rawe wrote:
Hi Javeca,

Do you mind sharing what personal experience convinces you of the existence of God? In answering it is understood such is not proof, as you say it is subjective. Francis Collins in his book talked a lot about observing patients, some terminally ill, being sustained by faith.

The actual experience happened just after my 25th birthday. A friend of my was given two tickets for a river rafting trip down the Skykomish River. For the most part it was pretty fun AW Class: II-V rapids, but cold (average water temp in April is 45 degrees) however there is a section that at certain times of the year receives a AW Class VI, it was in this section while we were going through it we hit a boulder and the raft flipped over dumping us all in the river. I did what the guides told us to do, get your feet pointing down stream and don't open your mouth when the cold shock hits you (imagine a full body brain freeze). I shot through the rapids underwater and as luck would have it, under the damn raft.

It was while I was under the water is when the experience happened. While I was under the water, I was thinking 'this is it, I am gonna die' at that point a peace fell over me and I heard a voice saying, 'It isn't your time, and remember you are loved.' I KNEW at that point, everything was going to be okay and that I was going to be alright at that point I surfaced under the raft as it had over turned, it took a few seconds for me to figure out where I was because it was dark and the fact that the guide for my raft was on top, I got out from underneath the raft, and on top of it, at that point I hear the guide start swearing a blue streak and I go what, and he states we are heading towards hole called 'Banzai' (a hole is like a rip tide caused by differing speeds of current in the water), and we floating straight towards it and we don't have any paddles. And God as my witness, just as we are heading towards Banzai, the raft drifts around it and finally we are able to get some help from people on the shore. Other than mild hypothermia I came out of the whole ordeal pretty well.

I have spent almost 19 years trying to explain away that experience, I know all the rationals, cold shock, oxygen deprivation (this one gets ruled out I was under less than 2 minutes), hypothermia, et al but no one has a rational for why the raft skirted Bonzai. I have talked with a number of river rafter who have gone through that section of the Skykomish and they look at me like I am nuts.

You mentioned the Nicene Creed as a faith definition. One of the things that struck me when I read the Quran (other than the repetition) was some rather blunt statements about Jesus and the nature of God. Contrast the Nicene Creed with these words:

O people of the Book! commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an Messenger of Allah and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His Messengers. Say not "Trinity": desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is One Allah: glory be to him: (for Exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belongs all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs. Sura 4 An-Nisa (Madina) Verse 171

When you consider these two statements of faith on what basis do you say the former is correct and latter incorrect? A couple points strike me about this: (1) How specific people are in their descriptions of the nature of God as if such knowledge is available. (2) I don't see any rational basis to select one over the other. Which leaves me with what seems the most simple: None of this is truly rooted in reality, but completely within the imagination of the humans involved.
I have issues with the Koran for a number of reasons, but there is a 1999 Atlantic Monthly article by Gerard Puin one of the foremost forensic scientists on the subject of the Koran. that really brings it into focus , he said:
My idea is that the Qur'an is a kind of cocktail of texts that were not all understood even at the time of Muhammad. Many of them may even be a hundred years older than Islam itself. Even within the Islamic traditions there is a huge body of contradictory information, including a significant Christian substrate; one can derive a whole Islamic anti-history from them if one wants. The Qur'an claims for itself that it is 'mubeen,' or clear, but if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn't make sense. Many Muslims will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Qur'anic text is just incomprehensible. This is what has caused the traditional anxiety regarding translation. If the Qur'an is not comprehensible, if it can't even be understood in Arabic, then it's not translatable into any language. That is why Muslims are afraid. Since the Qur'an claims repeatedly to be clear but is not-there is an obvious and serious contradiction. Something else must be going on. -GP

I have read the Qur'an, and I always thought the lack of sense in it had to do with translating from Arabic to English. No, it really had to do with the fact there are some serious problems with the Koran as Mr. Puin wrote "If the Qur'an is not comprehensible, if it can't even be understood in Arabic, then it's not translatable into any language." The Bible, the Hindu Veda's, the various Buddhist texts don't suffer from the same translational problems as the Koran. According to some sources the Qur'an was dictated to scribes, one of those scribes according to different sources was Christian, if this christian was an Arian (a follower of the teachings of Arius)

"In the hegemonic state there is neither right nor law; there are only directives and regulations which the director may change daily and apply with what discrimination he pleases which the wards must obey. The wards have one freedom only: to obey without asking questions. "
Ludwig von Mises -- Human Action p. 199; p. 198