John, I believe it begins with an act of surrender.  Not the surrender of reason or scientific evidence, but of opening up to other possibilities.  As for why it's different than believing in unicorns on Mars, or Zeus or Odin, belief in Jesus provides tools that help us to make choices in our lives - the choice to do good, the choice to love, the choice to cope with tragedy and not give in to despair.  I believe this is one of God's gifts to us.  Remember way back when in this thread, when you answered the question posed by Mick Bean:

"Mick, I certainly can't speak for all believers, but I know that many believers embrace religion because it comforts them. The idea of death scares most of us, and inventing an after-life and a loving God can take away that fear - as long as you truly believe He isn't an invention!

It's also true that religion gives easy answers to some of the difficult questions Life throws at us. Both atheist and religious parents who lose a child to illness or an accident will ask WHY? The atheist parents have to live with the belief that there is no reason at all for the death of their child, but the religious parents can comfort themselves in two ways. They can convince themselves it was all part of God's plan - and they can look forward to a reunion with their child after death.

Those are powerful reasons to believe."

I'm not saying that you can't make the right choices in life without a belief in God.  But if God gives this gift, why not avail yourself of it?  But you first have to believe, without proof, that God exists. 

I don't know if I will ever be able to explain this to your satisfaction, John, but here goes:

As I said, opening up one's heart to God is an act of acknowledgement, first and foremost, and that is a choice.  And then I guess the next step would be prayer - not the rote prayers you learn at church or school, but just talking to him.

Does it mean abandoning reason?  Maybe.  Depends on what you mean by "reason."  As you become closer to God, he becomes very real indeed, which is a very unreasonable statement to one who doesn't believe there is a God.  But it doesn't mean abandoning science and evidence.  "Unreasonable" belief in God can stand side by side with sound science.

Does it mean accepting things without evidence?  Absolutely!  We've already established that, John.

Does it mean stop asking questions - NO!  Absolutel not, never.  We will never fully understand God and our relationship with him in a hundred lifetimes.  He expects to be asked, challenged, praised, thanked, ranted and raved at, etc.  It's all part of the search.  Check out the Psalms - they cover the range.  I think here's where the "religion" thing rears its ugly head.

 Does it mean having faith?  I think we've already established that too, John.

Does this help at all John?

But Ruth, my point is that many other faiths have given believers the same kinds of tools you feel Christianity gives you. The people who held those beliefs held them just as strongly as you hold yours. In fact, Christianity seems to have borrowed some of its core doctrines from pre-Christian beliefs.

What makes your belief true and theirs false? 

 Here's an interesting essay:

http://www.gnmagazine.org/booklets/AD/concerningheaven.htm 

Man has always wanted to live without ever dying. This world and all it offers has never been able to satisfy humanity. For centuries mankind has searched for security and happiness in the hope of going to heaven upon death. Unfortunately, he has embraced beliefs that he cannot prove true... 

You missed the last paragraph in your cut and paste, John:

"God alone knows the answers to the mysteries of life and death and reveals them in His Word, the Holy Bible. Contrary to what so many think, God does not promise heaven as the reward of the saved. Instead, He will grant eternal rulership in the Kingdom of God, to be established on earth at Christ's return (Revelation 5:10; 11:15)."

If anything, what all the extra-Christian or pre-Christian beliefs and the extent of it thoughout human history indicates to me is that, just possibly, (I'm not an expert here), we humans have an instinct for our creator.  You said in an earlier post that you think this need to believe is hard wired into our genes.  Have you given any more thought to that, John?  My discussion with you here is not meant as a defense of Christianity.  I choose to embrace Chrisianity because first, I loved Jesus' message (who wouldn't?).  Which lead me to believe and pray, which in turn had the effect of revealing to me a relationship with God, my creator and I don't mean in the Genesis sense.  God is very real to me, John.  In spite of no proof and in spite of any doubts I continue to harbor.

 I think Ecclesiastes 3 v 11 bears out this instinct down the ages for something other than self.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity into the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Yes, Sue, you're right.  And the passage from Acts that I asked John to read is the one about Paul touring Athens and noticing the shrine to the "unknown god" that he then went on to explain to them.

I would have LOVED for him to have been part of this discussion, Ron.  I think Diana would too.

Yup.

I don't think we construct God & Afterlife beliefs because we have an instinct for our Creator. 

I think these beliefs have their roots in fear of death.

The following makes sense to me, and explains why religious belief is so common and so deep-rooted.

Early man created God myths because of a combination of a need to explain what he experienced in his world, self-awareness, and the realization that death is an inescapable fact. All mixed in with a good dose of stress and fear.

Avoidance of situations that may cause death is common to all forms of animal life. Evolution sees to that. Put an animal in a situation in which death seems possible and it will be under severe stress. It will do its best to escape from that situation.

But when these crazy huge brains of ours got big enough to become self-aware, and when we saw death all around us, and when we saw there was no way for us to escape our own eventual death - the stress became constant and unbearable.

To stay sane, early humans had to find a way out of this dreadful dilemma - and the only thing they could do to ease the stress was construct a belief that said: OK, we die... can't deny that... poor old Ug died just the other day... but death isn't the end. There's a new life after this one. There are Gods to care for us. Gonna be pretty good, really. Something to look forward to. Yeah. Stress? What stress?

And many of us are still doing exactly the same thing today. 

You missed the last paragraph in your cut and paste, John. 

Indeed I did, Ruth. I was surprised to find the passages I posted on what is clearly a pro-belief website.