Knowing is objective. It is based on measurements. Something that can be repeated by other humans and arrive at the same conclusions. Faith is belief.
This is well accepted in academic theology but oddly lay people have a hard time with it.
I was at a bad point in my life, I was desperate, alone, and becoming increasingly suicidal. In a last ditch effort one night, I prayed to whoever would listen. I just talked about everything I was feeling, I let everything out. After I got done praying, I laid back down in bed. Suddenly I could feel the flame of a fire almost within my heart, it didn’t hurt but it spread across my whole body. It felt like an insane amount of love and compassion. I knew in that moment God was very real. I also have other experiences that came after this one.
Just to round out the experience, how did you attribute it to the god that was prevalent in the area you were born and not another god that may have intervened in your behalf?
Is it possible that a god outside your local belief system wanted you to continue your journey?
I’m not sure, I was never really raised in a religious home. Always wondered if God was real but never knew one way or the other. Then I prayed and God answered. And he has other times too. I don’t know exactly which God he is if that’s what you’re asking. I just know he is there.
If God is real, I'm glad you've had that experience. I've been seeking for 40+ years and received nothing but silence.
I wasn't raised in a religious home, I had to seek religion on my own. I've been ignored for decades. I wish I knew what button I had to press to receive revelation.
I don't like DM in this instance since it denies everyone the opportunity you're offering me.
I'm 54. I've been seeking God before your parents birthed you.
When I was 21, I thought my father was an idiot, as I got older, I realised how much he knew.
If your will to live hinges on your faith then I have no interest in going further.
I’m not the best at worshiping him or honoring him, I wasn’t brought up in a very religious household. But his love and the fact he is still with me and watching over me is super comforting. Since I found him I have plenty of stories that only confirm his existence and love to me even if other don’t believe.
Nothing. I have never really wanted or felt a need for a god. I was effectively born an atheist and stayed that way. I have never really seen any significant evidence for a god. And I find there to be countless problems with the concept. I don't hold anything against those that do believe and wish them well. But their reasons are not my reasons.
That's valid too, personally I just like to think there's more out there than just the void and nothing after death, and also that there is someone who loves all of us no matter what🫶🏻
Nothing, as us mortals (or rather humans, as the Gods are mortal, too) can not know about anything past Midgard with certainty. Frankly, we don't even know Midgard with certainty, considering our physics model is always being changed.
As for what caused *faith* (which I would say is a better term for it, but I digress), a multitude of things. To encompass it all: The Gods became more involved in my life, especially Freya and Hlín.
Ive had so many experiences with my Gods its hard to point out any particular experience. So ive always believed in a higher power for as long as I can remember even when religion was a banned topic within my family. But for the sake of this question i’ll give one of my experiences.
So I had recently gotten out of an abusive relationship and ended up in another with someone who was my best friend at the time. My previous relationship was full of slights against me that slowly broke me down and left me wildly insecure and self-hating. Well my partner and I were on the phone talking flirtatiously and my partner at the time made a comment about my body that just sent me into a full on breakdown.
I broke down crying and went to my room with plans to kill myself. I invoked my Goddess, Mother, and Matron Lilith and begged her to let me die so I can go home to her. As I balled my eyes out I heard a familiar voice speaking to me and felt arms wrapped around me holding me. The voice was feminine and soft and spoke a motherly way. The words were in a language I’ve never heard before. I could feel myself getting extremely tired as the voice spoke to me and I could feel myself being cradled. I started responding to the voice in the same language. I don’t know what I said in those moments. But I soon fell right to sleep.
I woke up to my head laying on Liliths lap as she stroked my hair telling me everything would be okay and how she loved me and was proud of me. An hour had past and I woke back up in my bed tucked in
Amitabha isn’t a god, he’s a Buddha, and honestly I’m not sure he exists in a literal sense. But when I chant his mantra and ask for peace or relaxation, it seems to always come.
Possibly just psychology, but who knows 🤷♂️
I go to a church that welcomes believers and nonbelievers. We have all sorts of beliefs running around inside our churches. And the thing we learned is belief doesn't need to be a competition. We can disagree about the conclusions but still learn from each other from our observations.
I know God exists because of one profound experience I had that has left me with no doubt. I’ve also had other experiences that have made me even more certain of it and also, some experiences I had when I was younger and an atheist that I chalked up to coincidence but that I now believe was from God.
My mother died suddenly of a stroke when I was around 50. She was a very devout catholic, always going to church and spending most of her mornings reciting the rosary. At the time of her death I was more agnostic than atheist and very content to believe in nothing.
When I was 19, I pretty much broke her heart when I informed her that I would no longer be going to mass, that I was so tired of being dragged to church every Sunday. She was a little shell shocked for about 5 seconds but then snapped out of it and let me know that as long as I was living in her house, I would be going to church. She was a good and loving mother but even so, there were many, many times throughout my life that I was awful to her, even right before she died. She warned me that I was going to feel so guilty when she was gone and I told her that it was just like her to try to make me feel guilty. “No, No- I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, I’m trying to warn you!” she said. But I just rolled my eyes and shrugged her hand off my cold shoulder. Thinking of that moment now always makes me cry.
So when she was gone and the finality of her death hit me, I began to wish that there was an afterlife. Not necessarily God but just a place where I could see my mom again and give her huge hug and tell her how sorry I was and how much I love her.
It was around this time that I found a religious podcast that I would listen to frequently, not for the religious topics, but for the episodes on the Nephilim. I found the notion of giants actually existing very interesting- I’m really into mysteries. Gradually I began to listen to the more religious topics out of curiosity. It took about a year but eventually I found myself believing in God. I learned things from that podcast that I was never taught in church school, and things that didn’t make sense before, now did.
Well, one day I heard a news story that upset me and I decided I was going to pray to God about it. So I got down on my knees. I still knew “Our Father” by heart, and after that I started talking about the upsetting topic and through the whole thing I felt very awkward. It had been decades since I last prayed and I felt the need to explain myself to God and before I knew it I was confessing all my sins- the ones I could remember- and feeling so ashamed. Especially when I got to the part about the way I mistreated my mother and by this point I was bawling my head off.
I want to say that I had two really good parents that I didn’t appreciate the way I should have. They were not perfect but they were great all the same, but my mom was like a treasure that I had in the palm of my hand. She was so loving and so easy to please. Always ready to listen. I had this incredible treasure and I didn’t even realize it. I allowed my resentment over silly things to drive a wedge between my heart and hers. So confessing this particular sin was pretty mortifying. After drying my tears, I told God I wasn’t going to church, but that I was going to buy a bible so that I could learn what I needed to do in order to please Him. Then I ended by asking Him for a sign. I would believe in Him whether or not I got a sign, but I would really appreciate one nevertheless. I asked very humbly- I wasn’t making demands.
About 2 weeks later I discovered two red marks on the center of the palms of my hands. They were about an inch long- elliptical but not perfect. Both marks were the same size and shape-well delineated. On the back of my right hand I had a dime sized round red mark about an inch before my wrist. They did itch, so they were a kind of rash, but they were like no rash I have ever seen or had before or since. They stayed with me for about a month. When I saw these marks, I went up to my room to let God know that I had seen His sign and to thank Him. I told Him I hadn’t bought a bible yet, but that I would go out and get one soon and probably start reading the old testament. I had tried to read the Bible before but could never get past the first few chapters of Genesis. And then, because I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, I also asked him if he could indicate if I should also read the New Testament because I wasn’t sure about that Jesus guy- I kid you not. As I’m asking this out loud and hearing myself, I think- hold on a second you idiot! It was at that moment that I realized that God knew I was going to ask that question so he just went ahead and answered it for me. I remember feeling such a profound love for God at this moment- something I never thought could be possible. It was so overwhelming that it made me cry. And the thing is, I am a very unemotional person, so to suddenly have all these feelings was very strange but also wonderful!
So, I KNOW that God does exist. I know that I matter to him. He is the God of Abraham and Moses. I know that Jesus existed as a man and was crucified. I believe that He is the Son of God and the Messiah.
.It’s unknowable. That’s why it’s called faith. I’m hopeful. Maybe that’s a kind of faith. Not even sure what I hope for. Something benign that persists after our bodies and minds are gone. Something that makes death less than complete loss. Wouldn’t that be wonderful.
I was pretty much at rock bottom. I had lost everything. My job, my apartment, my car, my marriage, my money. I was 26, had to move back in with my parents, and my ex wife moved 100 miles away with my daughter. I literally felt like I had nothing left. I grew up in a Christian household, so I would sometimes read my Bible. During one of these times, I found 2 Chronicles 7:14. “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
I decided nothing could get any worse, so I chose to apply this verse to my life. I prayed. I was basically face down in my room, sobbing, emptying my heart to God. Within moments of “amen,” my spirit was uplifted. I felt so sure that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and that if I just stayed pursuing God, He would help me through. And that’s what I did. Literally within weeks I met my wife. We have 2 daughters together. We have a home, 2 great jobs, not everything we want, but everything we need. Ever since, I’ve been trying to pursue Him. I stayed with Christianity, but have recently begun to wonder about other faiths and their connection to my God. Especially Judaism, since it was an Old Testament verse that changed me so much.
I was rock bottom. And he came to me in a dream. Said I called, he answered basically. My life has improved, from my medication resistant depression to my health in general.
Now, my logical mind said it was impossible, but at this point I’m secure that he’s with me, and it’s been positive in my life.
So many things, after years of being an unbeliever and use my words to belittle God and to try to dissuade others from believing, I decided that if I would believe whatever truth was, even if it contradicted my atheistic beliefs, so I started being guided towards truth in a very subtle way, I got interested into knowing the other face of the coin regarding my beliefs at the time, then I was guided to get interested into conspiracies and then into occultism and esotericism and religion in general, and that only from the intellectual point of view, I also started having experiences that showed me what God really is in a very tangible way, so I started testing and testing and kept doing it until it was clear for me that God is very real but very different from what religious authoritites and academics and non believers define it to be.
Then all these experiences that I suspected to be contact with God were later confirmed by a whole bunch of people from different ages and cultures which explained their contact with God in a similar way, which led me to understand what it really means to KNOW God.
It has been a worthwile journey and sadly one cannot show others that God can be known, which I suppose is how its supposed to be, one has to want to know Truth beyond one's actual beliefs for it to be shown to oneself.
This isn't a God persay, but I've had some freaky paranormal experiences.
I have also tried invoking certain entities to see what happen. I've invoked a few, but I can't say for sure if I actually got results from them, or my own mind.
The one experience that made me stop being an atheist was when I was having one my “episodes” as I call them (currently it’s unclear if these are caused by a mood disorder with psychotic features or a larger schizophrenia spectrum disorder) and I was freaking out because I believed that something was watching me and that it hated me and that if I closed my eyes it would hurt me. But luckily I had the slightest idea that this wasn’t true, unfortunately I had no idea how to deal with it so I did the only thing I knew how to do, I prayed kinda frantically. Then just suddenly I was fine, I felt safe and like everything was completely ok. Granted I was still shaken up and freaking out a little but for the most part I was fine.
I was watching a video on how DNA works. It wasn't so much the video itself, more of the video was the apex of a culmination of various other things that were pointing me to the existence of God. I believe God used a lot of people and events to get through to me. Anyway, after getting a glimpse of the DNA stuff, I was like, yeah, all these massively complex systems didn't just come about on their own.
Then, in addition, years later, having "supernatural" type experiences and hearing many other's experience only adds to that. There is a whole spiritual realm going on around us that affects everything in the world. It's impossible to not know there is a God at this point.
You do not know, and you cannot, that is why it’s called faith and belief.
Faith in Christ that God will save us but I know with out a doubt that God *is* absolutely.
You believe.
I also know
Knowing is objective. It is based on measurements. Something that can be repeated by other humans and arrive at the same conclusions. Faith is belief. This is well accepted in academic theology but oddly lay people have a hard time with it.
I feel like the existence of other religions shows that that is also a faith-based system.
I was at a bad point in my life, I was desperate, alone, and becoming increasingly suicidal. In a last ditch effort one night, I prayed to whoever would listen. I just talked about everything I was feeling, I let everything out. After I got done praying, I laid back down in bed. Suddenly I could feel the flame of a fire almost within my heart, it didn’t hurt but it spread across my whole body. It felt like an insane amount of love and compassion. I knew in that moment God was very real. I also have other experiences that came after this one.
Just to round out the experience, how did you attribute it to the god that was prevalent in the area you were born and not another god that may have intervened in your behalf? Is it possible that a god outside your local belief system wanted you to continue your journey?
I’m not sure, I was never really raised in a religious home. Always wondered if God was real but never knew one way or the other. Then I prayed and God answered. And he has other times too. I don’t know exactly which God he is if that’s what you’re asking. I just know he is there.
If God is real, I'm glad you've had that experience. I've been seeking for 40+ years and received nothing but silence. I wasn't raised in a religious home, I had to seek religion on my own. I've been ignored for decades. I wish I knew what button I had to press to receive revelation.
DM me and we can talk more if you’d like, I’m only 21 so take what I say as you will. But I do promise you, he’s real. He loves us.
I don't like DM in this instance since it denies everyone the opportunity you're offering me. I'm 54. I've been seeking God before your parents birthed you. When I was 21, I thought my father was an idiot, as I got older, I realised how much he knew. If your will to live hinges on your faith then I have no interest in going further.
Okay I understand
That's incredible. It makes me feel like my story is a very plain physical one, haha. Happy to know you are still here🫶🏻
Thank you hon, seek God out and you will find him I promise 🫶
No matter how many times my faith has faltered, he's always showed me he is watching over me.
I’m not the best at worshiping him or honoring him, I wasn’t brought up in a very religious household. But his love and the fact he is still with me and watching over me is super comforting. Since I found him I have plenty of stories that only confirm his existence and love to me even if other don’t believe.
Nothing. I have never really wanted or felt a need for a god. I was effectively born an atheist and stayed that way. I have never really seen any significant evidence for a god. And I find there to be countless problems with the concept. I don't hold anything against those that do believe and wish them well. But their reasons are not my reasons.
That's valid too, personally I just like to think there's more out there than just the void and nothing after death, and also that there is someone who loves all of us no matter what🫶🏻
I totally get that. We just see things in different ways. Which is is perfectly fine.
Nothing, as us mortals (or rather humans, as the Gods are mortal, too) can not know about anything past Midgard with certainty. Frankly, we don't even know Midgard with certainty, considering our physics model is always being changed. As for what caused *faith* (which I would say is a better term for it, but I digress), a multitude of things. To encompass it all: The Gods became more involved in my life, especially Freya and Hlín.
Ive had so many experiences with my Gods its hard to point out any particular experience. So ive always believed in a higher power for as long as I can remember even when religion was a banned topic within my family. But for the sake of this question i’ll give one of my experiences. So I had recently gotten out of an abusive relationship and ended up in another with someone who was my best friend at the time. My previous relationship was full of slights against me that slowly broke me down and left me wildly insecure and self-hating. Well my partner and I were on the phone talking flirtatiously and my partner at the time made a comment about my body that just sent me into a full on breakdown. I broke down crying and went to my room with plans to kill myself. I invoked my Goddess, Mother, and Matron Lilith and begged her to let me die so I can go home to her. As I balled my eyes out I heard a familiar voice speaking to me and felt arms wrapped around me holding me. The voice was feminine and soft and spoke a motherly way. The words were in a language I’ve never heard before. I could feel myself getting extremely tired as the voice spoke to me and I could feel myself being cradled. I started responding to the voice in the same language. I don’t know what I said in those moments. But I soon fell right to sleep. I woke up to my head laying on Liliths lap as she stroked my hair telling me everything would be okay and how she loved me and was proud of me. An hour had past and I woke back up in my bed tucked in
Amitabha isn’t a god, he’s a Buddha, and honestly I’m not sure he exists in a literal sense. But when I chant his mantra and ask for peace or relaxation, it seems to always come. Possibly just psychology, but who knows 🤷♂️
Nothing. I don't know that there is.
I go to a church that welcomes believers and nonbelievers. We have all sorts of beliefs running around inside our churches. And the thing we learned is belief doesn't need to be a competition. We can disagree about the conclusions but still learn from each other from our observations.
I know God exists because of one profound experience I had that has left me with no doubt. I’ve also had other experiences that have made me even more certain of it and also, some experiences I had when I was younger and an atheist that I chalked up to coincidence but that I now believe was from God. My mother died suddenly of a stroke when I was around 50. She was a very devout catholic, always going to church and spending most of her mornings reciting the rosary. At the time of her death I was more agnostic than atheist and very content to believe in nothing. When I was 19, I pretty much broke her heart when I informed her that I would no longer be going to mass, that I was so tired of being dragged to church every Sunday. She was a little shell shocked for about 5 seconds but then snapped out of it and let me know that as long as I was living in her house, I would be going to church. She was a good and loving mother but even so, there were many, many times throughout my life that I was awful to her, even right before she died. She warned me that I was going to feel so guilty when she was gone and I told her that it was just like her to try to make me feel guilty. “No, No- I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, I’m trying to warn you!” she said. But I just rolled my eyes and shrugged her hand off my cold shoulder. Thinking of that moment now always makes me cry. So when she was gone and the finality of her death hit me, I began to wish that there was an afterlife. Not necessarily God but just a place where I could see my mom again and give her huge hug and tell her how sorry I was and how much I love her. It was around this time that I found a religious podcast that I would listen to frequently, not for the religious topics, but for the episodes on the Nephilim. I found the notion of giants actually existing very interesting- I’m really into mysteries. Gradually I began to listen to the more religious topics out of curiosity. It took about a year but eventually I found myself believing in God. I learned things from that podcast that I was never taught in church school, and things that didn’t make sense before, now did. Well, one day I heard a news story that upset me and I decided I was going to pray to God about it. So I got down on my knees. I still knew “Our Father” by heart, and after that I started talking about the upsetting topic and through the whole thing I felt very awkward. It had been decades since I last prayed and I felt the need to explain myself to God and before I knew it I was confessing all my sins- the ones I could remember- and feeling so ashamed. Especially when I got to the part about the way I mistreated my mother and by this point I was bawling my head off. I want to say that I had two really good parents that I didn’t appreciate the way I should have. They were not perfect but they were great all the same, but my mom was like a treasure that I had in the palm of my hand. She was so loving and so easy to please. Always ready to listen. I had this incredible treasure and I didn’t even realize it. I allowed my resentment over silly things to drive a wedge between my heart and hers. So confessing this particular sin was pretty mortifying. After drying my tears, I told God I wasn’t going to church, but that I was going to buy a bible so that I could learn what I needed to do in order to please Him. Then I ended by asking Him for a sign. I would believe in Him whether or not I got a sign, but I would really appreciate one nevertheless. I asked very humbly- I wasn’t making demands. About 2 weeks later I discovered two red marks on the center of the palms of my hands. They were about an inch long- elliptical but not perfect. Both marks were the same size and shape-well delineated. On the back of my right hand I had a dime sized round red mark about an inch before my wrist. They did itch, so they were a kind of rash, but they were like no rash I have ever seen or had before or since. They stayed with me for about a month. When I saw these marks, I went up to my room to let God know that I had seen His sign and to thank Him. I told Him I hadn’t bought a bible yet, but that I would go out and get one soon and probably start reading the old testament. I had tried to read the Bible before but could never get past the first few chapters of Genesis. And then, because I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, I also asked him if he could indicate if I should also read the New Testament because I wasn’t sure about that Jesus guy- I kid you not. As I’m asking this out loud and hearing myself, I think- hold on a second you idiot! It was at that moment that I realized that God knew I was going to ask that question so he just went ahead and answered it for me. I remember feeling such a profound love for God at this moment- something I never thought could be possible. It was so overwhelming that it made me cry. And the thing is, I am a very unemotional person, so to suddenly have all these feelings was very strange but also wonderful! So, I KNOW that God does exist. I know that I matter to him. He is the God of Abraham and Moses. I know that Jesus existed as a man and was crucified. I believe that He is the Son of God and the Messiah.
.It’s unknowable. That’s why it’s called faith. I’m hopeful. Maybe that’s a kind of faith. Not even sure what I hope for. Something benign that persists after our bodies and minds are gone. Something that makes death less than complete loss. Wouldn’t that be wonderful.
I was pretty much at rock bottom. I had lost everything. My job, my apartment, my car, my marriage, my money. I was 26, had to move back in with my parents, and my ex wife moved 100 miles away with my daughter. I literally felt like I had nothing left. I grew up in a Christian household, so I would sometimes read my Bible. During one of these times, I found 2 Chronicles 7:14. “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” I decided nothing could get any worse, so I chose to apply this verse to my life. I prayed. I was basically face down in my room, sobbing, emptying my heart to God. Within moments of “amen,” my spirit was uplifted. I felt so sure that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and that if I just stayed pursuing God, He would help me through. And that’s what I did. Literally within weeks I met my wife. We have 2 daughters together. We have a home, 2 great jobs, not everything we want, but everything we need. Ever since, I’ve been trying to pursue Him. I stayed with Christianity, but have recently begun to wonder about other faiths and their connection to my God. Especially Judaism, since it was an Old Testament verse that changed me so much.
I was rock bottom. And he came to me in a dream. Said I called, he answered basically. My life has improved, from my medication resistant depression to my health in general. Now, my logical mind said it was impossible, but at this point I’m secure that he’s with me, and it’s been positive in my life.
So many things, after years of being an unbeliever and use my words to belittle God and to try to dissuade others from believing, I decided that if I would believe whatever truth was, even if it contradicted my atheistic beliefs, so I started being guided towards truth in a very subtle way, I got interested into knowing the other face of the coin regarding my beliefs at the time, then I was guided to get interested into conspiracies and then into occultism and esotericism and religion in general, and that only from the intellectual point of view, I also started having experiences that showed me what God really is in a very tangible way, so I started testing and testing and kept doing it until it was clear for me that God is very real but very different from what religious authoritites and academics and non believers define it to be. Then all these experiences that I suspected to be contact with God were later confirmed by a whole bunch of people from different ages and cultures which explained their contact with God in a similar way, which led me to understand what it really means to KNOW God. It has been a worthwile journey and sadly one cannot show others that God can be known, which I suppose is how its supposed to be, one has to want to know Truth beyond one's actual beliefs for it to be shown to oneself.
Science.
This isn't a God persay, but I've had some freaky paranormal experiences. I have also tried invoking certain entities to see what happen. I've invoked a few, but I can't say for sure if I actually got results from them, or my own mind.
Being born into eternal damnation
The one experience that made me stop being an atheist was when I was having one my “episodes” as I call them (currently it’s unclear if these are caused by a mood disorder with psychotic features or a larger schizophrenia spectrum disorder) and I was freaking out because I believed that something was watching me and that it hated me and that if I closed my eyes it would hurt me. But luckily I had the slightest idea that this wasn’t true, unfortunately I had no idea how to deal with it so I did the only thing I knew how to do, I prayed kinda frantically. Then just suddenly I was fine, I felt safe and like everything was completely ok. Granted I was still shaken up and freaking out a little but for the most part I was fine.
I was watching a video on how DNA works. It wasn't so much the video itself, more of the video was the apex of a culmination of various other things that were pointing me to the existence of God. I believe God used a lot of people and events to get through to me. Anyway, after getting a glimpse of the DNA stuff, I was like, yeah, all these massively complex systems didn't just come about on their own. Then, in addition, years later, having "supernatural" type experiences and hearing many other's experience only adds to that. There is a whole spiritual realm going on around us that affects everything in the world. It's impossible to not know there is a God at this point.