I’m a Christian, but I was once an agnostic. I understand how people can doubt Christianity or become even hostile to it. After all, I was once where many unbelievers are.
To me, atheists are irrational. They claim with absolute certainty that God does not exist while attacking Christians for believing. Neither side can prove their point of view, but Christians actually start from a stronger position: the universe exists and cause and effect is demonstrated throughout nature. So what’s the cause of the universe?
I’m a Christian now, but I still can’t prove the existence of God and wouldn’t even bother to try. No. My belief came from studying scripture and reaching the decision that Jesus was plausible. That may not seem like much, but Jesus said He was the Son of God. He himself didn’t leave the possibility open that He was simply a good teacher or even a prophet. He either was (is) what He claimed to be, or He was a madman. I believe He was telling the truth.
Of course some will say the Bible isn’t accurate, written by men and filled with errors. Again, one has to decide. Either the Bible is a reasonably accurate record or it’s not. If it’s an accurate record inspired by God, then that requires action on the part of the reader. The Bible itself doesn’t permit a middle ground. Either believe or not.
Myself? I choose to believe.
Choose ye this day...
Actually, no.
One can believe something without being "absolutely certain." Every person walking on this earth does it every day, from believing one politician is more honest than another to believing the weather will be good tomorrow because the sky is red tonight (and you don't even need Matthew 16:2 for that, nor would a bad forecast disprove it).
He himself didn’t leave the possibility open that He was simply a good teacher or even a prophet. He either was (is) what He claimed to be, or He was a madman.
Or what He actually said was misreported...whether intentionally, through misunderstanding, poor recollection, etc. There's always that possibility, too. Probably others.
Myself? I choose to believe.
I've never found belief to be a choice.
I could never manage to convince myself to believe the sky is green, or whatever. I find it odd to hear people talk about choosing their religions.
There are things the Holy Spirit hid in the Bible which does prove its accuracy.
For instance, I recently learned that the geneology in Matthew 1, in the Greek, has the following properties:
The number of words are divisible by 7.
Number of letters divisible by 7.
The same holds true for vowels, consonants, the number of words beginning with a consonant, the number of words that occur more than once, number of words that occur in more than one form, number of words that occur in only one form, nouns, names, male names, generations.
This phenomenon is repeated in other places in the NT.