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Why do you believe in God?
- Thread starter Starlight
- Start date
I've witnessed God(s)'s influence over people and their actions.
Tamino
Active Member
Personal experience.
Because I was sick, and She healed me...when I didn't even know Her yet
On my first visit to Egypt, I was a tourist without a clue visiting Dendera temple. On that day I'd been feeling dizzy and sick, so I sat down in one of the chapels to rest for a moment. Fell asleep. I swear it felt like hours had passed, I woke up refreshed and feeling great. Then I panicked because I thought my family must be looking for me. They didn't.. I had been gone for less than ten minutes.
Years later I had a divination done to find my patron deity, and I was expecting Djehuty/Thoth. But the result was Hathor.
I still have no clue why She took an interest in me, but She showed up a few more times at important points in my life.
Without those experiences, I would probably be an Agnostic and see the Gods and Goddesses as Archetypes and Metaphors only...
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
A friend of mine sometimes says she left the Catholic church as a teenager, but took her God with her. That chimes with my experience to a degree. Long after giving up religion, I still had a belief of sorts in some form of universal guiding power, creative consciousness, great spirit, whatever. But since I didn't believe in myself very much, it seemed impossible that any God might believe in me, or even recognise my existence. That all changed when, at the lowest point of my life, in a state of abject despair, a Power greater than myself entered my heart in a manner which I consider truly miraculous. I'd be dead by now if it weren't for the Higher Power I found at work in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous - and though you don't have to believe in any kind of God to get sober in AA, in my case it certainly helped.
rocala
Well-Known Member
I do like your friends words, they chime with my experience too.
I rejected Christianity long ago. The virgin birth, son of God, dying for our sins and the resurrection are all nonsense to me. But somehow, the story, seemed to lead somewhere beyond the obvious.
Somebody, I think it was Bede Griffiths, wrote about the experience being greater than the expression. There is a lot in this IMO.
PureX
Veteran Member
Why can't you differentiate between belief and faith?
Starlight
Spiritual but not religious, new age and omnist
What do you mean? I do not understand
Why do you ask loaded questions entirely out of context?
PureX
Veteran Member
Exactly.
They are not the same things. Belief rejects the possibility of error. Faith accepts that possibility. It's an important difference.
PureX
Veteran Member
To increase our collective understanding. Belief and faith are not the same things.
Starlight
Spiritual but not religious, new age and omnist
I did not know this. I am not a native english speaker
If that's your contention, great!
Feel free to start a thread about it. Don't derail this one.
PureX
Veteran Member
This thread is based on an unclear question. That leaves the discussion open to the undefined possibilities. Why don't you let @Starlight clarify the question for him/herself? Then I could answer it in proper context.
The question was, "Why do you believe in God?"
No one said a word about "faith." You are attempting to derail the thread to discuss what you want to discuss rather than simply answering the OP.
Either answer the OP or create your own thread.
I've never heard that particular differentiation. As a lifetime 40-something native English speaker. Not saying you're wrong, it's just not an understanding others are necessarily going to share.
As for the opening post . . .
I don't believe in that god in any of the ways that matter. I'm not sure I'd say I "believe" in the gods I do worship either, but not because of the distinction PureX mentioned above. It's just a weird word to use when one's gods are are all realities and everything in them. One does not talk about "belief" in the Sun, or "belief" in the act of Learning, really. I simply identified the things around me that are worthy of worship and went from there. And the realities and everything in them more than qualify as worthy. That's not really a matter of belief or faith, however defined - it's a matter of personal choice and autonomy. I get to decide what the gods are for me, nobody else does.
Sand Dancer
Currently catless
How do you do a divination for that?
Personal experiences. 
Interesting wording, as each will have a different identification of both 'believe' and 'god'.
a.... what is god?
b... how can any 'believe' in a man made abstract with no qualifier?
Why not just use your own identification of both terms?