BELIEF

Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, © 1996 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

One way to look at belief is as a mental attitude or orientation that holds that certain ideas or thoughts are true.

Belief in God is a orientation that develops through experience, inquiry, and study. Ultimately it is a gift. It requires openness, ascent, and cultivation.

Atheism involves the belief that there is no God. Agnosticism purports that we cannot know that there is a God.

I believe in God because of what I have learned about Jesus of Nazareth. In reading Scripture I find Jesus to be a compelling individual. His life, his sayings, his miracles cause me to accept him. He says in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." I am satisfied in what he says. If he tell me that God exists, I believe him. John says in 1:18 of his Gospel, "No one has ever seen God. But his only Son, who is himself God, is near to the Father's heart; he has told us about him."

When I read Scripture and reflect on it, I am deeply satisfied by the thoughts it evokes in me. The words that I read ring true and resonate with me.

Belief in God is a project. It requires thought. As Socrates said, "The unquestioned life is not worth living." I study Scripture, read, and review a variety of information. Belief in God satisfies my yearnings and inquiry.

Another verse of Scripture, Luke 7:35, says "wisdom is shown to be right by the lives of those who follow it." When I follow his path, I believe what Jesus says in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

I struggle. Just because I don't always understand the word of God, doesn't mean it isn't true. I want to believe. I need help with my unbelief. It's a project.

I believe in God... just in case. It's like there's some list somewhere and you don't want to be on it. I don't want to say THERE'S NO GOD! and then die and say, Oh, Hi... Is there some kind of community service I can do?
Mark Maron

In some awful, strange, paradoxical way, atheists tend to take religion more seriously than the practitioners.
Jonathon Miller

The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world.
Psalm 19:1-4

God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He had planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11

You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never has been and never will be. I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.
Isaiah 43:10-11

Even his disciples said, "This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?"
John 6:60

Jesus' disciples saw him do many other miraculous signs beside the ones record in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life.
John 20:30-31

They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
Luke 24:32 (New International Version)

Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
Romans 3:27-28