Doubt: Emotionally, but not Intellectually

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Lucretius

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What is doubt? I’m trying to pin it down, so to speak.

Is it an emotion or is it something else?

I ask this because I’m a very sentimental person, and when I encounter anti-Church views, even though I know that they are false, and often know why (for what reasons) they are false, I still feel uneasy for quite a while. Strong mocking rhetoric like the kind the Gnu Atheists use really do get to me, even if I know intellectually that they are vapor.

Maybe I should state it thusly: how do you deal with the unsettling emotions that come to you when people attack the Church, as even knowing intellectually why such attacks are wrong doesn’t seem to quench the feeling? Does anyone else understand what I’m saying? What I’m feeling?

Christi pax,

Lucretius
 
The evil will plant doubts in your path and the more time you give them, the more he’ll plant.

Whenever you feel a doubt, turn to Jesus by just saying these words, “Lord Jesus.”\

We all get doubts, even Saints had to endure them. The recommendation was just to let them go and turn your focus to Jesus.

Jim
 
The prince of lies is just that. He tries to get faithful people away from the Lord.
This is his whole intent.
Shake it off, and redouble your prayers.
Pray the Hail Mary, and tell the evil one that there is no room in your life, your mind, or your heart for him. Be gone. :knight2:
And then thank Jesus for protecting you at all times.
 
Lucretius said:
What is doubt? I’m trying to pin it down, so to speak.

Is it an emotion or is it something else?

I ask this because I’m a very sentimental person, and when I encounter anti-Church views, even though I know that they are false, and often know why (for what reasons) they are false, I still feel uneasy for quite a while. Strong mocking rhetoric like the kind the Gnu Atheists use really do get to me, even if I know intellectually that they are vapor.

Maybe I should state it thusly: how do you deal with the unsettling emotions that come to you when people attack the Church, as even knowing intellectually why such attacks are wrong doesn’t seem to quench the feeling? Does anyone else understand what I’m saying? What I’m feeling?

Christi pax,

Lucretius
Click to expand...
A true doubt is not a feeling any more than true despair is.
 
Lucretius said:
What is doubt? I’m trying to pin it down, so to speak.

Is it an emotion or is it something else?
Click to expand...
Father Hardon’s dictionary to the rescue.

Speculative doubt, catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36587:
Uncertainty of mind concerning the mere truth or error of something, or the mere abstract goodness or evil, or prudence of something. It is speculative doubt because it does not presently concern one’s own personal action.
Click to expand...
Practical doubt, catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=35690
Uncertainty of mind concerning the prudent course of action or the moral rectitude of something to be done here and now. It is the opposite of a merely speculative doubt.
Click to expand...
Voluntary doubt, catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=37140
An uncertainty of mind totally induced by the will, when a person withholds assent even in the presence of sufficient or prudentially adequate evidence.
Click to expand...
 
First of all, I wish to thank everyone for their responses.

edarlikrix, I think that article is addressing those whose intellect is trying to move towards the truth, but their emotions don’t want to. My problem is the opposite, actually: my emotions want to move to another idea, but my intellect wants to stay near to the Truth. I’m the kind of person who likes harmony, so peer pressure and and the like make me feel like I want to compromise the Faith, even though I don’t really want. Most peers I know fornicate, smoke, etc., and with my beliefs, I’m sort of incompatible with these people. When I’m around them, I tend to act like them, which I hate. Most of the culture is against me, I feel.

Christi pax.
 
I have exactly the same problem. I guess It’s in my nature that I tend to adapt to other people, to avoid conflicts.
So when people around me have a rather unchristian opinions, I start to feel like I should accept it and that it is truth,
even though I reject it intellectually and know why it is wrong.
Well, I started to view such feelings simply as temptations that I must overcome.
 
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