Soggy:
That might be a simple question but it doesn't have a simple answer. I'm not sure that I should even try to answer it here but I'll start typing and see where I end up.
In regard to the discussion here, I'm not a historian or a scientist and I haven't read everything. However, besides my study of the Bible I have read many or the arguements on both sides. I am a former engineer and I'm no stranger to making decisions based on data so I expect my beliefs to stand up to scrutiny, at least to my own satisfaction. Certainly if the Bible is Gods word it must stand up.
So we have the scholars for and those against and all their arguements. Either side can sound pretty convincing on it's own.
Lets add another element, the Bible itself. There are a lot of problems with the idea that the church wrote what they wanted but for now lets say that, as far as we know it's possible. By all means, lets not trust men in this. It's far too important and man kind is far to unreliable and decieptful.
There must me more right? There is. There is God. The Bible doesn't prove God. It's God that proves the Bible. This is where I get stuck on how to explain. I was raised Catholic, sort of. I attended religious education classes through the 8th grade when my parents gave me the choice of whether I was going to continue and I didn't. I never really read very much, if any, of the Bible in all my time as a Catholic and I don't remember anyone ever suggesting that I should.
I'm 47 and throughout most of my life I mostly ignored God and went to church when there was a funeral, wedding or baptism. I had my own children baptised Catholic as infants and sent them to the same RE classes that I went to just because that's what you do. They didn't get any more from it than I did. I suppose that I always believed on some level that there was a God and I think that I prayed when I needed something but that's as far as it went. Not too many years ago, seemingly out of nowhere, I kept getting this nagging feeling that I had missed something very important. Not just important to me but important to my family and maybe others. If you knew me, you would realize just how out of character thoughts like these were. Many people turn to God in times of personal disaster or need but everything was going just fine for me except I had this recurring urge to know and a feeling that I was supposed to do something. I didn't really know what to do though. Did you ever try to read the Bible starting with page 1? For most people that isn't the way to go and it's no wonder that though it's one of if not the worlds best selling book that so few know what's in it. The Bible itself explains why that is BTW.
I contacted someone who I knew of but didn't know personally. I felt a little funny approaching a stranger with this but he is the one who kept comming to mind and I went back and forth on whether or not to actually do it for many months. I would think..."he's the guy". Then I would think, "that's nuts, I'm not doing that"...and back again. Eventually, with my wife and kids looking over my shoulder thinking that I was nuts, I composed and sent him an email trying to explain the situation. It attracted attention around the house because I intently wrote and rewrote for a good portion of the day. His answer was very short and to the point and just listed three things that I should do. They were 1, read the book of John 2, pray for Jesus to make himself known to me and 3, to come back with questions. That was it. I did as he suggested and things happened and continue to happen.
Even if I knew where to start, trying to describe those things here would probably be really off topic. For now I'd end by suggesting that if you have questions about God the best place to go with those questions is to God. Follow the advice that I got and see if God works through it with you. When my faith is weak, I find the best place to go with it is to God. God is used to those failings in people and knows what to do about it. We're not dealing with a God who stopped working 2000 years ago. He is there, He is alive and He still works.
As well as I can explain, that's why.
