Good morning, Sideline, and thank you for explaining your belief system as you understand.
Thanks for your response.
Guess, the bottom line is that I believe that when I was created, God put into my heart and soul (as He does everyone) to seek Him out. I am always seeking to understand Him.
Strangely enough, I became an atheist for exactly the same reason. I was raised Catholic, went to a Catholic school, and I entered the seminary fully expecting that I would one day be a priest. When I left, it was only to take a break and really ask myself if that was my calling. It would simply be untrue to say that I didn’t seek God out; I sought Him out daily.
But ultimately it was apologetics that were my downfall. In trying to prove there was a god to my unbelieving friends and classmates I began to realize I didn’t have a leg to stand on. Even if I won the debate, I could find glaring mistakes in my logic. I still try and reconsider the argument from time to time. I will run through every argument I know to try and win the argument as a theist. That’s why I post here from time to time. I am always on the look out for new arguments to see if they can trump my own understanding of the world. I am always testing out my thoughts and beliefs. It’s still possible I could change my mind.
I understand fully what you said about the evils of the world, and I agree with that; however, I believe that evil entered the world through sin. It was not what God intended; however, through our pride and arrogance, we fell. But, the good news is that Jesus Christ came, died and was resurrected and restore our life with the Father. I know already what you are thinking…how does she know this for sure.
That actually that wasn’t what I was thinking. I was thinking that argument has several logical problems. First off, most of the things on my list would still be true even if there was a Garden of Eden, but if evolution is true (and everything that we have discovered over the past 150 years suggests it is), then nearly everything on my list happened before the first human beings ever existed.
Perhaps even more importantly, if God knows knows the outcome of an event, and then sets events in motion that will lead to the occurrence of that event, then the event can not be unintended. He made a rule that if humans fell, he would allow death and suffering into the world. He decided what He would consider a fall. He created beings He knew would fall. He put them in a situation that He knew that they would fall. He decided that He would not only punish them for falling, but also doom all of Adam and Eve’s descendants until He would redeem them, and then He would allow suffering to continue in the world until after those who do believe in this sacrifice die. And, of course, He must know which ones will, and which ones won’t, and yet creates ones that won’t. How could that be unintended?
I don’t want to start a debate, and I am sure you and others have lots of arguments and reasons for believing this, but I have never found a convincing answer to how all that could be our fault.
I can tell you, truthfully, honestly and with all conviction of my heart and soul, that this is true. I can tell you countless things that have happened in my life and in my family’s life that were brutal, but you know, I never felt alone in all of that pain. I knew in my heart, that He was carrying me. I know at the end of my life that I will be with Him for all eternity and every tear will be wiped away. No, this is not the story of a lunatic, but a follower of Jesus Christ. To a non-believer, this undoubtedly sounds like a person in denial…trust me, my friend, it is not!
No, it doesn’t sound like a person in denial. It sounds like you’ve had some really profound experiences that mesh with your faith. My experiences have been different. There were extremely rare and fleeting moments when I thought it was possible that I was loved and cared for, but almost always I’ve felt very much alone (unless, of course, I was actually
with someone who loved and cared for me at the time). Even going to mass daily, praying the rosary daily, praying the Liturgy of the Hours daily, confessing weekly, praying in between, and trying to do everything with a prayerful heart, I always felt alone.
If I had that feeling of connection with God, I probably would have continued despite the evidence to the contrary. If the evidence seemed to point to there being a god, I probably would have carried on despite the lack of connection. But neither? How long would you keep doing something that you had rationally and emotionally concluded was futile?
Sorry about the mammoth post. I know this might be hard to believe, but I did edit down quite a bit.
I’m pretty much in the same boat as AntiTheist. Nothing really happened to make me turn away. It just never felt “right” growing up. I had plenty of exposure to religion growing up but whenever I stepped into a church or was with that crowd I always just felt like I was going through the motions because that’s what was expected of me because like all kids I was impressionable and didn’t want to disapoint anyone. I never really went to church with any sort of regularity but was around people that did growing up and God would always come up in the conversation.
