Doubt...

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Catholig

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Hello everyone,

Recently I have begun to doubt. I have since been to confession several times, but I don’t know anymore. I want to stay catholic, and I want to believe what the catholic church teaches - but I have so many difficulties including that I have trouble with the fact that doubting is a sin. I feel almost as if it is a way to keep us unquestioning. Please someone help me.

Catholig
 
mommyof4 said:
What exactly are you doubting?
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I simply don’t want to doubt. Originally my doubt was regarding the early church father’s view of the See of Rome, & about the Orthodox Church, but since then I have realized that the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church both believe that it’s a sin to leave either faith for the other - and now I feel just horrible. I also have doubts whether doubting is really a sin - I feel that it is just a religion trying to prevent people from leaving.

Catholig
 
It’s natural to have questions and to seek answers. Sometimes it’s hard accepting the answers to those questions. It’s even harder not getting some answers at all. Don’t let it get you down. We all struggle.

Leaving the Church doesn’t really help (from what I’ve seen) - it just perhaps exchanges the old questions for new ones. People of every denomination struggle with faith issues.

Everything isn’t going to be understood in this life, but take courage, that’s what the next life is for…😉 .
 
Most of us here have gone through periods of doubt, you have to learn that it is a very real aspect of faith and that if you can hang on you grow into a better person every time.

Also IF you dont have a good prayer life I recommend getting some prayer cards in the back of your Church to help you start praying more regularly, this method has helped me a lot.
 
Check out Mark 9:14-27, and pray what the boy’s father says.
Code: 
 Jesus said to him, "...Everything is possible to one who has faith."  Then the boy's father cried out, "I do believe, help my unbelief!"
Praying is the best thing to do.
 
Catholig said:
I simply don’t want to doubt. Originally my doubt was regarding the early church father’s view of the See of Rome, & about the Orthodox Church, but since then I have realized that the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church both believe that it’s a sin to leave either faith for the other - and now I feel just horrible. I also have doubts whether doubting is really a sin - I feel that it is just a religion trying to prevent people from leaving.

Catholig
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I looked heavily into the Orthodox Church, when I decided I wanted to convert. I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that the primacy, supremacy, and infallibility of the Pope are some of the most easily proven Dogma’s when it comes to reading the Early Church Fathers. What the Orthodox have to do to deny these Dogmas can be equated to some form of gymnastics. Not only that, but the Papacy is just common sense. If you have no Pope, than how is it possible to know which “branch” of the Church is the true Church when a disagreement comes up. There are so many disagreements in the Orthodox Church over jurisdictions, autocephaly, calendars, teachings, etc. and they have an incredibly hard time settling these things. There could be four different viewpoints on something, and there’d be NO way of telling who is right due to the lack of a final, central, authority. The grass is always greener… Just remember the Catholic Church hasn’t changed its teachings regarding ABC, and the Orthodox have plenty of problems of their own in this age of modernism and false ecumenism.
 
There was a poet who said, “There is more faith in honest doubt than in half the creeds.”

Honest doubt, questioning, and not understanding are NOT sins. It sounds to me from this bit here that you may be suffering from scrupulosity.

The early church fathers said what they said, though the interpretation may be open to question. There may even be cases where this or that passage is spurious or bogus, but neither you nor I am at that level of patristic study to tell.
 
Catholig,

I’m still fairly new to the faith. I converted from LDS two years ago. After going through RCIA myself, and then attending as a sponsor last year and this year, I have never heard that doubt is a sin. I suppose I should do some research first before posting, but I’m just wondering, why do you say doubt is a sin?

A book recommendation: “The Impact of God - Soundings from St John of the Cross”.

I think some of us are “wired” doubters. I pray you’ll find some peace soon.

God bless you.
Tami
 
2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:

Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
Catechism of the Catholic Church - vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c1a1.htm

Catholig
 
Catholig said:
2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:

Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.​

Catechism of the Catholic Church - vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c1a1.htm

Catholig
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But it goes onto say that the “bad” kind of doubt is this:
2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the** willful refusal** to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same
Every Christian has doubts, that is precisely what the theological virtue of Hope is about. Doubt is an effect of the fall and is one more hurdle our fallen natures have to deal with on a daily basis, nobody says it would be easy.

Are we answering your questions or helping you out at all? We are trying our best.
 
Dear Catholig,

I think the fact that you don’t* want* to doubt sort of rules out what you’re experiencing as being sin. What I’m reading in the catechism reference you provided is that you’d need to be deliberately cultivating a spirit of doubt. It doesn’t sound to me like that’s what you’re doing.

We all have doubts as Catholic Dude points out. I’ve never met anyone in any faith who doesn’t have doubts from time to time. Sometimes it can be intense and involve a crisis of faith. I liked what Catholic Dude said about Hope on that point.
 
Hey everyone,

I’m still having problems with this - mainly that it’s simply hard for me to accept that doubting is a sin. Can anyone provide any more sources to help me with this problem? I read the relevant CCC section, and a little bit off of Catholic Encyclopedia - can anyone suggest any other sources? Maybe newer sources by JPII or Benedict XVI that’ll clarify this?

Catholig
 
I am not sure that doubt in and of itself is a sin. It is not important what the questions are in as much as the answers, how we get them, and what we do with them. Pray, study, talk to a good priest, and keep looking to God. So you have doubts. Most people do at some point.
 
Catholig said:
I’m still having problems with this - mainly that it’s simply hard for me to accept that doubting is a sin. Can anyone provide any more sources to help me with this problem? I read the relevant CCC section, and a little bit off of Catholic Encyclopedia - can anyone suggest any other sources? Maybe newer sources by JPII or Benedict XVI that’ll clarify this?
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Doubt is not sinful – and even if it were, it’s not like you’re trying to doubt, so your culpability is minuscule at best.

Many saints in the past recognized doubt as the shadow of faith, a constant companion through their lives; but they trusted God and hoped all the way through it. And the Church knows how they ended up.

Think of it like this: if I asked you to lend me $50 and promised to pay it back tomorrow, and assuming you trusted me enough to give it to me, would you be sinning to be uncertain of my ability or will to fulfill the debt? No, you’d be rightly concerned, and perhaps a little wise 😉

How much more wary should you be when someone you can’t see promises you not remuneration, but life eternal!
 
Catholig said:
I simply don’t want to doubt. Originally my doubt was regarding the early church father’s view of the See of Rome, & about the Orthodox Church, but since then I have realized that the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church both believe that it’s a sin to leave either faith for the other - and now I feel just horrible. I also have doubts whether doubting is really a sin - I feel that it is just a religion trying to prevent people from leaving.

Catholig
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You must remember that doubt is a part of the fallen nature of man. We constantly have that naging question in the back of our minds, “what if?” This should not bother us too much.
I’m still having problems with this - mainly that it’s simply hard for me to accept that doubting is a sin. Can anyone provide any more sources to help me with this problem? I read the relevant CCC section, and a little bit off of Catholic Encyclopedia - can anyone suggest any other sources? Maybe newer sources by JPII or Benedict XVI that’ll clarify this?
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Catholig, Pope Benedict mentions in his book Introduction to Christianity the fact that doubt is a part of human nature since the fall. He mentions that each person has this question in the back f their mind, “what if?” It is something that we all experience. He talks about the saints and specifically mentions St. Therese of Liseiux. She mentions in her writings that she had the worst temptations of doubt of atheism at times but she is now a saint in the Church.

To tell you the truth, I think that in a way western theology might encourage this problem because it approaches things from a perspective of logic far more. With St. Thomas and St. Anselm and other saints in the west you have a logical approach that subconsciously works on your mind. They establish that there are these proofs of Gods existence which implies that we need to prove Gods existence. Our mind begins working and thinking about Gods existence from the approach of proof. Aquinas and Anselm were not necessarily wrong with their proofs of God(I like some of them) but the fact is that to approach God from that perspective could possibly put doubts in our mind, even if there is no support for the doubt.
 
Catholig said:
Hello everyone,

Recently I have begun to doubt. I have since been to confession several times, but I don’t know anymore. I want to stay catholic, and I want to believe what the catholic church teaches - but I have so many difficulties including that I have trouble with the fact that doubting is a sin. I feel almost as if it is a way to keep us unquestioning. Please someone help me.

Catholig
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Personally, I think it’s good to ask questions. Mother Theresa had doubts, too, for an extended period of time. Nobody said it was going to be easy, just gotta keep going, and never lose your faith.

I think you’ll be alright!
 
I often think that doubt is the root of all sin. Didn’t Eve have to doubt what the Lord had said to be tempted by the devil? I don’t under estimate the damage that doubt can do. Practice trust, maybe a devotion to Divine Mercy and reflecting on the call to trust the Lord has giving us, not only in this devotion , but in scripture. Tim
 
TOP said:
I often think that doubt is the root of all sin. Didn’t Eve have to doubt what the Lord had said to be tempted by the devil? I don’t under estimate the damage that doubt can do. Practice trust, maybe a devotion to Divine Mercy and reflecting on the call to trust the Lord has giving us, not only in this devotion , but in scripture. Tim
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That was, in fact, pride – the serpent told her ‘you can be like God’.
 
Mirdath said:
That was, in fact, pride – the serpent told her ‘you can be like God’.
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Maybe doubt was second then. I know tradition says this, but it was the first thing I recognized after my own “conversion” type experience. The doubt in my wife’s face when I told her I was alright. It was frightening to see. Maybe the pride was so slick I didn’t notice. Tim
 
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