You seem to be the most knowledgeable Christian theist on this forum even though your interpretations of the Bible (both OT and NT) don't conform to any branches of Christianity that I know of. You also seem to be educated in science. I'm sure you have explained somewhere why you think the Bible is indeed the Revealed Word of God but I can't find it anywhere.
So could you please enlighten me and other posters and lurkers ?

This is not something I can explain logically. Let's just say there are two types of understanding: what can be described, and what you have to experience personally. The reason for my belief in the Bible is in the second category, as are most human concepts. I probably could reproduce the experience in someone else under the right circumstances, including a non-hostile open minded listener, though the words are more like philosophy than science.

As for not conforming to the popular branches of Christianity, that's because the popular branches of Christianity don't conform to the Bible, leaving me with an obvious choice.

That's pretty much my statement on the subject. Thanks for asking, though I'm not sure it required its own thread.

I'm curious about this as I don't think you answered his question. I certainly understand your response and have had similar experiences that cause me to believe that there is a higher being and that we do not "just die" but I think what the OP was asking is what made you believe specifically in the Bible rather than another religion or in your own set of beliefs.

I know this somewhat overlaps with my post in the other thread so if you want to make one response, or of course not respond at all (as is your right, obviously), I'll understand.

yes , please explain...

People have feelings. Sometimes they are accurate intuitions, sometimes they are not. Is there anything special about your "the bible is a true story" feelings? What makes that different than a typical ****** who has watched Daniel Negreanu on ESPN and is shouting at the poker table that "I feel like I'm going to get it this time!"

Can you elaborate on what your personal experience was? I spent about 2 years in my early-mid 20s open-mindedly seeking something like a religious experience, but never found one.

People experience something weird and a lot of times think it has to do with religion and god, not sure why they jump to such conclusions. I have experienced something I don't have explanation for but why should I all of the sudden jump into the conclusion that this proves the existence of Christian GOD.

As people already asked, I would like to know why the Bible specifically and why do you trust your intuition/experience or whatever you want to call it on this subject.

Could you also please explain the bolded as I'm not sure I understand what you mean ?

I can't demonstrate in logical terms why I believe something I can't demonstrate in logical terms. If I could do that, the belief would be explicable simply as a phenomenon of my belief mechanism and lose its subjective truth value: i.e. I would not believe it. I believe the Bible due to many subjective experiences. Explanation, as opposed to direct experience, is insufficient to communicate the basis of this belief, which is why it is faith-based.

The preceding shows the reason to expect this "why do you believe?" line of questioning to be logically inconclusive. What I have answered so far is all I have to say on it here, as would be the case even if this was a troll-free forum with only genuinely interested, non-sophomoric participants. Thanks again for asking, even though the subject of a personalized thread should give the OK first.

Everyone trusts their intuition on at least 95 percent of everything they believe, including most of the inductive reasoning on which science depends. If you separate your beliefs into 2 sets, what you can prove and what you trust your intuition about, the second set is by far the larger. Really, the first set has almost nothing in it once you start examining what you can prove about what you are using as proof, recursively.

So what is your stance on people who's subjective experiences and faith led them to a different belief, Judaism or Islam, for example?

Do you believe their subjective experiences are less meaningful than yours or that there is less inherent truth to their experiences?

Basically, this. He asked the question more eloquently than I would have. You, in no way, answered the question. Why the Bible? Why Christianity?

So you simply ignored the entire post where I took the time to answer your question? I already told you that the reason I believe the Bible is not in the category of explainable justifications. Rather, like most beliefs, this one is based on direct experiences.

You understand that doesn't answer the question, right? At all. What experiences lead you to the Bible? What experiences led you to believe that the Bible is the "right book" and that Christianity is the "right religion". Not what experiences led you to believe in a God but what led you to believe specifically in the Christian God. You get those are two different things, right?

From a objective scientific point of view it's quite obvious that the reason you're theist is irrational and therefore in no way a good reason.
If you're interested in the truth, you should always look at things from a distanced and objective perspective.

/thread

As I have said a few time now, mere descriptions of experiences are not logically sufficient to justify a belief requiring the experiences themselves because description is inadequate. Therefore, attempts at relating these experiences would serve no constructive purpose where "why do you believe?" is the question at hand.

You should look at this unproven opinion from a distanced and objective perspective.

But "why do you believe?" is not the question I'm asking. I have had many experiences that would lead me to believe that there is a higher being watching out for me or that lead me to believe a higher being exists. I may not be able to recount those experiences in a meaningful way here so that people would understand. I get that.

The question I'm asking is "Why do you believe in Christianity?". This should be something you should feel pretty comfortable answering as it requires some depth of studying of the religion and relating it to your own life. You had to be introduced to the Bible, you had to have read the Bible, and you had to have had some experience or thought that led you to believe that the Bible is correct. It's impossible to believe in Christianity without this process.

So, again, why do you believe in Christianity SPECIFICALLY?

What are you trying to say? Which unproven opinion about what?

You say we need proof to believe in things.
Concerto responds: where is the proof that we need proof?
This is the one trick pony's one trick.
I for one am not impressed.

Reread the thread. I answered this question in every post I've made.

The unproven opinion in the post I quoted, obviously.

Nor should you be. It's basic epistemology.

He doesn't have an answer and so he plays word games, and trolls the **** out of you guys and you fall for it. Good enough?

No, you didn't. At all. Not even a little bit. You seem to be able to put together a written word pretty well so I guess I assume intelligence. Let me ask you a more direct question since you're clearly not answering the question indirectly -

Do you see that there is a difference between these two things:

Believing in a higher being.

and

Believing in the Christian God.

If you do, do you believe there is a different path to these two things? If not, we're done. If so,

I'm curious as to your path to the Christian God. How were you introduced to the Bible? Why did you accept it? (I realize this is a long answer but I'll accept a general answer, for now).

We'll start there. Let's see if we can make some progress.

He's not answering "Why do you believe in God?" either. You're asking him to explain his justification for holding the bible to be true and he said:

"I already told you that the reason I believe the Bible is not in the category of explainable justifications. Rather, like most beliefs, this one is based on direct experiences."

His answer is that he can't explain it to you. He has a reason and he thinks the only way to understand it is through direct experience (though perhaps his initial post suggested there would be some chance eventually of communicating it, if the circumstances were right).

EDIT: If I ask you why 2+2=4 and you maintain that you can't explain it but you know it's true. It's silly for me to claim you haven't answered the question.

I won't spend too much time on it but I don't think your analogy works as 2 +2 = 4 is a mathamatical fact. It's a fact because of the fundamentals of Math which man invented.

I just don't understand how someone that believes in the bible with such vigor cannot communicate some sort of story about how he first found the bible and how he first decided it was the truth.

The truth is (and I'm nearly 100% certain of this) is that Concerto doesn't want to open himself up to any holes in the religion he holds dear or the beliefs he conforms to so he won't give us the true story. What I don't understand is why he posts here when he doesn't post any of his "true" beliefs. That seems ridiculous to me.

Thanks to Bunny for the clarification.

Okay, so you don't understand. My telling "some sort of (cool) story" is exactly what is not going to happen here. I said that I can't reduce the process by which I came to know the truth of the Bible to descriptive terms, rather it requires direct experience to understand. The end, unless you resort to evidence-free accusations of my being a liar or demands for an ad hoc metanarrative which I already explained cannot do justice to the actual process and is therefore pointless to the question of this thread. Have fun.