Honnestly, your post puzzles me. If you don’t believe, why have you been actively trying (as opposed to for instance wondering wether there could be a god or not, which would make sense) to believe for such a long time instead of saying : “well, I just don’t believe”.
Same with your response re checking other religions. If there’s one religion which is right, the fact that it is or it is not the religion of your forefather has absolutely no bearing on its veracity. If yoiu were really searching for a religious system which makes sense, you would base your choice on the religion’s teachings, not on the places where it is practised.
I don’t understand your concern about your childrens, either. Why would it be harmful for them if you don’t believe of if you’re an agnostic? Actually, what could be confusing for them is your current stance. You’re sending weirdly mixed messages to them, IMO (and anyway they’ll make their mind themselves, eventually).
Oh…And regarding the question : “why can’t I believe in some of the christian teachings”, the reason seems obvious to me : because these teachings just don’t make sense, when closely considered. And it seems you came to the same conclusion than me, but still refuse to accept this conclusion for some reason I can’t fathom. Your real question, IMHO, shouldn’t be “why can’t I believe?” but “why do I want so much to believe despite not finding any reason to do so?”
Never! The lost sheep? Every knee shall bow? I will draw all men unto me? Death has been conquered and can no longer separate us from God.
Okay so you have a problem believing something you can’t see. Big deal. If you rely on logic forget it. God does not exist logically. Faith? Unless it is real it is useless. When Christ says “I am the way”, and" believe on me" he is referring to his exhortation to love, his philosophy, his Deity for authority, not for the belief in his existance. Remember he was visible in the flesh at the time these words were first uttered. All I’m saying is He’ll find you (shephard after lost sheep) Meantime, check out his messages of love in the gospels, because that is where his word is.
Don’t you have faith in His message of love ?
No point in flogging a dead horse is there. I doubt He’s all that concerned that you doubt his existance.Relax man.
Your time will come. You’ve got lots of time.
I don’t really agree with your stance here. I don’t see why one’s spiritual growth need end with the start of a family. It seem to me that one could benefit the most through spiritual exploration at this point in one’s life.
**
Wow. Sound like you really lack understanding of the “whole pagan/wicca movement”. You’re right, religion is not fashion. But a person’s spirituality is a living thing. Just because you’ve pronounced it “dead” does not lessen its vitality in the spritual lives of countless people.
Trust me, Cthulu has not abandoned you. When he rises again from the depths of R’leyh, you shall be remembered for your dedication.
No. He doesn’t.
We give up on ourselves. Please don’t believe the chick tracts.
Don’t worry, seek Him and you will find Him.
God never gives up, God always wins (He cheats if He wants to)
John Wesley (founder of Methodism) was one of many theologians who believed in universal salvation, the idea that God eventually saves everyone in some way or other.
God Bless and good luck!
God’s love is eternal and He never gives up on anyone. You will find Him in time…
I believe God loves every person, even Hitler and Bin Laden. Obviously He is very unhappy with what they do, but He hates sin and loves the sinners. When you start accepting God’s love you will find your faith. Remember what He did on Good Friday for you? Face it, He loves you!
The trouble I find with the philosophy of blind faith, or “knowing without seeing”, is the hypocracy of applying it to religion only. If you can accept, without any physical evidence, the possibility of there being an all-powerful being that created the whole universe with no effort, why not believe in ESP, flying saucers, time travel, water witching or any other dubious claim that someone else makes?
As far as how long you should search for God goes, all the quotes about how your god doesn’t give up on you have null value if you do not believe such a god exists in the first place. It boils down to saying “If you look hard enough, you will find it!”, which can be applied to any situation, sometimes to disasterous results.
These are fair questions, clairobscur.
I did rest for a time in a fairly strong, and even comfortable agnostic state. In fact, I survived a terrible tragedy in that godless state, and even in my foxhole I wasn’t driven to God.
However, I was raised a very devout Catholic, so that particular approach to life is ingrained in me–it too has a certain comfort. Also, my extended family is very devout Catholic, and I value my family and their beliefs, if only because they hold them. In a purely agnostic state, my family is one of the most important things to me¼in fact, family is the second most important value to me just behind non-aggression. So even if there is no God and God ceases to be of importance to me personally, God still remains important since he is important to my family.
Kinda crazy, huh?
Any way, it works for them, so every now and then I try give it the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this is a mistake, but I am willing to spend the time on it.
I don’t have a great, preset answer to this question, which perhaps should be an indication of the weakness of my position. I’ll give it a shot though.
I have a theory: if God is worthy of worship, then he won’t condemn everyone but the followers of a single faith. That is, if only one faith is correct, and that is the only way to be saved, then even I see the injustice of that, so that possibility is not really relevant. Why would I want to worship a God that is morally inferior to me?
That God, if he’s there, likely reveals himself in different ways to different peoples in different times. Thus, there may be some truth in every faith, some overarching principles we can all latch onto, but the revelations made to my forefathers are generally more valid for me than those made to others if you assume God had a plan in all this. This is totally not in line with Catholicism, but this is what I get when I consider the validity of other religions. I end up coming back to Catholicism. Again, kinda weird, eh?
True. I need to make up my mind. In the meantime, I provide them with a moral code based on non-aggression, family and good works. They get exposure to religion from the rest of the family (and a little from me). I’m afraid a lukewarm approach to religion would be worse than a whole-hog approach or even none at all. I don’t want to confuse them.
I hope you are right.
You tell me. I live according to his wishes (as expressed in the Gospels) when I interact with other people. But I’m not doing so well on the first three commandments and many church-created/interpreted rules which provide more specific spiritual obligations.
I always figured God was also “all-self-confident” so why would he want/require my worship. Rather, wouldn’t he be more results oriented? Why would he “sweat the small stuff?” Churches here on earth usually do sweat the small stuff, though.
If the religion of your forefather isn’t good enough, then that should be more than enough reason to learn about other religions (assuming, of course, that you need/want a religion). My boyfriend’s mom used this excuse on him when he changed his faith from Catholic to Buddhist. His reply to her was: “So if you and dad were Satanists, then I should just stay a satanist because you were?” She said that was different (regardless of the fact that it was exactly the same issue). In any case, as Drastic put it, trying new religions and learning about other religions are different acts. Learning about them will, if anything, aid you in understanding others’ beliefs. If in the end, you feel Christianity must be the way but see no appeal in the organized aspect, then be agnostic, read the bible, just be a good person and believe in God. Maybe everyone’s view is wrong and there is a God, he just doesn’t behave the way we thought he did.
Why not? This should be the reason to involve oneself in a religion. Religion should empower someone to be a good person, to be true to themselves and the aid them in achieving a personal good feeling of spirituality. Peop,le should feel comfortable in a religion.
Religious and spiritual belief should be ever-evolving. It is the only way to truly grow and understand yourself and your beliefs. Experiement all that is necessary to find the truth for yourself. Teach your kids to be good people. Teaching your kids to be open-minded and good will be more beneficial to them than to instruct them to follow one path just for the sake of following a path.
As for you…there are some people who have decided to follow zeus, odin and a plethora of other ancients gods/goddesses…but that aside…Perchance people have ‘rediscovered’ the old earth religions because they find that it gives them a better sense of well-being and goodness than do the judeo-christian religions. Perhaps they dislike the hypocrisy and hatred that runs rampant throughout them. Maybe they like the freedom to be themselves, to love themselves, and to follow their own spiritual path. Regardless, it is their choice and it feels right to them. And for the record, the earth-based religions never ‘died’ per se, they were practiced in private by a small amount of people, as practicing them openly would get a person hanged, stoned or drowned (Which was usually more than enough incentive for someone to just agree to ‘swing the other way’ regarding religions).
[Personal Aside and Rant] My philosophy of religion course states one of the reasons to believe in the Christian God as: “If their isn’t a God, isn’t a glorious afterlife in heaven, then you lose nothing in believing in God. However, if there is, and you choose not to, then you lose everything, . If you choose to believe and there is a God and a heaven, then you gain everything.”
This, I don’t follow nor agree with. I don’t believe that I should feel horribly about myself in life, feel that my personal beliefs, orientation, lifestyle, etc is wrong or horrible. I try my best to be a good person, to be kind, but I truly walk my own path. If my sense of good is different from God’s (if there is one) sense of good. Then so be it. I hurt no one while I’m alive, and I actively care for people while I’m alive, so far it’s working out for me. If I ‘burn in hell’ because I’m a good person but don’t follow ‘God’ then so be it. This’ll only prove that he’s the one with major psychological issues that he requires the worshipping and love of humans. [/Personal Aside and Rant]