Why some folks believe?

Some people believe in God for different reasons, or at the very least, find some evidences more compelling than others. Being primarily a pre-suppositionalist myself, and having submitted myself first to the biblical worldview, I find this approach makes more sense of reality than any other system of thought. However I do find some reasons like Blaise Paschal's "greatness and wretchedness" principle-that man is capable of so much good and so much evil-one of the most intellectual satisfying (we are created in the image of God and yet fallen).  While Tim Keller takes a more pre-suppositional approach in the first section of A Reason for God he does give "clues" rather than "proofs" that God does in fact exist in the latter chapters. Whether a curious unbeliever or mature believer, who like most of us wrestle with doubts, this book does us both a great service. 

And yet outside of this intellectual framework or body of evidences, sometimes very small things "happen" to us which get our attention and serve as clues of God's existence and presence. For instance, take running into someone at some place at some time, when only a combination of other events would allow such a "chance" meeting to happen. That's why this guy says he believes in God.

Those kind of events which we believe couldn't ever happen if God had not somehow ordered them to fall out accordingly never cease to amaze and affirm. But I'm not sure we can build our faith upon such events, and certainly we can't use them to definitively give a "reason for the hope we have (I Peter 3:15)." After all, there are other "chance" meetings which turn out pretty bad. I'm sure plenty of folks, due to a series of unusual events, found themselves in the path of the southern tornadoes and died. 

The faith described in this article is personal, and I don't necessarily question it (though I would probably not connect evangelical, Rob Bell, gay and lesbian award winner). I didn't watch the video but just read the article.

Perhaps if we ever cross paths-and who's to say that we couldn't ever (we could both agree on that), I'd probably ask him to check out Keller's A Reason For God. If nothing else, he might get a fuller picture of the gospel than with Bell.