I really can´t tell you, the tales of Krishna, the laughing Buddha, even Osiris, are similar.
I suppose it´s like the Book says, it calls and appeals to some, and not others.
Why it should make sense to me, and not others, could be in the things that you feel are lacking in your life.
Like the cliché of having a God shaped hole, that only God could fill.

I don´t want this to sound as if I have an unexamined life or belief, I think often and long of what and why I believe. It´s just not something I can articulate. Just as I´m a subtractive artist rather than a constructive one (I can whittle away from a block of clay to make a sculpture far easier than I can take bits of clay and stick them together to make something.); I find I can say what I am not, easier than delineate what I am.
And BTW, I don´t have a christian background or upbringing, and I can smell a cult a mile away. My Independence and critical thinking probably kept me away from considering the Bible for quite a few decades.
All I can say is that it found me, and made a home in my heart. (Wow, reading that, it does sound corny).
Let me reflect awhile, and bounce off your comments and questions.

and BTW, I didn't have to abandon the critical thinking, just the independence.

If you've read my posts, you've seen my synopisis of what the Story is.

I suppose the crux of that story is the historical yes-he-actually-was-here reality of the God/Man fixing things so that the intimate friendship of God and Man is restored.

Sigh...I get no warm and fuzzy feelings like some (I'm just not an emotional type -- passionate about what I feel and believe--just not demonstrative with emotions, and not swayed by them much. My lack, but I suppose I'm compensated in other ways.) And as for feeling His presence, I find that very subjective, so I defer that for the time when I'm face to face with Him.

And as for converting someone....

No one converted me. I looked and I found. Or more correctly: I asked, and He answered.

No man coverts another.

A man decides to convert from what he is, and God does the converting work in him.

And why would I anyway?

It's a personal thing between you and Him.

I say what I say in defense of what I believe. Why I bother to defend, I don't know, but I suspect it's something He builds in. I've believed in many things in my time, and never bothered to mention them to others, much less defend those viewpoints. Maybe the very core importance of this belief makes it different, that I take the energy to explain.

Maybe it's that I get a spiritual charge from discussing the things of God.

I guess it's related to the compulsion to organize chaos into structure.

I think the way to look at the Story is to see the meaning of the conclusion, and work your way back to the beginning with that in mind, to explain the whyfors with the outcome already known. The Answer to a problem casts its light all the way back to the beginning of the Question. Knowing the Answer, makes all elements of the Question make sence.

But here's the critical, almost catch-22 part of it. To believe in the Story, you first need Faith. But you'll only get Faith, by believing in the Story. The solution is to believe enough to ask for the Faith, which since this resides outside of human wisdom, has to come from and be a gift of God. You have to be disgusted enough with things as they are, to want to seek for a correct way of looking at things. Honest desire to know God is always answered.

And does He always put that honest desire in a human's heart? I don't know, but in my case, He did. It's obvious in others, either He didn't, or they rejected that desire as unneccessary.

God, by definition, is the Originator of everything, including Faith.

What He says pleases Him, is Faith in Him. He cares enough for us to give us that Faith if we ask for it. We only need the desire to really know, to start the relationship off.

And no, the book is not the central element.
Faith in the Bible is like faith that the universe exists. It´s necessary, but not essential. It´s more for those who believe, who want to explore the who´s and whys and hows of their belief.

That´s why you don´t see me use quotes much, the central point is a created object, and the one who created that object. The operating manual is important, but not absolutely essential.


...repeating something I posted before--Jesus didn´t preach from the Bible. He did quote scripture, but usually when He was confronted by the ´religious´ elements in the crowd. He told of the human condition. He told of what God was like. He told stories of what God was looking for in how we act. His discussions were of the human heart and God´s heart.