> My I ask why you are a Christian? Sure, I believe that man is essentially fallen and we were redeemed by the grace of God through his son Jesus. If the quest

> My I ask why you are a Christian? Sure, I believe that man is essentially fallen and we were redeemed by the grace of God through his son Jesus. If the question "why" is meant to be more analytical, I can't be of much help. I profoundly believe that believing in God is by definition non-analytical. That is, you can't "prove" it, nor can you "logic" your way into it. I have some arguments I find convincing and that I like, but when push comes to shove, it's a personal (and wholly non-rational) choice someone makes. > But the question of the christian god, with the bible and traits like loving, good. That is easily disproven. Killing 100,000 innocent Egyptian kids? Genocide and more promise of genocide? Stoning? Hating homosexuals? Sending good people to hell? None of these things are loving or good. Or just try Mark 16:17-18, a simple test, but I have never seen it demonstrated. You're severely oversimplifying here. I think if you work towards understanding the fundamental difference between the Old and New Testament (e.g. Judaism and Christianity), it should become obvious why the OT seems violent and filled with a "just" and "vengeful" God, whereas in the NT, we find a more "merciful" and "forgiving" God. This, theologically speaking, happens because we believe Jesus Christ was kind of a big deal that changed the moral workings of the universe. As far as the homosexual issue, etc., these are very complicated and are hotly debated both in a political and social context, as well as in theological circles. I'm not sure if homosexuality is a sin or not (to me, it doesn't seem that way), but I just do my best to treat everyone as Jesus would: with love and respect. > Would you mind expanding on what convinces you? If not the cosmological argument? As I mentioned, nothing truly "convinces" me -- I think the belief is at its very essence not a rational one. It's sort of like appreciating a beautiful piece of art or listening to Beethoven's 5th; there's no science or math here. However, I will say my favorite argument is the moral one: I think that there are some cases where we can trivially say "X is morally good" or "X is morally bad". Let's focus on the latter for now. For example, I think most people can agree that it's trivially morally bad to cause pain for no good reason. I think this intuition points to some sort of "realness" of the idea of good, e.g. some "ideal" of good. I think that this is, in some sense, a whiff of God. We "get" that there's good things and bad things (irrespective of laws), so I think that's indicative that God is a real thing. Now, some people are complete moral relativists. I think that's wrong and it throws out the baby with the bathwater.