What made you take the leap of faith?

That's to say, what convinced you your religion was the correct one, and which arguments swayed you in favor of them over materialistic/nihilist ones?

Asing because I've had an interest in the faith for a while and grew up a protestant but fell out of the faith pretty quickly. It's not like I'm exactly the chad hedonist or anything, but I'm just not religious anymore. It's a nice thought, but nice thoughts don't count for much.

That said, I'm still interested in what erased the doubt for others, even if I don't have that comfort myself.

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conviction of sin mostly

Well, I just read the Bible out of curiosity. Then I stepped into an Orthodox church. The Divine Liturgy was basically exactly what's in the Bible but in a dynamic format. I had to come back… and again… and again… then, oopsie, I ended up getting baptized and chrismated.
Yeah, I don't really have solid philosophical, intellectual, or spiritual reasons to be a Christian. It's simply the truth. The resurrection has happened, the early Church testifies to this, and today the Church manages to express the worship and theology contained in the books of the Bible in an extremely correct way.

feels good

There is no leap of faith. I know in God, I never had to take that so called "leap". That in itself is weak faith.

And you don't have to. Not every believer is called to be a super intellectual youtube debater that can answer every question directed at their faith by atheists and heathens. It's those with the simple faith of children that enter the kingdom of heaven, not those puffed up with their own wisdom.

I think materialism is clearly false and I think the cosmological argument is compelling. The narrative of the Bible to me is extremely beautiful, whereby God keeps his promises to an unfaithful people again and again and again. Each time they fall into sin and each time when they repent God accepts them back as his children. When judgement time comes instead of punishing humanity with the punishment we deserve God says "I will accept this punishment on your behalf, because I love you". The Bible hits right to the core of what it is to be Human, our flaws and our constant desire to know the infinite that we keep trying to fill with meaningless worldly things.

After all what is it to be Human? What separates us from the apes? We don't just accept how things are and work within the world as it is like other animals. We see how things COULD be and we work to shape things into the form of higher truths that we can perceive. The natural law of the jungle by which animals live by is repulsive to us. We create laws and rules to live by that do not exist in the natural world, but we know they're right because we understand the virtues of justice, compassion, equality and that the human form in some way is not just matter shaped into a specific form but instead the image of the divine.

God certainly exists, of that there is no doubt and we met Him in the person of Jesus Christ. The ideal man who exhorted us to move beyond just animalistic fleshly desires and seek higher truths, union with God that is what every person desires most dearly within their soul.

This is true. Every person knows instinctively that God exists. All you need to do is recognize that instinctive knowledge and not try to rationalize it. Nobody needs to justify their faith before anyone but God.

As a child I had a vision of a young man and his sister discussing the same argument for God Aquinas made. This was years before I knew Aquinas made the same argument. I don't seem to experience the """option""" of faith other people do. God will give me a vision telling me how things are, or confront me with undeniable evidence from random source answering a question I had yesterday. I don't have the option of faith. God tells me the way things are in a way I can't deny. This is why so many people with their "struggle" with faith and silly contradicting politically correct beliefs just seem like nonsensical automatons having their folly to me. I suppose I could deny the truths I don't like if I really wanted to, maybe that's what these fools do and that's why they look so silly.

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I think the leap of faith analogy sometimes makes folks think that it's a quick mental decision to accept Christianity. It was a longer process for me and there are temptations to stray away from it all the time, it's not exactly comfortable or easy to deal with sometimes. We're always prone to asking ourselves why we're doing this when the results aren't exactly clear, and seeking a quick answer hasn't been helpful to me. I've found that living the faith is the only real answer to such a personal question. You can certainly use reason to make an argument for the faith and that side of the discussion is important, but Christianity has no room for neutrality, so at a certain point you have to put it into practice. For me that was an important step and things clear up more and more, to the point where you develop that sense of confidence.

The leap of faith is always there, because being a humble Christian, involves not assuming eerything that happens is from God or that you have spoke to God personally. Christianit requires skepticism. Eve was not skeptical.

I came do God through my deepest, darkest momen while intoxicated. This was the first time I "heard" God and was sure there was a God. I started looking at Christian art and listening to Christian music and found it overwhelmingly beautiful, then I began reading about theology and the actual arguments behind Christianity and not "le banana." Then I read the Bible. The theology converted my mind, the art converted my heart but the Bible and God himself converted my soul.

Some facts are just logically obvious, friend. Despite what our fedora bearing friends say God's existence is one such fact. He just has to make you aware of the reasoning. At that point if you deny Him you do so out of feelings alone.

Absolute skepticism is straight up foolish. You should entertain the possibility of all ideas until not logically sound by evidence. Being skeptical of something because it doesn't feel right is easily manipulatable automaton behavior, especially by exploitation of original sin. Hence why (((they))) see so much importance in controlling narratives.

It's pretty simple, absolute skepticism is self-refuting. I've encountered many types to think by "logic", but the conversation always ends when they realize their own basis for considering things is itself untenable and illogical.

Identify one such case if you don’t mind.

The problem with atheists is that they're smart enough to be interested in things like pop-science and have a little bit of knowledge on epistemology but they don't grow beyond that. They scoff at philosophy because they think materialism is the default worldview. They don't understand that for the idea that science can explain reality in its totality it means that reality must be entirely physical, and there are good reasons to believe it isn't, even within a scientific perspective.

Materialism is one of the narratives (((they))) push. Due to our fallen state if we hear something repeated enough times it "feels" as true as the morality God programmed us with.

My leap wasn't that big, and was really just accepting Jesus as my Lord and my God. The reason being is that I have always been convinced of God's existence, it's self-evident to me. And I have been convicted of my sins throughout my life (hiding from the God I knew existed) or begging Him at odd times for forgiveness (even when I was LARPing as an atheist). To me God is as self-evident a fact about the Universe as the fact that I am conscious or that water is wet. So, On May 1st 2018 (though I had been a Christian long before this) I finally rejected all other faiths and accepted the Lord. For what cause I do not know, but from my many experiences after that (and honestly from ones before that), I know that He is Lord.

I have a distaste for arguments for God's existence as they are stupid and His existence (even if a person doesn't believe in the Christian Deity) is obvious to anyone who looks around them, outside, or inside themselves.For Christianity, it seems like the true expression of God, it is thousands of years old (I count the time of Judaism/Yahwism as part of it), and the arguments for the Resurrection are a nice boon.

Because I was involved in the occult for many years and I began to be able to read the signs and symbols that permeated the culture around me. I waffled from atheist to agnostic to apatheist round and round and round. Finally I did a sigil and asked for the truth. Few weeks later I come across a 4chan thread that explained the mathematical coincidences in nature. After studying "sacred geometry" and gematria I became convinced that this universe is in fact designed by a singular Creator with a singular vision.

After that I was considering joining freemasonry for a while, but I saw an expose on it by a former freemason and I saw it and the world I lived in for what it was, wickedness. I repented at the end of the presentation when they held a prayer. Now I feel…clean again. Like I've come full circle after 24 years.

I'm excited to get back into my church and to reconnect with Christ. I have my Bible by my chair in the living room now, I'm gonna try to start reading it each day and praying too. Talked to my dad about it and that's what he recommended.

Any prayers would be appreciated. God Bless

To preface this I have to say that I was raised in an Independent Fundamental Baptist church.

Sure, normally I start off with arguments for metaphysics, usually the big-bang theory. A clear majority are purely materialists, it's pretty easy to start the argument with causality.

How are we here? If it is through big-bang, then it is creation ex nihilo, as there was a nothing, then there was a something. Ergo, something cannot come from nothing, there was a creation. Since there was a creation, this implies a reality to existence that pure materialism cannot explain, and this is corroborated by the understanding of the Scriptures. This also ties into the rationality of monotheism.

Since they are atheist/materialist, they are required to deny a creation from nothing, so it either ends 1. denying the big bang as a theory 2. eternal regress 3. parallel universes and blah blah

If it's 1., they are refuting science as any creationist does to evolution, this is enough to make any reddit tier atheist stop and think for a second.

If it's 2., they are condemning themselves to a fringe understanding that they usually cannot substantiate at all.

If it's 3., they want it both ways, to deny a creation but still keep metaphysics, which wouldn't even really deny God, because how can God be contained by contingency?

If they're an absolute skeptic, you must point out that they're not having a real standpoint on existence, they're just throwing up their hands into the air and just wanting to have their cake and eat it too.


materialism is incredibly easy to debunk

Creation ex nihilo is possible according to some physics theories; apparently virtual particles come in and out of existence all the time with no actual source.

I got really into the occult aspects of media, and then i kept finding references to Satan or satanic themes in everyday corporate and institution logos, it was kind of disturbing. Even though most Christians know Satan is in power on earth, they're unaware of all his finger prints. So if Satan is real, than God must be real as well, and if am dealing with a fallen angel that is here to enslave me, then i must get the help of God.

It was really conflicting to me because at the time i also discovered the encompassing power of ((them)). But Christianity came from Jews, however Jews worship Satan, and so that is why i decided to leap into Christianity, it's the only beliefs system that is against the Jews, NWO, and Satanism.

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Ed Feser convinced me. This book destroys atheism and shows that faith is rational and that Christianity has the biggest claim of all religions, why Christian morality is true, etc.. All with 100% rational arguments without appeal to divine revelation.

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I figured that there was no other alternative way of gaining lasting happiness. All other ways were either only temporary and/or destructive to me.

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It started with a fascination with the Bible. Then comparing the Bible with what I saw in the world and it being way too dead on. Then wondering who I was talking too when I talked to myself. It wasn't being swayed it was letting go. I believed already and just stopped fighting it.

There's personal experiences that convince me as well. Dreams I've been trying to figure out the meaning of for probably a decade suddenly made sense only one day after I prayed the first time. They were parables.

The materialistic nihilistic world is exactly what the Bible describes it to be. The Bible argues for itself in a remarkable way. I don't know why it took me so long to see it so I just try to get people to read it themselves. When you really dig in it starts to talk. If I've been somehow mind warped by all this ancient text away from modernity I don't want to be cured.

Ex "nihilo".

Basically this except I am Catholic. I've disappointed some people who wanted to know why I was converting because my answer was simply that it was the truth and it's where I felt I was called. I could provide arguments from what I've studied and heard but they weren't reasons for conversion. People always want really dramatic or argumentative testimonies for conversion because it's a good way to evangelize I guess, but my faith journey is mostly just a response to a call.
John 6:68 "And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."

I haven't made the leap yet. I admire Christianity, I want to believe in literal God but I can't say that I do. I don't know what else should I go through to be able to call myself a believer.

I studied eastern religions and esotericism for a while, studied philosophy and was extremely dissatisfied with it. Became a Spinozist notionally because it made sense, left school noticed leftists had destroyed the world I hadn't paid attention to in 4 years, and met a Catholic girl with whom I disagreed a lot, continued to do philosophy stuff. Trump was elected, and I got involved with 4chan, listening to JBP and my stance towards the Church began to soften because I was seeing it first hand for the first time in my life really and engaging with it since my gf was inviting me, although I had yet to make a leap of faith and was still working on a philosophy of Nietzschean self-made meaning. I continued this work after I dumped her except now drawn to philosophers like Julius Evola and Spengler, intellectually I had basically gone to hell, and saw that this stood in sharp contradistinction with faith. I had understood the full ramifications of life's meaninglessness under nihilism. So I took the leap, this was in February.

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I suppose I had made smaller leaps before February though, enough that I was going to Church and thinking about it as more and more viable.

I'm not a Christian, but the more I learn and understand this universe, the more it seems unlikely that it wasn't destined by a greater force.
This planet, for instance– the planet that hit Earth to create the moon needed EXACTLY the right velocity to put us in the orbit we're in– the one we take for granted, that allows life to exist at all. Without that 1 in a trillion pool-shot, there'd be no life.
Then it was showered by meteors made partially of frozen water. Again, extremely rare circumstances.

And now we delve into the possibility of other dimensions. What at the top of those dimensions? So electrons might not be particles, but rather parts of 4-D strings intersecting our 3-D perception. Which means, there may be 5-D, 6-D, etc. At the top, would be a universe that governs it all. One tiny change to the top dimension DRASTICALLY changes all the ones below it.

So yeah, I'm filled with wonder, but not assumptions. I remain agnostic– dynamic to change, just like the universe that we inhabit.

Same story as this. A friend shared this screencap with me which shifted my view on Him overnight.

Also unrelated; I need help quitting p*rn, please give me advice to stop.

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E. Michael Jones pointed out that prayer is the opposite of masturbation. Thinking over the implications, I came to realize my attachment to self-pleasure was the only thing preventing me from returning to the true Catholic Church. I wanted to believe the Protestant meme that masturbation cannot condemn you, but…when did I ever pray? When did I ever put on Christ?

Jesus Christ did not masturbate, Jesus Christ was sinless, and the fruits of sin are death. Yet, I couldn't stop on my own. With fear in my heart, I went to confession, and let out everything I could think of. I have not masturbated once since then, although I still suffer from lustful temptations, but I did not achieve this on my own, but only through the grace of Jesus Christ.

I do not know how else to convince any Protestant of the power of the sacraments, except to say that through my own will I had no power against sins of the flesh, but I only did when I gave up on my own will, and put on His.

I always knew that God existed, it was obvious to me. But I didn't think about Him that much. I would ocasionally insult and blaspheme, but always ask for forgiveness later. I never sunk to the depths of depravity that is atheism, since the spiritual world was very active in my life. Demons in the form of shadow people walking in my house and some other dark things like that.
What made me return to the Catholic Church was that I had depression in a year and decided that I had dedicate my life to a faith, since the material world is dead and worthless for me. I was looking at p*g*nism, asking myself if I should leave my Catholic faith for that when suddenly I 'felt' a light in my heart that said to me do not do that.
I immediatly closed that heathen site and decided to return to the Catholic Church.

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Catholicism is heresy. No man should ever come between you and Christ. If you listen to the Pope more than you listen to Christ, you're off track.

jesus-is-savior.com/how_to_be_saved.html

Click to know more! Straight from the Scriptures.

It's more complex than that, but a crucial thing was coming to accept the existence of the supernatural. I'm an empirical type of person, so I needed to experience the supernatural firsthand. It took multiple data points to resolve the cognitive dissonance because I had been very much a materialist. I don't think using the term "leap of faith" is accurate in my case.

All those theoretical arguments for the existence of God have holes in them and never convinced me.

Growing up I was always interested in Christ, in good and evil and ceasing suffering.
After a horrible adolescence lived in sin, one day I read an article on facebook about how Buddhism works with modern society. One thing led to another and I pursued Buddhism for a while, studying and meditating, until I finally opened the Bible and started studying theology 8 hours a day or more instead of watching anime and porn and feeding my MMO and weed addiction.
I realized I couldn't save myself, like buddhists would like you to believe. And walked with Christ for a while, until falling into sin for a long time, even stopping believing. And now I'm back.
Sin is death and I have firsthand knowledge and experience with this. I want to drink the Living Water and have eternal life. I truly want this and I hate sin from the bottom of my heart, even the sins I'm still struggling to give up.

Very similar to my story. I think I've made the leap but sometimes I have doubts.

I’ve unfortunately been incapable of finding the peace of faith since creating this thread.

The realization that the leap of faith for atheism is bigger

The realization that no other religion makes as much sense as Christianity
Read my post here for the details

Ultimately it was my son passing that brought me closer to the faith. I long to meet him when I pass myself, of course I hope to live a long life of making him many brothers and sisters while honoring our Lord, and him as best as I can.

Similar to me, I grew up in a zionist baptist sbc church and resented the jews for their role in history and geopolitics. The more I read about bible prophecy everything just lined up with the truth of the real world, same with sin and laws scripture talked about thousands of years ago. It's just insanely accurate and faith brings forth the most joyful life you can have.

sad tbh

I'm constantly between nihilism/apatheism and faith. I don't really go to church, I don't pray or feel spiritual at all. However, I know God exists, it's a logical necessity. I don't even believe things like 'ask and you shall receive', 'don't worry what you'll eat the next day' and so on.
I grew up poor, I'm too focused on my work now and trying to provide for myself and that's my main preoccupation. I'm currently in my nihilistic phase where I don't really care about anything spiritual. I sometimes come here just to see what's up.

I'll tell you my story.
The biggest thing that I left out of my greentext on purpose was all the small "coincidences" I saw along the way. There's way too many things in this world that line up way too perfectly for me to not believe in something, and when I started looking deeper into catholicism it just made sense. There's really no way to make you believe, it's something that has to come from within you when you listen for God and hear Him.

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Honestly? It was feeling love for the first time, actual love that diminished sin from my heart. Before that that I used to browse this board and pol occasionally. I thought I was an “alright” Christian (I wasn’t, still sinned including lust. I wasn’t even sure of which denomination to conform into) but I still hadn’t made that leap. Its not until I met her that sin died away from my heart, and that I needed to be with her. I didn’t feel any lustful feelings for her, just pure feelings. It started becoming painful when I wasn’t around her, so I started reading the Bible as a way to get my mind on something else. I felt closer to God, and wanted to be with him more as he eased my pains and sorrows. I decided to be Catholic again, and this time I would actually be Christian. In a way, I believe the Lord led me to her so she can indirectly lead me back to the Lord. It amazes me in a way as before even when I was around 6, religion didn’t interest me. I was never an atheist, though I didn’t focus on God, while my family did. Now it’s the other way around with basically me having the best connection to God, while the rest of my family lags behind, became progressive about it, or left completely (expectation of my grandmother). In a way, it saddens me as much as it makes me grateful the Lord chosed me to be lead backed into the faith, because now I have no one besides my grandmother to relate with it. In a way, I see it as the lord has a path for me, to help bring back my family to faith (hard since they don’t like each other), be together with this girl so I can also bring her into the faith (also hard because she is still in highschool and I’m in college), or preferably both. It’s hard for me one person to do, but I will do my very best for those who I love and for the Lord. I know it’s out of my place, but prayers would be nice as I go on this path. Whether it be redemption for my past, sacrifice for those who I love, or just a second chance, I will do my best to continue the path I believe God has for me. That is how I took my leap into faith.

Aquinas

This Meme.

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I'm not sure if faith is really a leap or if it more of a gift that is given to you. Opinions?

I think in my case it's definitely a gift. Even if I see a compelling argument against God I stumble upon a verse that disproves it a few hours later. God won't let me not believe.