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[Useful]

How do you believe in God without basing it on evidence which is like putting God to a test?

There are various different religions, and various Christian denominations, some of which are quite different from others. Why would someone believe in Christianity and their particular denomination?

If it could be based on evidence, like you talk to God and God answers and seems to have good intentions towards you, then I would understand. But Christianity says you shouldn't put God to a test and that it should be based on faith. Why have faith in one particular religion without evidence pointing you towards that?

Some Christians talk about their personal experience of interaction with God. That seems to be a kind of evidence, though in some cases it is questionable because they may just be talking to another part of their own mind. But there at least seem to be hints that there's more than that involved. Is this evidence why those people believe?

I'm asking because of something I did recently. This summer I put YouVersion on my phone and started reading the Bible a little bit, mainly around their verse of the day. Also, this summer I've been having difficulty sleeping before happy days where I get away from my very difficult and emotionally negative mother and have a good time on my own for part of the day. So, unable to sleep, I asked God to help me sleep, and said if I don't sleep that night I'd uninstall YouVersion because if such a simple request can't be granted God is non-existent or unhelpful. Or maybe I meant that I'd be angry at God for not granting such a simple request. I slept soon after that. Later, when I mentioned this to a Christian friend they said to be careful about that because we're told not to put God to a test.

This led me to think about my whole attitude regarding God. It seems practically impossible to not feel some skepticism and seek evidence which provides some confirmation I'm not just imagining things and believing stuff people made up. Overall at least the external world doesn't clearly seem to say this particular God exists. Also, in the past internal phenomena relating to this have been somewhat chaotic and definitely partly just in my mind. That's a long story though. But anyways, I'm not sure I can even imagine a reasonable attitude involving faith without evidence.

[jimwalton]

Oh, I'm an evidentialist, FOR SURE. So is the Bible. In the Bible, faith is all about evidence. God appears to Moses in a burning bush before He expects him to believe. He gave signs to take back to Pharaoh and the Israelite people, so they could see the signs before they were expected to believe. So also through the whole OT. In the NT, Jesus started off with turning water into wine, healing some people, casting out demons, and then he taught them about faith. And they couldn't possibly understand the resurrection until there was some evidence to go on.

When you read the Bible, people came to Jesus to be healed because they had heard about other people who had been healed. They had seen other people whom Jesus had healed. People had heard him teach. Their faith was based on evidence. Jesus kept giving them new information, and they gained new knowledge from it. Based on that knowledge, they acted with more faith. People came to him to make requests. See how it works? My belief in God is based on my knowledge of the credibility of those writings, the logic of the teaching, and the historical evidence behind it all. The resurrection, for instance, has evidences that give it credibility that motivate me to believe in it. My faith in the resurrection is an assumption of truth based on enough evidence that makes it reasonable to hold that assumption. Jesus could have just ascended to heaven, the disciples figured out that he had prophesied it, and went around telling people He rose. But that's not what happened. He walked around and let them touch him, talk to him, eat with him, and THEN he said, "Believe that I have risen from the dead."

• In Matthew 8.4 Jesus encourages the man he just healed to go show the evidence that it was true.
• John 14.11 (and also 17.8): Jesus encouraged people to verify the evidences
• Heb. 11.1: Faith is based on evidences
• Romans 1.20 (the passage you mentioned). There are evidences, and we shouldn't be afraid to investigate them.

And I also believe that skepticism, doubt, and questioning are what motivates us to learn. When I'm pushed is when I'll dig. When I'm confused is when I work hard to figure it out. It has led to a much deeper and confident Christianity for me.

[Useful]

But does that happen now?

This post was prompted by talking to a Christian friend who claims to talk to God and get answers routinely. There are other people who claim this.

The sorts of special stuff talked about in the Bible doesn't seem to happen nowadays. There are some churches where there seem to be healing miracles. There are people who make pilgrimages and claim to be healed. But it all seems so much more subtle than what is written about in the Bible, and there are people who talk about healing from other sources.

[jimwalton]

> But does that happen now?

Does what happen now? Evidence? I'm glad to talk, but I want to make sure I understand first.

> This post was prompted by talking to a Christian friend who claims to talk to God and get answers routinely. There are other people who claim this.

Oh, yes, God answers, yes. I've never heard an audible voice, but God answers, yes.

> There are some churches where there seem to be healing miracles. There are people who make pilgrimages and claim to be healed. But it all seems so much more subtle than what is written about in the Bible, and there are people who talk about healing from other sources.

It definitely is more subtle than what is written about in the Bible. There are two (and only two) main periods of miracles (healings) in the Bible: the time of the Exodus and the 3 years of Jesus's ministry. Aside from those two periods, there are only about 10 recorded healings in all of Scripture (1300 years of history).