I am a 25 year old man who has pursued the answer to this question at the expense of my entire life. I have pursued no other path. I have not deviated or swerved off of it, although the temptations have made me come too close for comfort. However despite the hardships, the long journey I have embarked on has left me with an answer that has utterly convinced me to my very core.

Evidence and experience form the two tenants of faith. Objectivity and subjectivity so often begin to melt together into a muddied framework rooted in confirmation bias. Anyone can claim to prove almost anything to anyone, if they try hard enough. This is why it requires courage to ask the question. Is your faith, real? Does the existential fear of getting it wrong, drive you into a blissful ignorance where the hard questions don't exist? If we can’t ask the hard questions, is it even faith anymore? Has it devolved into a crippling fear of death that masquerades as some kind of hope?

A personal experience is not enough. Evidence alone is not enough. It requires both, and it requires both in excess.