With no empirical evidence, why do you believe in God?

All theories (scientific and religious) are based on hypotheses and assumptions. Faith is an integral part of the proof.

In the case of accepting the presence of a higher being, one has to be agostic at first. Not ruling out the possibility of either choices.

A man is like an ant on a basketball. Believes he knows everything there is, to know. Does he know of the existence of the player holding the ball? the entire basketball team? the court ? the stadium? the city?...and so on..

At some point, he reaches the limit of his ability to understand. This need not be the limit of the reality, however.

For all you know, your solar system could be an atom (same structure, isn't it - revolving spheres around one large sphere ) of another universe !! okay, so that may be a bit stretched.

But my point is.......well..its somewhere up there..

Added: Here is my theory that I happily expound all over yahoo answers:

the controversial part : The divine spark that is the lifeform - emanates from and merges into the Ultimate being. Of course all things living have a divine spark. That is what separates us from a desk or a table lamp or a rock although we are all essentially made up of atoms and molecules.

This divine spark must be energy form. And as every school kid knows, energy can neither be destroyed nor created. So it must be getting recycled somehow.

Simplistically put, There must be a common pool for the divine sparks. I refer to this as the Ultimate being. Here, the spark is cleansed, purified and re-sent to a new collection of atoms and molecules to make it alive.

So, we are in a loop....

Anyway, I do believe in a higher power. Is God human form? i don't think so.

I don't believe everything could have been made so perfectly without the doing of an all-powerful creator. I mean, just look how our human bodies work. It's miraculous. Not just the complex make up of it, but if you want to, say, snap your fingers, you just do it and it happens.

Also, its not like if life can come out of micro-bacteria and then evolve. If evolution was true, why did all the other monkeys remain as monkeys? Shouldn't they have evolved too?

And the Sun. It is placed not too far from us, but not too close either. The planets have axes to spin on and they all rotate so harmoniously.

Another thing is, whenever we do something bad, we feel guilt naturally. Why would we be ashamed of doing something bad if a god isn't there to punish us? Its because we know that we are being watched and one day we'd have to answer.

There are numerous miracles we see from day to day that couldn't have just happened "because it's like that."

How about trying an easier question first, like 'who are you'?

Are you simply a biological machine, following genetic instincts & learned responses? Is consciousness a product of matter? What is the difference between a living being and non-living material? How did life first originate? What do actual biologists say on the matter? Is our sense of 'self' simply an illusion created in our mind?

Without first looking into these fundamental questions regarding our own selves I'd see it as a bit of jump to expect to know anything substantial regarding evidence (or not) for God. Or a superior intelligence, Creator or controller of some kind.

At least, unless you got lucky and They actually came and visited you to answer in person ;)

I know about god because I am consciousness - I am god, and so are you.

We are a part of the grand energy grid of the universe which is a form of non-linear consciousness.

We are the linear fragments fractalized from an infinite "mind"..... I know this from experience - not from a book.

And what I experience is colored by my perception of it and my life experience, which means everything that I think I "know" is nothing more than a construct, a choice - a fiction that my mind decides on for the purpose of practical use while experiencing linear time....

the truth cannot be defined to a finite definition, so any attempt at "empirical evidence" becomes nothing more than the same futile attempt that organized religion has made for many years - an attempt to summarize something that is so beyond words that it is pointless to "define".

The infinite can only be experienced, never contemplated with a linear mind. You can only define it yourself, no one can give it to you or point the way to that which is within YOU.

My bible is the book of infinity - quite a large database - try searching it sometime - the hourglass keeps on spinning and spinning...

:)

Anyone who only quotes a book to answer you, probably does not have access to the infinity of their being.... and you are correct to push their buttons, only once their ideas of what they think possible and impossible is broken will they begin to perceive that they are much much more than what they have led themselves to believe.

I believe in the God of the Bible because man continuously fails at any evidence to prove that any other natural system could be probable.

The bible is clear, the truths are clear, the agreement with human sciences (that aren't based on theory i.e. the earth is a sphere: Isaiah 40:22a It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth) is clearly there. There are holes in man's theories to prove their existence without God: The Big Bang Theory, Evolution, String Theory... And believe me when I tell you, I've researched, and none of them even begin to fully explain just how everything fits. It had to be designed to fit to work at all, don't you notice how everything works together to sustain life? There has to be a Sustainer of life, something or someone who holds it all together. Scientists even say themselves that when left to itself matter becomes more and more chaotic (the theory of entropy).

I believe not because I need or want a faith system, but because Ive been fully convinced.

If you want more information about what creationists believe see:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/archiv...

"Mere Christianity" by C.S Lewis and

"The Evolution of a Creationist" by Jobe Martin* (this one's my personal favorite)

I don't believe in God! I KNOW He exists!

I'm a Proven Knower of The Great Testimony! It's all FULLY explained in The Anointed, The Elect, and The Damned!

Salumniah!

Because She tells me Herself on a regular basis, like just the other day when I was taking a dump and reading my book on the crapper, God just appeared there and said "Hey Emily C, How you doin" And I I said just fine, thanx for asking and She was like "cool" and then she said She'll come back when I wasn't so busy, because She forgot that humans, unlike deities have certain biological needs

She should be coming back later this afternoon

Ted, we cannot choose to believe. It is a life outcome. I am atheist, which is an outcome of a deep belief in empirical evidence and rational thinking. Some just do not believe in reality, they have to live in a dream world. Just leave them to it as long as they do not try to inflict it on the rest of us.

I believe there is probably SOMETHING, whether it is God or soemthing else, purely because there are so many coincidences that it is improbable (but not impossable) that life began on it's own.

Whether God is what people think He is or not, I don't know. I personally think that the concept of God is an attempt to personify forces that we do not understand and may never understand, but I am very very open to the idea that I am wrong.

I saw a "ghost" with my own eyes. It was really a demon impersonating a dead woman. It made me realize the spiritual world is real. From there, I found the Lord. That is how it worked for me.