In your opinion what causes christians to believe in Jesus

[John 6IX Breezy]

AI: "the Seventh-day Adventist Church generally believes in a young earth, typically estimated to be around 6,000 years old..."

Sheldon: If the universe is only 6000 years old, how is light visible from stars, that are billions of light years from the earth?

For the record, even when your own AI friend says Earth, you imagine that it says universe. Can I be blamed for not engaging with someone who even misinterprets those on his own team?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

AI: "the Seventh-day Adventist Church generally believes in a young earth, typically estimated to be around 6,000 years old..."

Sheldon: If the universe is only 6000 years old, how is light visible from stars, that are billions of light years from the earth?

For the record, even when your own AI friend says Earth, you imagine that it says universe. Can I be blamed for not engaging with someone who even misinterprets those on his own team?

That’s a fair point. SDAs believe in a young Earth, not a young Universe. But I agree with Angrboda - this thread should probably get back on track.

To that end, what are - let’s say five - reasons that Christians believe in Jesus, and what caused them to accept those reasons?

(Asking all thread participants, not just John).

Boru

[Sheldon]

AI: "the Seventh-day Adventist Church generally believes in a young earth, typically estimated to be around 6,000 years old..."

Sheldon: If the universe is only 6000 years old, how is light visible from stars, that are billions of light years from the earth?

For the record, even when your own AI friend says Earth, you imagine that it says universe. Can I be blamed for not engaging with someone who even misinterprets those on his own team?

So you accept the fact the universe is billions of years old, and think this means you don't have to address the bat shit crazy nonsense you do believe, like a planet existing with vegetation on it, before the sun. 

You are funny, fair play...

Though this may not answer generally why Christians believe Jesus was a deity, it does explain why you could believe in unevidenced hearsay about supernatural magic, without any objective evidence. If you can believe the earth existed with vegetation on it, before the sun, then no belief is too absurd, obviously.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The OP seems a little fuzzy to me, since there are varying beliefs about Jesus even among Christians - in what sense is ‘belief in Jesus’ meant? As a great moral teacher? A godman? A god? A saviour? A philosophical ideal?

Boru

[Sheldon]

For the record, even when your own AI friend says Earth, you imagine that it says universe. Can I be blamed for not engaging with someone who even misinterprets those on his own team?

That’s a fair point. SDAs believe in a young Earth, not a young Universe. But I agree with Angrboda - this thread should probably get back on track.

To that end, what are - let’s say five - reasons that Christians believe in Jesus, and what caused them to accept those reasons?

(Asking all thread participants, not just John).

Boru

1. A ludicrously low bar for credulity, but only for their chosen superstition.
2. An ability to deny objective reality, no matter how well evidenced, if it contradicts their beliefs. 
3. A bias in favour of one archaic superstition, no objectively different to all the others. 
4. A sneering contempt for facts, and logic, if they contradict religious doctrine, or religious apologetics.
5. An inability to examine their chosen superstition critically or objectively. 

You did say all participants...

[Sheldon]

The OP seems a little fuzzy to me, since there are varying beliefs about Jesus even among Christians - in what sense is ‘belief in Jesus’ meant? As a great moral teacher? A godman? A god? A saviour? A philosophical ideal?

Boru

Well, if he existed as a human being, this would be a trivial truth really, but it's worth noting even this is supported by the flimsiest of evidence. 

What reason can anyone offer, if Jesus existed, that he was anything but human? 

That seems like a reasonable starting point, I'd have thought?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

That’s a fair point. SDAs believe in a young Earth, not a young Universe. But I agree with Angrboda - this thread should probably get back on track.

To that end, what are - let’s say five - reasons that Christians believe in Jesus, and what caused them to accept those reasons?

(Asking all thread participants, not just John).

Boru

1. A ludicrously low bar for credulity, but only for their chosen superstition.
2. An ability to deny objective reality, no matter how well evidenced, if it contradicts their beliefs. 
3. A bias in favour of one archaic superstition, no objectively different to all the others. 
4. A sneering contempt for facts, and logic, if they contradict religious doctrine, or religious apologetics.
5. An inability to examine their chosen superstition critically or objectively. 

You did say all participants...

Those seem like all the same reason. 

Boru

[John 6IX Breezy]

To that end, what are - let’s say five - reasons that Christians believe in Jesus, and what caused them to accept those reasons?

I think, in practice, most people believe or disbelieve for one key factor—relationship. This is something like a heuristic people follow on both ends. You will rarely find someone who believes God is megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, and capriciously malevolent, as Dawkins alleges, and is also a believing Christian. And you will rarely find someone who thinks the God of the bible is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, as the Bible alleges, and is also a militant atheist. 

I think there is a genuine correlation there: For every Christian that says they prayed and were heard, there is an atheist saying they prayed and weren't. The Christian will say God exists because good has happened to them, the atheist will say God doesn't exist because evil happened to them. In other words, the kind of relationship you have with God spills over into a judgment regarding his existence.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

To that end, what are - let’s say five - reasons that Christians believe in Jesus, and what caused them to accept those reasons?

I think, in practice, most people believe or disbelieve for one key factor—relationship. This is something like a heuristic people follow on both ends. You will rarely find someone who believes God is megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, and capriciously malevolent, as Dawkins alleges, and is also a believing Christian. And you will rarely find someone who thinks the God of the bible is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, as the Bible alleges, and is also a militant atheist. 

I think there is a genuine correlation there: For every Christian that says they prayed and were heard, there is an atheist saying they prayed and weren't. The Christian will say God exists because good has happened to them, the atheist will say God doesn't exist because evil happened to them. In other words, the kind of relationship you have with God spills over into a judgment regarding his existence.

Atheists - by definition - don’t have a relationship with God.

But Christians don’t believe in God because their prayers are ‘answered’. They pray for answers because they believe in God.

Boru

[The Architect Of Fate]

I think, in practice, most people believe or disbelieve for one key factor—relationship. This is something like a heuristic people follow on both ends. You will rarely find someone who believes God is megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, and capriciously malevolent, as Dawkins alleges, and is also a believing Christian. And you will rarely find someone who thinks the God of the bible is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, as the Bible alleges, and is also a militant atheist. 

I think there is a genuine correlation there: For every Christian that says they prayed and were heard, there is an atheist saying they prayed and weren't. The Christian will say God exists because good has happened to them, the atheist will say God doesn't exist because evil happened to them. In other words, the kind of relationship you have with God spills over into a judgment regarding his existence.

Well this is nonsensical