While I think the emotion attached to the post might be indicative of the need to intimidate.....since there are nagging doubts that science has the wherewithal to answer all the questions. BTW, atheists see their own spaghetti monster (randomness causing intelligent things to happen) behind every rock too. So, I am fine with it.

I do think this thread (and the other thread like it for A&A's) should be kept clear for members to tell their story a bit and introduce themselves. I suggest that this post and the 2 preceding get removed.

Well, that's just it. That's the very definition of god IMO. God is nothing, god is no thing. Completely outside our realm of understanding b/c by definition we are fallible. Including scientists.

Just b/c something is abstract doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I could try and enter a beauty contest but I will fail in a very real way thanks to society's adherence to the abstract guidelines of what is beauty is. And as always, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

Dave, slowroll,

I want to know how you developed the power to know what another believes. I thought the thread was "Why I am a believer." not why I am a believer only in what dave and slowroll approves of.

Heathen, I think this thread was intended for the believers to tell why they are believers and not really for us to contradict what they say. I like the idea of the believers having a place to tell their story. I wrote my story in the Why I am an Atheist thread which I figured was where Olorin intended for us to do the same thing. The other threads are where we should debate and discuss. (Stewie: I'm just sayin'.)

Ah, Olorin. The "belief from personal experience". Sadly, it's all in your head, man. People who claim to have had a vision or been spoken to by a supreme being-- they have healthy imaginations (though they have difficulty distinguishing imagination from reality). It's because people WANT to believe so badly, they will accept any hallucination as proof of a divine being. It's hard not to want eternal life, being reunited with lost loved ones, and to think that there is something to more to life that we cannot see with our eyes. But that doesn't justify counting a delusion as proof of a conscious omnipotent being.

Because Jesus told me why I did everything I had done…..and because he knows everything I have done and loves me despite it.

Continued….

I debated all day yesterday if I want to tell the backstory to this, and I decided I want to, so I wrote this last night. I feel like we have all gotten to know each other a little here and if nothing else we know what we’ve got when conversing with each other. While this is hard/uncomfortable on several levels for me to do, I think it will give the best possible evidence I know how to give on what is the real reason for my faith - faith that there is a God, that he is good, and that he is trustworthy. There is much more of course, but what I share here is what got me to the initial starting point.

I have never shared this stuff online with people whom I really do not know (but this is a small group here and all are disc golfers. Of all the DG’ers I have met, there are only 2 that I do not like and I only dislike them part of the time). But, it might be even harder to share this “live” with people I know casually since I need to “brag” about both some of my ups and some of my downs…..and I do that just in order to tell the real story. If I sound arrogant in some places…..yes, it is a struggle for me to not think too highly of myself and my ideas. If I sound down on myself……yes, insecurity is also a struggle for me at times.

In the years leading up to when “Jesus told me why I did everything I had done” I was an agnostic. I surmised that there might be a god or some such power, but I did not believe he was involved in my life or that he wanted to be actively involved in our world. Everything around me was reinforcing that the way in which I was going about my life was the right way. I was achieving everything I set my mind to.

Athletically I had school records in high school track, I started on my college soccer team and was named a 1st team Academic All American. Musically, even without much natural talent, I was 1st trombone 1st chair in the highest level of band competition in the area.

Academically I graduated at the top of my high school class, had been awarded an academic scholarship to a pretty prestigious private engineering school, and I'd gotten a whole bunch of awards at graduations (which I no longer remember what for). Service wise, I tutored inmates in a prison and was a “Big Brother” in the United Way program.

Financially I came from a family that was well below the poverty line (food stamps, school lunch program, etc). I did not get a dime from my parents for college, and I worked 20-30 hours a week during the school years and much more during breaks and summers. I got out of college with only a few thousand dollars of loans and had it paid off within a year. I landed a computer design engineering job that started the Wednesday after graduation. I was making more money than any classmate I knew of – many who are a boatload smarter than me and working for bigger companies.

All along the way, many people heaped on the affirmation…..but at every milestone achieved, while it felt cool, there was naggingly also a big “so what?!” You see, I never really doubted I would get there. But, there was also always this weird hollowness. In this regard, I dreaded that I would have this “So what?!” reaction the day I got married, the day I became a manager, when I bought a house, the day I had a kid. That would suck! I craved more substantial fulfillment. I knew something was messed up.

As much as I liked the affirmation, I also had this nagging feeling inside that it was not solely my doing that made my achievements happen. I was always felt uncomfortable that some of my siblings did not have the same natural talents…. a couple of them had disabilities in fact.