Justifying Belief

I was wondering if people would like to share their experiences that convinced them of the existence of a divine/spirits/magic etc. This may not apply to everyone, depending on personal belief, but if you're comfortable with sharing I was curious about other people's experiences of these things that gave them the conviction to believe. Many people would argue that there isn't enough evidence for belief in divinities or that gut instinct and intuition isn't enough to justify a belief. I have no opinion on this at the moment, but wanted to see what others in the community thought of it.

Anything you can contribute at all, no matter how small it may seem to you, will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to any and all replies made!

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Realities of life: u consider mad people as those that ar mentally unstable and pick in bins, while what if its the other way round its us who are actually mad.
Am sure by now u ar fighting it to say no we ar normal because that's what uv chose to belive
But there ar no unversal writen laws that tells of who is mad or normal. But uv chose to belive that u ar normal and u can defend that with ur own reason based of corse on ur intuition.
Its the same with divinity

First off lets ask some questions.

1. When you were born did you come out of your mothers womb wearing a pentacle? Holy robes? Phylactries? Did you come out with a book in your hand? A scroll? Signs, symbols? Were you singing songs and hym's or were you chanting? praying? fasting? meditating? No! You came out naked, and wiggling, crying, and being a little bundle of joy that everybody just goes gaga over. So where did you learn about religion from? Where did your ideas of divinity come from? Your parants? Church? Your friends? And where did they learn it from? And those before them? Now lets trace that back to the beginning of man, Where did the first humans learn it from? Where did first man and woman learn it from? We don't see giraffs dancing around a may pole. We don't see lions and tigers fasting. We don't see frogs observing holy days. We don't see birds quoting scriptures. So where did man get this crazy idea of deity? To me only two options exist. One he got it from something that was higher then he and the animals and plants that live on this world with him. Or he made it up. And this made up lie has suckered in countless people through the ages from young to old and wise making this man or woman who made up religion to be the greatest con artist of all time.

So to me this represents the idea that there is something greater out there then me. Something super smart and knowing far more then I. And that is what we call spirituality. The idea that there is something out there greater then ourselves. Don't have to know who or what. From that idea you can move to theology which is trying to identify what that deity is and then when you feel you know or connect with that deity you can move to religion which is connection to your personal deity.

Of course these aspects are all my own opinion and should only be taken as such.

Well for me I have seen my lord in the waking world and in my dreams. Allow me to elaborate.

When I was awake I was laying back on my couch looking at the sky through my skylight windows and saw the clouds start to move. One of the clouds turned into a person, presumably male riding a horse. I know I was awake so astonished I kept watching as he rode on through. I was so happy! It was shortly after I started worshiping after I set up my altar. I guess it was his approval of me as his devotee.

When I dream before I had started worshiping mind you I had a dream of a terrifying yet protective man. There were two guys who had hurt me so badly and I had no idea how to handle it. It left me scared from the way they had treated me. In the dream he had both of them bound and was cutting off their fingers slowly as they screamed in agony. I felt both extreme terror and yet so well protected. Like a father figure.

When I had first started looking into him I found so many similarities it was amazing! We both had neglectful mothers and terrible fathers. The bonding experience of knowing someone else had been through it too and was there for me meant everything. This is my first time explaining it to anyone so I hope it came out right.

I go into more detail from my profile, but I'll give a cliff notes version.

My mother died when I was 11 years old. Raised in a Baptist family and expected to be Baptist, there wasn't much of anything else to launch at my hate at than Yahweh. I fell into dark corners and sought answers anywhere I could.

I look through Buddhism, Norse Paganism, Greek Reconstructed Paganism, Satanism, Zionism. Some of them affected me, others largely did not, mostly because I was not looking for something to bond with, but to vent my frustration and to also somehow get back at that god.

As soon as I turned 21, I started to drink excessively. I did this out of hate and tried to swallow it all away. I hated my life, my family, my friends, my living situation, everything, including myself. I found myself watching the Bible Series, which was an Evangelical retelling of the bible for television. I found myself vulnerable, in contempt and in pain. I found myself in front of a mirror, believing it to be over, but within the mirror it was revealed to me what and who I was. What I was doing and that I would surely die physically if I kept living in spiritual death. I know this for a fact...I would simply die.

A Christian friend was there, more Christian than most anyway, who knew what happened and nursed me back to health and looking into the word. Over time we had many conflicts of spirit and interest and he acted above and beyond approach, even when our doctrine would outline that he was wrong. A few other things happened, but long story short, I know he was put there to help me back up, but to also teach me who I could not become.

After that, I befriended a group of people who worked in a multicultural, metaphysical gift shop. There we would debate and I slowly started bridging connections between my religion and their's. I was not aware of who she was at the time, but Athena contacted me by burning an image in my mind, a sword striking in the middle of two Vs crossing each other. I found this same symbol in a session of Pathfinder, under the goddess Mayaheine, who was pretty much an exact equivalent to Athena.

I spoke with my friends of this, who at this point became more like teachers and they enlightened me about this reality. They pointed me towards a labyrinth outside of our town that I should offer tribute to the spirits to console them. On the way though, I was pulled to the beach, a sacred place to me, where I came in contact with Poseidon, or rather he had been waiting for me to apologize for past events. With it, he gave me a slap on the wrist, his blessing in the endeavor and had me leave. Unspoken, I have great respect for Poseidon and his waters. Connected to the element of Water myself, as I am a Cancer, I find Poseidon to be a fitting patron for me.

At the labyrinth, the same happened with Athena. Mayaheine was also a visage there, but she was silent and was more coming from Athena, a reminder of how I came there. Athena claimed me, but also told me I could not be a true Christian as I was now. I had experience and seen more than what my own religion would confine. She would be right, as I still look up to Christ and what he has done, but I am also now connected to Athena and Poseidon, and I have experiences since then with other beings.

This is a little more than cliff notes, I realize, but there's a lot left unsaid that doesn't need to be said to get the message.