowell, "The Case for Faith" by Lee Strobel and the information on the website of the Institute for Creation Research at http://www.icr.org  As I've gotten older I've come to believe in God on an intellectual level as well as in my heart.
1087416
Sometimes to see you have to believe first and at other times you have to see to believe.  I think just like everything else, both have their place in life.  I also think that's it's up to each individual when these principals are applicable.  Why do many believe who don't have proof, but depend on heresay?  Well, I believe (as I see it in people over and over again, including myself) that each of us are born with the spirit to know and understand God/Jesus and divine purpose.  When this proclivity is not correctly harvested and harnessed, we go with what "sounds" right or makes "sense".  I read somewhere, "if you don't believe in something, you'll fall for anything."  This is probably what you're referring to.  I don't know......
624323
Or another way to ask your question, what CAUSED God?  Only things that have a beginning require a cause to get started.  Seeing God had no beginning, he did not require anything to cause Him to be.  I think He said it best when He said, "I am".
991887
Ask the different way round.\n\nBelieving (in any religion) is easy, you don't have to think.\n\nActually thinking prevents believing. And I prefer to think for myself. :-)
294673
I was baptized as a Christian, and I believed in God during my younger childhood years. But my family has never gone to church since I can remember, and religion now is not at all a part of my life. I don't believe in any religion anymore. I rarely even think or wonder about God, or whether or not there even is one. I might consider myself agnostic, but even that could be going too far because I really have no feelings about religion at all.
920919
I love your question!  Your experiences really hit home with me.  I was raised without religious beliefs when I was very young, but I was raised with spiritual beliefs and was taught about reincarnation, the afterlife, how to read Tarot cards, etc.\n\nWhen I was a teenager I converted to Christianity, and followed that for about five years.  When I was 19 I converted to a pseudo-Christian religion that had its roots in gnosticism and Sabellianism.  I was really into that, and I swore I would never, never leave it, and that I would rather die than denounce it.  I was truly a religious fanatic!\n\nAs I got older, though, I changed.  I stopped seeing the world in black and white, I lost interest in being judgmental, and I decided that where people go when they die is none of my business.  I almost gave up my faith in Jesus because I was so disgusted with religion, but when I thought about my life I realized that a lot of good things have come my way because of God's goodness to me, so I asked God to help me keep my faith.\n\nAfter a couple of years of trying different churches of different denominations, all the while being very skeptical, I have finally found a church where I feel like I belong.  I still have faith in Jesus, but what I don't have is a judging, critical attitude.  I have gained a better understanding of how much God loves all of us, and I like myself a lot better now because I'm not judgmental anymore and because I am more accepting of people, religions of all kind, and life in general.\n\nSo now, at age 40,  I have learned to never say never, to not judge another person, to mind my own business, and to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness that is in every individual.  I also know from my past experiences that my faith will continue to change and hopefully grow.\n\nI could have left church and Christianity altogether, and like I said, I considered it, but I'm glad I didn't.  God helped me become a better person through all of this, and I didn't want to leave God because I know I wouldn't have all the blessings in life I have now and have had in the past if it weren't for Him.\n\nGood luck on your journey, wherever it may take you!
279329
I have always believed in God, but two incidents convinced me that He loves me:\n\nOne: My car broke down on the highway in San Diego (I think it's Hwy 94) but the lanes going the opposite way are down a steep hill from the lanes I was on.  I had my two children in the backseat.  the police stopped, and they called my husband at work to let him know where I was.\n\nWhen he got there, we put the kids in his car, then he turned to walk around to open the hood and see if he could figure out what was wrong.  Just then, my car's emergency brake failed and the car started rolling backwards, across the lanes of traffic and toward the steep hill. It gained speed as it went, and whoosh! went over the side, down the steep hill, across those lanes of traffic (Luckily there wasn't much traffic and most people could see it coming), and slammed into the retainer wall. The back seat was crushed into a pulp.\n\nI was in the car with my kids for about 15 minutes before the police arrived. I waited for my husband about a half hour before he got there.  All this time the kids were in the back seat, and I was pacing around outside (on the side of the road). That brake could have given out at any time. I truly believe God saved my children that day from certain death.  They could not have lived with the way the back seat was crushed like an accordion.\n\nTwo:  My husband and I separated prior to divorcing.  Every Friday, I would take the kids down to a halfway point where we would meet so they could stay with their dad for the weekend.  I lived in SF, he lived in San Jose, so we would meet in Mountain View off Hwy 101 at a movie theatre.\n\nAnyway, it takes about half hour to 45 minutes to get there, and I was going about 65-70 all the way.  \n\nI got off the freeway, went to the movie theatre, dropped the kids off, and was on the entrance ramp going about 5 MPH to get back on 101 when THE WHOLE RIGHT HALF OF THE FRONT AXLE, including the tire, just fell off, out of nowhere.  Here I am on the entry ramp, my car slumped over to the side, and the tire, a long rod and this big spring thing laying there. If it had been 10 minutes earlier or ten minutes later, the results would have been tragic.\n\nEvery day, I thank God for His love for me and my children and His loving protection.
611509
I have had near-mystical experiences (in addition to intellectual reasons) that have contributed to my commitment to God (through what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross).\n\nI have also had a hundred or more prayers answered by The Christian God (by his kindness and Grace).\n\nI used to be an atheist. Over a period of time however, I grew convinced of the existence of the Christian God, and ultimately committed my life to Christ. \n\nFor a draft-version of my journey from atheism to Christ, see http://www.godsci.org/gs/chri/testimony/seek.html\n\nThe near-mystical experiences are described at the link above (if you are interested).\n\nCordially,\nJohn
1149263
i believe in god because i have faith he exists based on what i see when i look in my backyard or any where, all the trees, and flowers, so many different kinds of animals, there's no other explanation\n"From the time the world was created people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made they can clearly see his invisible qualities- his eternal power, and divine nature, so they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God."\n-Romans 1:20
731795
at a younger age, yeah, it was because i was "taught."  at this age, 44, it's because logically there is no other explanation out there....the big bang...well, where did that come from?  nobody has actually DISPROVEN the existence of God to me just yet.  i practice wicca, which is a totally subjective and personal religion for me.  i choose my "church" and my "altar" and my time for reverance to God and all that He has created.  i believe because it is logical and makes sense.  yes, i believe in Jesus Christ as well, based on facts that have been submitted that prove He existed as well.  i can't cite the sources at the moment, but my desert years gave me the faith i needed.  hope this helped!  blessed be!
342903
I do believe in GOD. It brings me lot of peace in mind.After all without belief there is no peace.
259737
Believe in GOD - Go to Church - Go to Confession - Be a good Person - Make the right choices
156520
Pardon my intrusion, but I do believe in God, 100%.  Not any god or idol of worship, but Jesus Christ, the one true God.  As a believer, my opinion is that "those" who don't believe in God ARE missing out on something (many things), including friendship (if you're alone in this world), fellowship (with other believers, not persecutors), and spiritual satisfaction (always knowing that if God brings you "to it", then God will bring you "through it".)  Good question,  probably no right or wrong answers though...