Theists: What convinced you?

[Al Terego]

As an atheist, I don't have a problem with theists believing in whatever their hearts desire, but for some reason most of them refuse to afford me the same courtesy.

[Oniya]

I once boggled someone who asked if I believed in Heaven.  I said 'I have every expectation of a favorable afterlife.'

(Even if that's just fertilizing a tree.)

[Turmfalke]

I don't typically frequent this part of the forum, but there is one distinction that could be useful to some for understanding some religious positions. (It's somewhat new to me and certainly not my idea, and I'm not even sure how much I stand behind it.)

The idea is that people hold (at least) two kinds of belief. One is 'concrete belief'. I believe concretely that my wife is in the living room: I just checked and she was there, I have no reason to believe she moved, and I know people don't change places without some kind of movement. Concrete belief is something I can easily prove, act upon, work with in terms of drawing conclusions, etc. 

The other is a little harder: 'symbolic belief'. I find it hard to come up with an example from my beliefs, but I think there are religious people who believe symbolically in certain ideas: They profess these beliefs and they may find them extremely important and quite obviously true (in some sense of 'true'), but these beliefs aren't subjected to the same kind of processes concrete beliefs are. Symbolic beliefs aren't challengeable as easily, they may not always have the same weight of consequence of a concrete belief. They serve to create identity more than dealing with the world 'directly'. The person having such a belief might not be fully aware of the difference, but they can act like it. Take a sports fan: They might symbolically believe their team is gonna win, but they won't be confused if it loses. 

Of course, there are people who aren't content with letting symbolic beliefs be that; they treat them like concrete beliefs. If you make your identity-providing beliefs into concrete ones, but you're still not willing to litigate them like you would concrete beliefs, you're taking the role of a fundamentalist in an unbelieving world, and a lot of energy might get wasted trying to 'debate' things not really open to debate. 

[Annaamarth]

As an atheist, I don't have a problem with theists believing in whatever their hearts desire, but for some reason most of them refuse to afford me the same courtesy.

As a person of Christian faith, those of us who would like you to be able to do as you please, in comfort, so long as you harm none are the quiet ones you won't typically hear from.

The noisy ones are the hostile ones.  Were I a judgemental person, I would suspect much of evangelical Christianity being subject to a blasphemous, Christonationalist heresy.

But that's all, really, unimportant.  I, and others like me, may or may not be the subject of your experience, but either way your experience is real.

I'm sorry about that.

I once boggled someone who asked if I believed in Heaven.  I said 'I have every expectation of a favorable afterlife.'

(Even if that's just fertilizing a tree.)

That's brilliant.

[Al Terego]

But that's all, really, unimportant.  I, and others like me, may or may not be the subject of your experience, but either way your experience is real.

I'm sorry about that.

Your next order of a beverage of your choice is on me.

[AmbrosiaPudding]

I guess back to the topic on hand would be myself. 

I have never not believed in big G God. I personally consider myself a bit of a Pagan because I believe in the Earth and magic. I for sure being in God though. It might sound incredulous and impossible to some but, I have only selflessly prayed in a handful of times in my life. I should be more ashamed to admit that but it's the truth. Usually when I prayed it was for my family's health, my mom to win the lottery, things like that. Which aren't inherently selfish but are directly related to myself. 

I once prayed for it to rain. Simple enough. Lots of people do it. Mind you I hadn't looked at the weather forecast and didn't know it was supposed to rain. It didn't just rain though. IT FLOODED. It took everyone by surprise and flooded my house personally along with a few others. It happened so quickly they didn't even have time to warn us of a flood watch. I prayed for rain because our lake needed in. In less than three days the lake was full, and my house was flooded. I couldn't deny him. I believed and I do believe. 

[Annaamarth]

Your next order of a beverage of your choice is on me.

It was an Irish mule, and I gave you a moment of thought at the first taste.  Thank you!