The Nitty Gritty

Why do you believe what you believe?  Is it because of proofs and theorems, white papers and historical data? 

Ultimately, my answer to that question is "no."  Of course, when I go beyond the bedrock reason for my personal belief system it is nice to know that the historical and archeological data support Christianity, but at the core of what I believe is an inability to account for the empirical data of my life in any other way than a Supreme Being who personally relates to His creation.

This idea has been bouncing around my mind for a week or two in an unformed manner, but then I read a quote by Rudolf Bultmann that caused my thoughts to take solid shape.

If a man must say that he cannot find God in the reality of his own present life, and if he would compensate for this by the thought that God is nevertheless the final cause of all that happens, then his belief in God will be a theoretical speculation or a dogma; and however great the force with which he clings to this belief, it will not be true faith, for faith can be only recognition of the activity of God in his own life.*

This is the reality of my existence.  Whatever others may write, say, or do, the evidence of my life is incontrovertible; there is a God and I know Him.

* R. Bultmann, Jesus and the Word. ET Fontana 1958, p 113