Yes, and in that quote it doesn't mean i haven't researched before i came to faith. It says faith then came experience. I got into this with another person. I explained it already. 

huh? 

That doesn't seem very useful. The whole point of doing this in a thread is to answer the questions for everyone to see, and PM'ing doesn't accomplish that. Feel free to write a lot. But, keep in mind I'm not really asking about the details of your experience, just what kind of experience it was, and what you would conclude god is made of based on that in general terms (I'm not looking for a chemical formula here, unless you have one). If you really don't know what god is made of, I don't know how you can assume that you've had a real experience of it.

I already responded to this.

 Who's to say my faith in God isn't based on experience?

I already explained it. Did I explain it perfectly when I was first asked? no.

I said i have faith then came experience. But, that doesn't mean I haven't researched to obtain my faith. That isn't backpedaling it's just a lack of a full explanation.

And why does god require more faith than other things?  Why do you not accept other things with the same level faith as god?

They do not follow the same thing.  This represents a lack of knowledge on your part about the various (and incompatible) differences within christianity.  Their "different opinions" are important enough that they must withdraw to their separate denominations. 

With all due respect, I am not at all interested in your personal experiences as an individual.  You must have a rather high opinion of yourself to think that I would.  You postured to be answering questions "about christianity", not merely about your personal experience.  If nothing you say can be applied outside the scope of your "experience", there is no point in continuing the conversation.

Your shift is over.  Clock out and go home. 

The bible:

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Bible: New Testament. Hebrews 11:1.

Romans 8:24-25: “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” (NKJV)

Would you like to learn more?

http://www.rationalresponders.com/doesnt_everyone_take_things_on_faith

Indeed it is.  Then with no "real physical evidence", is faith in your god any different than faith in  unicorns or santa claus, or simply another god? 

This should be easy to understand.

Correct.  Their different interpretations are important enough that  they must withdraw to their separate denominations.  So which interpretation is correct?

So far, your knowledge seems to be nothing other than your experience, such as cannot be comprehended by another.  As long as that mutual dependence exists, there is no knowledge to be gained from you.

Why would you call me ignorant?  Are you having a bad experience? 

Actually, I am very good at reading the situation.  Thus far you have provided zero factual evidence to any of the questions posed.  You have entertained us with your belief in something but you have not explained it.  You have referred to personal experience about which no one cares.  We have all had personal experiences.  Yours are as meaningless as your god. 

I did ask you not to use an argument from emotion but you did anyway.  Doing this undermines any validity to your answers and it is annoying.  Faith is nothing more than a comfort tool that YOU feel you need in your life.  If you cannot provide any proof for your god or explain rationally why yours is better than any others, then why should we pose questions.  I re-read this thread and other than telling us how you feel about your god you have not answered any real questions.  Honestly, I do not care how you feel about your god.  We have heard all of that and more from others.  You seem to be of at least above average intelligence which implies some education so it is difficult for me to understand why you cannot come up with something better than "I feel I am right".

Can you or can you not provide factual/historical evidence of god, jesus or the holy spirit? 

Ok, well that is a start anyway. So, you had an experience where you felt something, but how do you know that something was god? Do you ever feel things that are not, or that you believe are not? How did you distinguish your god-feelings from other feelings?

We'll start at the beginning and see how far we get.

You didn't answer his question. And he made some good points.

And what's so beautiful about eterntity in hell?

Who created it then?

Why even create this dilemma in the first place?

So your god purposely made evil beings, that can save themselves, and the goal of all existence is to simply beg for salvation and then go to bliss for all eternity?

Belief is not a choice. Common error.

Actually you are incorrect.

First of all if your educated in the belief system of Christianity you would know one thing. And that one thing is called faith.

Learn the definition and your paragraph right here is meaningless.

And what emotion have i shown? Because i said it makes me feel happy all over? I can pick emotion from your paragraph right now. I can tell from your writing.

You are close minded and disrespectful for someones belief unable to understand why they believe what they believe so you place them in a catagory of ignorance such as they believe cause of fear or it makes them feel comfortable and whatnot.

If you want serious answers then give me serious questions.

Now lets get to your question.

Evidence of God not to your satisfaction.

Evidence of Jesus? sure.

There are an amazing amount of evidence outside the Bible that shows Jesus was real, his teachings, his death/crucifixion, his tomb being empty and his resurrection.

The only thing that almost 100% of the Historians don't agree on i believe is the resurrection, prob tomb as well. The rest they do.

If you read the Bible, at face value, without a preconceived bias for finding errors – you will find it to be a coherent, consistent, and relatively easy-to-understand book. Yes, there are difficult passages. Yes, there are verses that appear to contradict each other. We must remember that the Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors over a period of around 1500 years, over several different continents. If the Bible would to be seperated it would equal over sixty books. Each writer wrote from a different perspective, to a different audience, for a different purpose. We should expect some differences! However, a difference is not a contradiction or an error. It is only an error if there is absolutely no conceivable manner in which the verses or passages can be reconciled. Even if we do not have the answer right now, that does not mean the answer does not exist. Many have found a supposed error in the Bible in relation to history or geography only to find out that the Bible is correct once further archaeological evidence is discovered.

http://www.geocities.com/atheistdivine/historicaljesus.html

http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/historical-and-scientific-proof-of-jesus-faq.htm

nah, not really. 

Are you trying to be vague? How does the fact that it felt different than anything else help to know that it was from god? There are lots of sensations that you have probably never had, and I would bet that you would not assume they are direct from god. So I ask again, how could you tell it was from god?

And what did you see? This is the first time you've mentioned anything like that.

jce wrote:

"Here are a few that I have:

1. How do you know you worship the right god given that there are so many branches of religion?
2. Why do you want to worship a god?
3. Why are believers so obsessed with making other people believe?

Just so you know, any answer you give that uses the bible as reference will be considered a non-answer.  The same will apply with answers of strictly an emotional nature."

I'll address the last part first. Asking someone a question about their god then telling them they can't use their holy book to answer is like asking you to explain evolution without referencing Darwin or his theory It would be irrational to ask someone about the Windows operating system but tell them they can't use Microsoft manuals to get their answer. Where else does one get the 'definitive answer' to a question about a god unless one goes to that gods holy writings. Let's be rational.

Speaking of which, what IS rational. The way I understand it, something is rational when it makes sense, or it fits, or "we can wrap our heads around it." In math you have rational numbers like 1,2,3, etc. and you have irrational numbers like pi, the square root of 2, and anything divided by zero. What is the difference? The irrational ones we haven't figured out completely, the rational ones we have. We know what to do with 2 and 6 million, we cna add them, subtract them, and do a multitude of things with them. The irrational ones may not be completely understood, but we can sometimes use them to answer questions we have, like what is the area of a circle with a diameter of 10 units?

It seems to me most folks here at coming at this religion thing irrationally. Belief in a god is by definiton irrational. Why? Because to believe in a god one must try to "wrap your head around" something you can't understand completly. As humans we have a difficult time with things we can't/don't understand. We MUST quantify, catagorize, compare and contrast, and rationalize. When we rationalize something we are trying to make it fit our way of thinking. How in the world could a human possibly rationalize the existance of a living, breathing, INFINITE god?!? We go bonkers just trying to contemplate the infiniteness of INFINITE. Our mind will ALWAYS put some kind of border or quantity on it.

Becaus we can't comprehend an INFINITE God we partition Him. "My God is a God of Love. He wouldn't allow suffering or pain or murder." They completely block out the other aspects of an INFINITE God. Others say "I'm a Catholic (Baptist, Episcopal, insert your own) and my God is the same!" or "I can't believe in Jesus because he was a WASP. I have personally heard these comments come out of people's mouths. They simply don't understand the concept of God, it is irrational to humans.

Now for the questions:

1. How do we know we worship the 'right' god since there are somany religions? First, 'religions' are simply a way to try to rationalize God. Because religions are of human origin, they are each and every one flawed to one degree or another. Second, which god is real or right? That is for each person to answer for themselves. I can't tell you Judiasm is the right way for you, or Islam is the right way for someone else. All I can say is the God of the Bible is 'right' for me. It is after all an individual choice. Which god do you believe is right? Or is your answer "none of the above?" Then that is right for you at this time. Can the 'right' one change? Yes, mine has, and from what I've read yours has also.

2. Why do I want to worship a god? I don't! Neither do most people. Worship (to me) implies loving another MORE than loving oneself, which goes against human nature. I have come to love my God more as time goes by, because I have learned more about Him, and about myself. This is similar to the way I love my wife. We have been married almost 18 years now. The love I had for her when we married is nothing compared to the love I have for her now, because we talk together and learn more about each other every day. We have a growing relationship. That is how it should be with God also.

3.Why are believers obsessed with making new believers? Why do you obsess about anything you believe in? Presumably one enjoys what one is doing (otherwise why the hell do it?), and don't we all tell others about what WE enjoy? When you got that new car, did you hide it in the garage and never take it out? NO! You drove that puppy everywhere and told everyone about it.

So if a believer has found something he deems to be more valuable than gold, silver, or even life itself, how could he not tell others and want them to partake also. The next time YOUR team wins a big game, let's see you not bragging...WE WON! Wait a minute...WE?!? You weren't there, yet you're bragging, aren't you. Same thing with a believer; they "weren't there, didn't do that" yet they brag as well.

I'm ROFLMAO about that NRA thing! (Wipes tear from eye)

Some say that when Noah was drunk and in his tent that Ham didn't respect his father and just walked in and "saw his nakednes" so God cursed him, therefore he became black. I personally am not so sure about that. I do believe God used micro-evolution to change people into the so-called "races" we see today. As far as I'm concernd there is only ONE race...the human race!

Although there is the rat-race...

Thats what Christianity wants buddy, faith. Your making this petty argument because, you can't accept that it just requires faith.

Did God say he likes us to believe against evidence?

Faith means lack of evidence or no evidence.

So the Bible means book, point?

Challange? as to how old am i?

Congratz you know the difference between you and you're.

So you are saying that you do not have to provide any evidence at all because you have 'faith'?  Wow.  Gee, haven't heard that one before.  Ok, here is another question:  Why do you feel that you need to believe?

By the way, your links were not the earthshattering gems you may have anticipated.  The second one didn't work.  The first was just an opinion piece.  The third used the bible to prove jesus - wasn't real helpful.  The fourth actually was the best.  I will warn you though that the references listed have been refuted by historians and theologians.

Then how can you justify your belief? 

You can be the queen of the animal kingdom that doesn't change anything. Just because, you grew up as a Christian doesn't make your words more meaningful.

Thats what faith is. Please get that through your head.

Bible is a rip-off, i think not.

And they are the minority. There will always be someone who will not agree, my friend.

The Bible age (New Testament) is between 10-90 years AD.

You know what. Watch these videos instead, better explination.

http://www.leestrobel.com/Christ.ht

Just a suggestion, but if your going to have a conversation. Be more respectful to the other persons belief. Control your emotions or that person won't bother. That goes for all of you.

You dodged the question.

I asked why you would believe in a god if you cannot justify your beliefs with empirical evidence. 

Queen of the animal kingdom - LOL! This is pretty funny since you expect your personal experiences to be meaningful to us and got offended when they were not.

I am aware of the definition of faith and since I do not apply "faith" to any other part of my life I am not going to use it to believe in something I do not need.

Minority or not, they exist.

Your link did not work.

No. You have no right to come here and tell anyone how to behave or that we should respect you. You have failed to provide answers and your beliefs do not deserve respect. They are utterly ridiculous.  Respect is earned; not given.  (Nice appeal to emotion, though!)

Sometimes you need humor.

Offended? nah.

Well, many of you ask the same question when you need to realize it requires faith.

If you want physical evidence then your in the wrong thread. Geez.

And the same with science too.

I'm giving you a suggestion for if you get into a live debate it will not end well.
Also respect should be applied to everyone even if they disrespect you.

Respect should not be earned, it should be given.

I think it works now.

http://www.leestrobel.com/Christ.htm

So you can speak for everybody on this site? You can read all our minds and say I speak for everyone when I say you cannot answer our questions?

Like i said, you want physical evidence look somewhere else.

If you want to know about Christianity or have questions about it then I am right here. Among other things.