What brought you to believe in God?

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I’d like to hear from fellow believers, of any religious denomination, who were once atheist or agnostic.

What happened? What brought you to a belief in God?

I’m not looking to debate anyone’s particular religious belief, so please don’t consider this a ‘trap’ thread…I’m just very curious about other people’s stories, as I was once agnostic myself. (It’s not even important for you to devulge what religious belief you practice, just if you believe whole heartedly in God.)

I will post my story when I have more time to write it.

🙂
 
rboo124 said:
I’d like to hear from fellow believers, of any religious denomination, who were once atheist or agnostic.

What happened? What brought you to a belief in God?
Click to expand...
The Book of Mormon!

zerinus
 
I dated an agnostic my first two years of college, and began seriously doubting Christianity. I did stop all together and practiced nothing. Why did I go back?

Well, I began taking walks. On trail. And as I looked around me, I just couldn’t deny God being everywhere. In my mind, there is no way all of this could have come to be all on its own. There has to be a God. Well, I could have just left it at that. But if God does exist, which of course I believe He does, then how dare I ignore Him just to pursue my own personal desires?

I began studying Christianity again and found the faith I belong in. God has proven his existence to me in many ways. There’s no way I have any doubt any longer.
 
Tree’s (yep, believe it or not) is what finally got me to thinking that God truly exists. I was wondering and questioning anyway, but at about 3 in the morning, I looked out my window like I have done a gadzillion times before when it finally HIT ME! If life crawled out of the Primordial OOZE as a Single Celled organism, why/how did that single cell mutate into entirely different types of life?,.,

The human cell has membranes and a plant has cell walls,two different things but yet from the same original organism?:rolleyes:

Then, remembering back to biology class from college when we diagrammed the human cell with all its parts working in harmony. How could this happen by accident? The Holy Spirit answered that question for me,GOD!👍

I can say this because I was once one…Atheistism is the most ignorant of beliefs totally lacking in any intellegent reason for the Origin of Life. Its when I realized this that I became a Christian.

Now finding a place to worship God on the other hand was a whole lot tougher.
 
A lot of miracles and a lot of good witnesses all around me, little peeks at the Christian life and the love in it, a burning curiosity and the evidence of history, lots of dreams and finally an audible voice, and some good, long, tough conversations with people who witnessed to me, all this brought me to believe. since then the miracles have multiplied and I could never lose my belief in God now, unless I lost my memory, because I have experienced so much evidence for His existence. But just in case I ever lose my memory, I pray God keeps me and never lets me go.:gopray2:
 
Love. The realization that Love is not just a mere subjective feeling or a chemical, hormonal reaction or even an impersonal life force.

I was very into Taoism before I reconverted, and I believed in some vague kind of all pervading life force. But I began to realize that this life force could not account for what I thought was the most powerful force in the world - Love. An impersonal cosmic energy cannot love you, nor can it empower you to love. So to me it seemed that there was something more personal - and more powerful - than some vacuous cosmic force. And that’s when God started to reel me in.
 
This might take forever but I try as briefly as possible:

1- God called French missionaries to come over to Vietnam
2- These French priests and nuns converted my great great grandparents.
3- Some of these missionaries died as martyrs.
4- Then from there, my parents were born.
5- By their faith, I was baptized and growing up as a Catholic
6- I live a normal life as anybody - making mistakes, etc …
7- By grace of God and prayers of others especially the intercession of our Mother Mary, I came to know my sinful life.
8- at the present, I keep praying to ask God to give me graces and virtues to grow in faith, hope, and love - and for all these, I ask for the intercession of Virgin Mary and many Saints, who have been helping me, especially St. Joseph, St. Paul, St. Faustina, St. Rita, St. Jude, St. Therese Little Flower, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, My Guardian Angels and other Saints.
 
I think I’ve always believed in God, but the pain I felt from my own state of sinfulness is what brought me to my knees, and Christ showed me the way to His peace. He took that pain away and it literally never came back.

That’s when I first learned the principle of Confession. What I didn’t know then, is that it was actually a Sacrament.
 
I figured out one day that I was really pissed off at god (lower case on purpose because that was a false god). I was angry as all get out that I was angry with god, because being angry at god meant that I wasn’t a very good atheist. ie, hard to be angry at something that you don’t believe in.

I decided to seek out God, in the form of that ever elusive word “Faith”. It started out as a test, see what happens. I wasn’t expecting, even fought, belief. I didn’t win the fight. But that’s ok. Losing has never been better.

Searching for Faith led me to God, or maybe God led me to Faith. These days, I am not sure which came first.
 
The love/sacrifice of my mother helped me realized the love of God.
And thus I believe in God.

Tak
 
I lost my faith and didn’t really know if God existed or not, didn’t really care…

I became pretty empty inside, alcoholic, stressed out, cynical. I started praying out of desperation, but didn’t know if God existed or really expect any good to come from the prayers.

Things didn’t improve, as I perceived it, they got worse. I was hospitalized for health problems due to alcoholism, lost my job of ten years, had struggles with my family, etc. As a result, I stripped away a lot of denial…was forced to look at life for what it actually was, not what I was trying to make it.

Strangely, this feeling of peace began to come over me, perhaps due to being sober and rock bottom…I had more to lose, but I was actually thankful for what I had left, not sad at what I had lost.

AA meetings and The Big Book (especially the chapter 'We Agnostics) really sealed the deal for me. There was just too much in the world, the whole concept of existence and everything entailed in creation…it was all too big to have just ‘happened’ for no reason. There are so many ‘specifics’ I realized to bring me to faith, but it would be impossible to share them here without turning this into a novel.

I began having spiritual awakenings, no big BOOM, flash of light, God appearing to me, etc. Nothing of the sci-fi nature…just an inner awareness of God, a true, unshakable belief that there was absolutely no possible way there couldn’t be a God.

God had existed the whole time…I had been wrong…God didn’t turn his back on me or cease to exist. I had turned my back on him and denied his existence. Looking back, I was this stupid, sad man who was too ‘smart’ to believe in God…how foolish.

I can’t explain how or why…and it really is of no importance anymore…it just ‘is’. I wasn’t able to accept that before, now I can’t deny it. It’s very strange.

It just amazes me that I’ve been woken up…I am literally grateful everyday for God revealing himself to me and for the changes he’s helped me make in my life.
 
Its the love I feel in my heart for God, its something i cant deny.
Ive witness many miracles, and i was raised Catholic, so im very fortunate to be born in the one true religion as well!
 
Decided there was no God as a teen, partially stemming from abuse by a minister as a little child. Then became very New Age, but it was more of a all roads lead to him, God as an energy or higher power, not personal. But being out in creation, watching a sunrise, running (for fun) in a rain storm, standing over the cliffs above the Atlantic ocean watching the lightening dip down, laying in the grass and looking up at a star filled sky, etc…all these things spoke to me and I was overwhelmed, they all pointed back to God. Decided it was better to worship infinite Christian God, not finite creation.
 
rboo124 said:
I’d like to hear from fellow believers, of any religious denomination, who were once atheist or agnostic.

What happened? What brought you to a belief in God?

I’m not looking to debate anyone’s particular religious belief, so please don’t consider this a ‘trap’ thread…I’m just very curious about other people’s stories, as I was once agnostic myself. (It’s not even important for you to devulge what religious belief you practice, just if you believe whole heartedly in God.)

I will post my story when I have more time to write it.

🙂
Click to expand...
Once agnostic here… For me, the ones that brought me to believe was Summa Theologica in contrast to the arguments of Dawkins, Hitchens and the likes… Summa’s Prima Pars in particular. Also the arguments of St. Augustine… 😃

Truth is, when all is said and done, God makes so much sense… 😃
 
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