(October 29, 2011 at 1:03 am)SeekerOfTruth Wrote: As for the "why?" behind my faith it's very personal. I was an atheist until my junior year of high school. Alot of things happened in my life that year and I had no one and nothing to turn to for help, I was in a deep depression and nearly killed myself when I was introduced to God. He was something I could lean on and made my life a little easier. I'm not trying to be "preachy" but I guess I believe what I believe because, honestly, what do I have to loose? If I'm wrong I can still say I lived my life to the fullest and earnestly sought out the truth behind everything, and if I'm right, well I had faith in God.
But regardless of "why" I just don't want to be ignorant because everyone has a piece of truth, no one should be disregarded because of what they believe and no matter what someone believes or doesn't believe I will listen to them and shape my own understanding from it.
Firstly, I'm glad you are sticking around. I was worried you were going, and I think you could learn a lot here.
Now, looks like you've had a bit of a rough time, and I hope you're through it. However, with that said, the fact that you found solace and comfort in your beliefs doesn't take a single step towards whether it is true or not. As I said before, do you care if the things you believe are true, or do you not? It's very important to establish this.
As for what you've got to lose, you're touching on a thing called Pascal's Wager. It's worth looking up but basically it runs that if you believe in God and you're right, you reap all the benefits (heaven etc). If you believe and you're wrong, nothing happens. But if you don't believe and you're wrong, you face the consequences (hell, perhaps). So why not believe?
There's a few problems with it, but the main one is that if you choose to follow that line of thinking, you're going to have to believe in every God that has ever been mentioned. After all, what if Allah is the one true God and you've been worshipping the Christian God the whole time?
I think I could come up with several other things in answer to the question of 'what have I got to lose?' as well, if you're interested, but I'll leave it there for now.
