Religious Faith Experiences

Yes, I don't think there's any real evidence. I'm curious about what persuaded you to become a Christian.

I'm not religious myself, but as I've grown I've also had to learn, ironically, that I'm not a god either - I'm not all-knowning about other people, about their beliefs, about their lives and experiences and needs. In fact, I'm very mortal; I know very little. I couldn't dismiss other people's beliefs as lies, but I see them as something beyond me, which I haven't yet grown to an understanding of. In the case of religion, I've come to understand

that's dark apologies if asking brings up bad memories. do you have any recommendation for someone who doesn't believe in any religions?

Sad to see people holding so strongly to a faith not their own (christianity). I wonder how the same people would operate without itEdit: is most of HN christian? I'm surprised to be downvoted about this

I used to, because I was brought up that way, and lived out my belief in a very concrete way by working for a time as a cross-cultural missionary. But I don't believe in God anymore, having at length reexamined the rationales I thought I had sufficiently examined while an undergraduate for either believing in God or not. (There is, of course, also the issue of WHAT to believe about God, as not all self-described believers in God believe in the same thing.) I have still have immense respect for p

Possibly it is. I'll be honest, if so then I'll be the first one celebrating. I'm not religious, but my wife is very religious. I suppose it is not surprising, both her father and younger brother were priests. It's taken me quite a long time to learn to appreciate what she gets from religion. I'll tell you, without pretense, that it has been challenging for me. However, at least for me (and you may very well find it different) I came to a realisation that I

Regardless of validity in your mind, religion is an important aspect of the lives of billions of people on this planet. The GP was not preaching or preying on anyone -- the phrase "if what I have said rings true at all in your heart" is an indicator of a respectful and well-intentioned comment. For many people in a situation similar to the poster's, looking outside the secular world for help has been what helped them turn around.Rather than downvoting because you disagree with the concept of

I think the issue here is, once you have been properly brought up with faith, 'indoctrinated' so to say, it becomes part of your core personality. You can't live rest of the life without it, there would be a gaping hole in your heart and mind that screams to be filled in +-similar way heroin addict feels the need to get another fix.On the other side, being brought up in environment where (a bit religious non-practicing) parents extorted 0 influence over me and let me find my ow

Let's say it isn't the idea of religion I got growing up. There was no one around who could make a convincing case for Christianity, so I and everyone I knew thought religious people were completely delusional.As I (very) slowly try to reduce my ignorance around the topic, I find that uncovering a more traditional understanding of it reveals something much more rich than I was led to believe. That's precisely my point :)

I personally find existing religions I have looked at (mostly Christian religions) insatisfactory and haven't found the need to dig too deeply into what else is out there. I am fine with not knowing why certain things are the way they are without replacing it with faith.As I find with many atheists, I believe there may be some higher power, but it does not affect my daily life (outside of the way in which religious beliefs have become societal norms or vice versa).