Catholicism is quite clear on this point. It is you who can be confusing.
Is it your position that God is figurative, that He does not exist? Is Jesus also metaphorical? You claim you are a Catholic. Do you believe in God or not?
Hi,
I have been surrounded by Catholicism my whole life, I have friends who became priests and so my tradition and background is catholic, I was educated a catholic, completed catholic ‘sacraments’ was an alter boy - played for the church football team! does that make me catholic? I don’t know? How would I know? How does one tell? There is no membership card or divine declaration.
To me life is a journey and in that respect, I am still on it and in all honesty, find the concept of belief difficult at best and nebulous at worst. What is belief?, how is it manifested? and more importantly, how would i recognise it.
When you say ‘god’ I assume that you mean the god followed by muslim, jewish and catholic faiths - I have to be honest with you - I simply don’t know - I assume that there must be an explanation for life, the universe and everything - everyone does - it’s the basic human feeling of - ‘surely, there must be more’ - but maybe not.
I have not had an epiphany or a ‘calling’ to the church (like my brother as a priest) I tend to come back to the same viewpoint in my head. ‘I can kid the world, but not myself’ - I can tell everyone, I am a Catholic or a Jew or a muslim, but in my head I know that would just be pretence, no matter how much I ‘educated’ myself in a particular religion or ‘believed’ it - one can’t get out what is simply not there. One of the gospels mentions Thomas - and that is the only passage I have read that has any resonance with me as I was named after Thomas the apostle - I am a
doubting thomas and even as I right that I think 'come on, how many thomas’s were there in bronze age palestine.
I have had no ‘calling’ to any religion - so how can I believe in god. I tend to think scientifically, there is no proof and without proof, all we have is faith, self-delusion, metaphor and figurative characters and stories. How can three major religions believe in the same god, but disagree on whether he had a son. At school I expressed a desire to study law as looking for certainty and as a teacher said to me - don’t look for certainty in law or religion, both require vagueness in which to have a profession
Simply put - I don’t know enough to know if I believe in god or not?
I am looking for answers but tend to sway to the scientific, truthful and verifiable. The dawkins quote Thomas is the patron saint of scientists is not lost on me
