@op - What makes you think you have the right to question or request justification of a person's faith or beliefs? Live and let live. If you're not uniquely interested in learning about a person's faith, don't harass people.

Very good question. One I can't answer because I don't believe in a deity. As far as I'm concerned pretty much all Gods are either dead or dying.

Why do you say that?

(You need to get an avatar)

What I mean isn't literal, obviously if a God is omnipotent it wouldn't matter if he had followers or not. But intellectually theology has been on the back foot since the age of enlightenment. Which has lead to a weakening of theology in a number of areas of western socienty.

I may get an avatar I may not. I can't be bothered atm though.

You do have a good point. I agree. People are less likely to believe in God now that science has made much more of an impact on society.

I have heard Jesus audibly a few times. I have heard these words twice - I want you. I need you.

The only way to describe it is - a towering, authoritative yet loving voice. There is no denying if you have heard His voice too.

I will admit - a lot of religions are based on someone else's beliefs. People listen to the tenets of the religion and follow it. Sometimes, they will follow it out of ignorance. Sometimes, they follow it out of necessity (My family makes me go).

For me, I am not religious. I was - I did everything the denomination said to the letter. However, after I accepted Him as my personal Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9), I dropped religion and developed a relationship.

I have been on the brink of death a couple times - knew within seconds the very life I have would be snatched from me and there wasn't anything I could do. Yet, I realized then I wasn't in control. I didn't call Buddha - I didn't call on Mary, the Pope, Mother Teresa, my PS3 and/or Mohammed. I called on Jesus.

I am not knocking anyone's belief. I am not here to condemn. All I can do is present my testimony and let you decide if it's something you want to pursue.

The Almighty would never, ever force anyone to make a decision - it's all our choice.

That's my take - peace.

Mad Skillz, out.

@ Stickball - +1. You earn mad cred in my book.

Stick, I can definitely relate. I can remember losing $100 once at a Pizza Hut. I was the BSU president and the treasurer asked me to hold on to the money. I accidently tossed it and couldn't find it. I was panicked and prayed 'Lord, where is the money?' And I heard Him say 'Cookies.' I was LOL - I was like 'Dude, I just ate pizza. I no hungry.' And His Voice said 'Cookies.' I was baffled for a minute, but then remembered tossing some trash - an empty cookie bag into the trash. Guess what? The benji was in the empty cookie bag.

I saw an old friend who told me something I did way, way back in the day still sat with her 14 years later. We were in the Bay area, at a church garage sale and there we were - 3 Southerners in the Bay Area, talking about what we missed back in the South.

We all agreed - rain. I was like 'I miss it too. Let's ask the Lord for some.'

Shoot, why not? It was nearly a drought - some rain would help.

So, I prayed - and looked at my peeps. 'It's on the way ...'

Within 10 minutes, a small cloud came our way. She saw it ... and it started raining.

To this day, she said 'You really can talk to Him.'

I had screamed at God - told Him I was pissed off and just been real with Him. I have so much respect and love for Him - and a close relationship, but not as close as it should be.

There are all kinds of crazy, nearly unbelievable God stories out there. The best one I've heard is from my pastor.

He's been a pastor since the early 1980's - really good guy. Used to play running back for Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide 'till his knees blew out, and was benched.

He was sincerely questioning his role as a pastor, and more importantly, as a Christian, and being very serious about his questioning/skepticism. He ended up making his mind up to pretty much drop the whole religion thing.

However, before he went through with it, he and his wife took a trip to a regular shopping mall. He wondered into a shoe store, to look for shoes. As he was looking, a short, 5', 0" a black employee at the store with a wierd nametag, handwritten named 'Lemuel' grabbed him by the shoulders (mind you, the pastor in this story is about 6' 4", and still looks like a heavy-duty Power Running Back). The pastor had never seen this guy before, and was about ready to beat him to death. But before he could say or do anything but turn around, the guy said '<insert guy's exact full name>, God sent me to tell you that he's heard your questions, and skepticism. No matter how tough it is in <insert the pastor's current church>, don't give up, the problems <insert specific problems> will be passing very shortly. The pastor, for lack of a better word, was shocked by the way this random guy was acting. He talked to him for a few minutes, and left to grab his wife so she could talk to this guy, but he wasn't at the store anymore.

Thinking that this Lemuel guy was on his lunch break, he and his wife left the shopping mall, but he couldn't get this guy off of his mind. He went back to the mall the very next day to check if the guy was there, but he wasn't. The pastor began to investigate what was going on. He found the manager of the store, and inquired about who the guy was.

Turns out, this guy got hired on the very day that this event occured at the mall. After he talked to the pastor, the guy promply left the store and vanished - he never came back to the store. Being that it was about 20 years ago, the store hired him without a background check. The guy had no social, no address, nothing. He was there for a 6 hour workday, and vanished.

Oh, and for extra points, google the name Lemuel for name meaning. I can ask the pastor about what exact mall this occured at. If anyone wants to check their employee records for this guy, I would think it should be search-able.

And that's one of the random stories from my close circle of Christian friends. I could probably give you dozens of other ones that are as crazy as that one. For the OP, I say 'let my God contend with their God' - be it Allah, Budda's Nirvana, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Odin. If I was a betting man, I'd bet on mine though

Since I pastor, and hold a decent level in my denomination, it'd be relatively easy to compile thousands of unbelievable stories. A lot of people get brainwashed by random, natural 'signs', and it's agreeable that there are things out there that people believe is of God, and is certainly not. But considering the books I could write with stories - Instantaneous healings, litterally seeing heaven, visible multiplication of food, lingustical 'miracles', the dead rising, ect of people I've talked to in the past 5-6 years. The book 'God's Generals' has a great listing of supernatural miracles that happened at the turn of the 20th century with a decent number of pictures concerning various miracles (mostly healings).

To the skeptics and doubters that think Madskillz and I are crazy: I challenge you to prove God wrong. If he does indeed exist, and harbor some sort of willingness to manifest himself to me, then there's no doubt he can't do the same for you. Few people really challenge God - and I believe that since he does exist, he'll be willing to show you he's real. Far beyond a sword in a field.