Hello everyone,

Nice to meet you. I'm a born again Christian, with a strong background in philosophy and skepticism, as well as comparative religions and new age spirituality. I just wanted to say hello, and to say that I am here to give an answer for my faith to anyone who is curious, as well as to have fruitful discussions and make new friends.

I'll give a little background as to how I came to my faith:

I grew up agnostic without any religion. God was never discussed in the home, either for or against. So as such, growing up, it was never an important question to me. I was a strict materialist by default, and I assumed that people who had spiritual experiences were delusional.

I received revelation that this wasn't the case however, when one day I had a spiritual experience that showed me that there is a higher power at work in the world, that some powerful being was working behind the scenes of material reality. I had no choice to conclude at that point that everything I knew was in some way wrong and that God exists. I spent many years after that searching for God, by exploring every different belief system, from hinduism to judiasm, to the more esoteric like jainism and kundalini yoga. I had assumed at that point that all of the different belief systems all represented different aspects of God, that they were all talking about the same God.

The one belief system I had always rejected was Christianity. I did not believe for a moment that Jesus even existed. However, though I would argue strongly against it, I really didn't know anything about Christianity.

I received revelation that I needed to investigate it, and when I finally got to it, I found it was about the God I already knew. God had shown me beforehand that He is a triune God, and that He has a Messiah..ie, someone whose job it was to save the world. So the bible was confirmed true to me before I had ever read it.

So, that's when I decided to give my life to Jesus Christ. I was baptized and received the Holy Spirit this year. Since then, my life has been transformed. Joy where there was pain. Self-control where there was addiction. Peace where there was anxiety. Hope where there was despair. Love where there was hate. I'm a new man.

I seem to defy stereotypes that I have heard because I wasn't looking for God when He tapped me on the shoulder. I was content with my life and didn't come to God because I was emotionally needy. I was simply following the evidence where it led, and I was highly skeptical of all religious claims even when I did understand that God is real. I wanted to know the truth, and wasn't content with easy answers, for or against.

Well, that's my story. I can sympathize with atheists and agnostics because I used to be one. I can sympathize with people who see no evidence for a spirit because I didn't see any either. See you around the forum.

Quote:The one belief system I had always rejected was Christianity.

You should have quit while you were ahead.

Hello, former agnostic. Welcome to the forums.

Although I can understand that for your perspective, it seems I have lost something, from my perspective I have only gained, and very richly at that. The only things which I lost were my worldly ways, which was of great benefit and advantage to me, just by itself. Nice to meet you by the way.

(September 16, 2011 at 9:27 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:The one belief system I had always rejected was Christianity.

You should have quit while you were ahead.

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Greetings, and thanks.

(September 16, 2011 at 9:38 pm)Shell B Wrote: Hello, former agnostic. Welcome to the forums.

Welcome to the forums :p

Hey Miles I was just reading something today on how cheap the boss fight was in Sonic 2.
http://www.dorkly.com/article/23584/the-...me-history

I think that was my favorite Sonic game..it was really fun to do the split screen mode. Anyway, nice to meet ya..

(September 16, 2011 at 11:03 pm)MilesTailsPrower Wrote: Welcome to the forums :p

I played Sonic Adventure 2 for gamecube years ago, best time I've ever had :p

Hope to see you post sometime soon

Welcome to the atheist forums

(September 16, 2011 at 9:24 pm)lucent Wrote: The one belief system I had always rejected was Christianity. I did not believe for a moment that Jesus even existed. However, though I would argue strongly against it, I really didn't know anything about Christianity.

I received revelation that I needed to investigate it, and when I finally got to it, I found it was about the God I already knew. God had shown me beforehand that He is a triune God, and that He has a Messiah..ie, someone whose job it was to save the world. So the bible was confirmed true to me before I had ever read it.

What kind of revelation did you receive if I am curious. If it just a gut feeling of some sort, I would very wary of making such big decisions on the basis of gut feelings. Believe me I have made some awful decisions based on just mere gut feelings.

I have always been non-religious, however until a few years ago believed in a higher power or maybe god. However at most I believed Jesus Christ was based on a historical character. However I believed a lot of the events in the gospels did not happen.

Precisely because figures of the period whose writings have survived such as Tacitus, Seneca, Suetonius, and especially Philo and Josephus would have written pages upon pages about the events portrayed in the gospels if they had happened.

Right now given the lack of hard evidence concerning the existence of a historical character whom the Jesus of the Gospels would be based on. I am agnostic towards the actually existence of such a character. Even if such a character existed he cannot have been more than a very marginal figure, because even if the say what Josephus wrote about him was authentic, it only at most a passing remark.

How do people get from being someone who isn't sure of the the existence of god, to then worshiping someone who claims to be his son with no proof. In a universe of billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each, how can you come to this conclusion? Do you believe the bible to be the inerrant word of god?

With such massive evidence behind natural selection and DNA testing showing how we are related to other species, how can you come up with this conclusion?

Or do you just ignore hard facts, logic, reason and bypass that stuff and take on board a 'revelation'?

Going from being not sure if there is a god or not, to someone who believes in the abrahamic god and being a Jesus freak is ridiculous.


But either way, welcome to the forum and keep posting

Welcome to the forum, lucent.
I look forward to your perspectives on Christianity and whatever else that's on your mind.