In lots of ways I was not able to reach my potential or live out any kind of meaningful existence. Some things I thought were meaningful became pointless when I became a Christian. Its not as though I was some obvious evil influence on those around me - I was a subtle leech in ways that I didn’t recognize.
One huge way I was wasting my life was that I was disconnected from the purpose of the universe - MASSIVE. Today I believe I am living out the calling He has for my life and am part of what God is leading humanity into. I am putting flesh on the body of Christ - I am adding to the story of the redemption of all things. If a person is not part of that, then they are not really living. Their either waiting to begin life as they join in what God is doing, or they are waiting to die as they go through the motions of an empty existence they either believe in or don’t.
I believe that you believe this. I’m sure that’s how it looks from where you stand. But from where I stand, things look very different.
Its interesting that you changed what I said from 2 generations to 100 million years. I’m talking about your children’s children’s children. They will likely not remember you and if they do, it will be very limited. Is there a reason why you did that?
True, I didn’t read carefully enough. But from the point of view of “being remembered”, there’s not much difference between 100 million years or 2 generations.
Yes, if my great grand children know about me, it will probably be as some dusty photographs. So what? Why does this invalidate the meaning of what I do
right now? Look at a photograph of, say, a group of coal miners or canal workers from 1890. Every one of them is now dead. Probably no one alive now knows who they are any more. Yet why should that make what they experienced - their hopes, fears, loves, disappointments - in their lifetimes meaningless? It certainly meant something
to them.
In 100 million years from now, God will still remember everything - nothing is lost - everything is precious to Him, but if He doesn’t exist, in 50 years you (if you are like most people) will likely be just a name, or a series of pictures that no one cares about.
Again, I can’t see why that matters * right now*. Except possibly for reasons of ego.
If there is no cosmic reason for our existence, and we are just here to live in the moment, what happens if your life goes wrong for a year, or a decade? Why go on?
Because if I’m going to make a difference at all,
right now is the time to do it.
If you are an atheist, then why go through it?
Because if this life is the only one you get, why not
make it mean something now, while you can?
If you are a Christian, then there is always reason to hope. God can use the broken things to show us how He brings healing. … but if you are an atheist, then there is no hope and no reason to believe that things can get better.
You keep saying this about atheists, yet the fact remains that even without a god in the picture, people
do hope, and
do try and make things better; and not because they are playing some tiny part in a mysterious Grand Plan, but just
because it’'s the right thing to do.
You may have talked to atheists, but have you in fact
listened to what they have to say?
This is the kind of cognitive dissonance that I was talking about earlier:
Preditiction: if the only way of bringing meaning to ones life is belief in God, then people without God in their lives should be miserable, suicidally depressed nihilists.
Observation: there are many people who do not believe in a god, and yet are
not miserable, suicidally depressed nihilists. (There are some, but certainly none of the people I know who do not believe in a god take that view of the world)
Conclusion: I’d conclude that, in that respect at least - that believing in god is
not the only way to give meaning to ones life.
(By the same token, of course, not every religious person is wannabe suicide bomber or abortion-doctor-killer. Not that I would make such an assertion).
I agree with you - people and religion are flawed. Looking at how people behave will not satisfy. I don’t believe that any church has it figured out. I don’t believe in papal authority.
So - is the Church wrong about the role of the Pope? How do you know it is wrong and you are right?
To find peace we have to be open to accepting that we don’t know everything and that there is a lot more that we don’t know still. That is how growth happens.
I agree with you there, but I don’t think a god is necessary to reduce the amount of things that we don’t know. We might not be able to know
everything but the limits on what we can know are a lot further away than a lot of people seem to think.
I don’t feel the need to find perfect people - The world is full of imperfect people and so is the Catholic church. What I am after is God - that is the only place I think perfection can be found. My journey has led me to Jesus and I believe that He is the only way to God… I believe God speaks, has revealed Himself to me and continues to do so. I will never be done learning, growing and becoming the person He desired me to be from the beginning. Religion fails us - I’m with you there, but God has been faithful to me.
Fair enough. The only thing I will say about that is that God, if he, she or it exists, has not made itself known to me, either via revelation, or by what one might call the “natural theology” route. (not that this is the only reason for doubting, of course, but it is one of them)
I’ll give it a look.
