Birds chirping..

This story was told to Loretta by her prayer guide.

He was framed by someone and had to go to court to defend himself. Facing the possibilty of being jailed and losing his job because of the court case, life was falling apart. He started to question and began to doubt that God existed. He really wanted to give up on religion. He had already signed up for a retreat but didn't want to go, but his wife forced him to. During the retreat, in a time of prayer, he made up his mind that god wasn't real, but he offered one last chance to change his mind. He asked God, "if you're really there, you have to show me a sign" and immediately after thinking that the room turned cold and he suddenly heard a bird chirp outside the room. Things then returned to normal. Stunned, he wondered if that was just his imagination. He said, "show me again", and again, the room turned cold and a bird chirped outside, then things returned to normal. Almost convinced, he said, "God, one last time, if your're really showing me a sign, I need you to show it one more time. The room again turned cold, and again, the bird sang. Later, he asked the other people who were in the room as well if they felt or heard anything. They said no. That man now is helping others pray as a prayer guide for the 'week of guided prayer' programme.

A person that doesn't think that God is real must consider experiences such as this and ask if they count as 'evidence'. I have always maintained that faith experiences are explainable as products of our mind, but the experiences I've considered were only vague experiences of God. I've not heard before of a 'sign' that is so strong and obvious. Well, does that change my mind about things? I don't know.