Knowing God

Originally posted by twhitehead
I come from a country which declared itself a "Christian Nation". 99% of my friends and family are Christian. As an Agnostic I often find myself discriminated against and looked down upon. At some times this has been to the extent that I have wanted to become Christian just to fit in.
I now live in a much more mixed society with Christians, Muslims and ...[text shortened]... nding of life and the universe. I would probably also need one of those "secret decoder rings"

Most of the teaching in Christianity does not make logical sense to me...

Interesting... would you care to substantiate?

Originally posted by windmill

What other ways did you have in mind with knowing God other than spiritually?

I'm glad that you asked. I put my question like that because I wanted to see if there was any diversity in the responses. I wanted to see that because of my own position. I believe in God, but through a process of reason. I don't feel I have any further access to knowledge of Him than that. I am aware of no spiritual capacity to confirm what my reason tells me. I was sort of raised Christian (in that I attended Church of England schools, though my family were and are not religious), but have developed serious and persisting objections to Christian doctrine. I was more or less agnostic until I gave the topic some serious thought and reflection, but my attitude towards it remains similar: detachment.

Originally posted by Villager
For those of you who believe in God, by what process/occurrence did you come to believe in God? What's your personal 'proof'? Do you know Him spiritually, or in other ways?

For those of you who don't believe in God, what's the absolute least that would make you do so?

I believe in God, because God gave me that belief. This is what is meant by being "born again". The belief in God in more common language is called faith. And God grants people faith to believe in him.

There is no 'proof'. One can not prove that the God of the Bible is true any more than one can prove He is not true. There is, however, much evidence. But there is no way to prove God... God (in a sense) proves himself. God is God. That's the best we can do.

My proof is that it seems to be a logical impossibility for God not to exist: his character, intentions and benevolence are another matter altogether. What I was trying to get at was that some people have faith as their proof, and I suspected there may be other proofs.

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
A paranoid schizophrenic will also see evidence of their beliefs every day. Perhaps atheists are merely erring on the side of caution.

The same could be said about theists.