What made you believe/not believe?

Everyone has beliefs on God. What are yours and how did you get them? Who shaped your beliefs?

As long as I've been alive, my parents have been Christians...that certainly did not make me one. I actually just got saved at camp in 2004. I mess up ALL the time....and I mean ALL the time. I'm definitely not perfect. I also don't go to church. Sometimes I go to youth group, but it's an hour away so it doesn't happen often. I don't think you have to go to church to stay saved, just as going to church doesn't make you saved in the first place. My beliefs aren't shaped by a church, or my parents, or my friends. They're shaped on what God tells me.

Well my parents have definitely shaped my beliefs in God, but I have plenty of knowledge myself to defend my beliefs, not just the argument that my parents told me so. I do attend church regularly and it's a blast in my opinion. It really seems to help me stay close to God because God is always there, every Sunday it seems like. I feel sometimes like, if I don't go to church for a while for whatever reason, that I'm missing something. But all in all, my beliefs and opinions are definitely founded in the Bible and they've been challenged many times unsuccessfully.

There's far, far too much evidence pointing towards a Creator God and absolutely none that can stand against that proof.

If you really do study the question of whether or not God exists, and approach it with an open and logical mind, the only real conclusion that I can arrive at is that God exists... therefore, if God exists, we must embrace and obey Him.

It's much better living this way.

I've set myself against every other fathomable (to me) belief system out there; and I've come to conclusion that the core belief stating Jesus as the Christ is correct.
As far as the rest of the Bible: that's al disputed too much and has little eternal value.

I could go into a scientific or philosophical argument, but I'm biased in how I interpret the evidence. Then again I somehow doubt there's anyone who isn't. I believe because I want to believe. Logic can be (and most of the time is) flawed. Evidence can be (and most of the time is) incomplete or misinterpreted. I trust my heart. Considering it was science and philosophy that made the majority of the people in the world at one point believe that the universe revolved around the Earth (and I will laugh so hard if they stumble on to something that proves this right)...ya I'll stick with what I trust.