Faith is making me nihilist

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EasternCelt

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Hi All:

I have found that in contemplating the existence of hell and the traditional view of Augustine and Thomas, among others, that the vast majority of people will be there that I am becoming a bit of a nihilist. Everything has lost its beauty, I can’t enjoy my wife and child like I should, and I’ve grown cold toward God. I am struggling with the belief that it would have been better if we had never been created.
 
Then it is time to stop contemplating hell!

As Scripture says, whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, think on these things.
 
If you are in a downward spiral in the faith, stop yourself from revisiting these thoughts.

We are here to walk hand in hand with God, to experience his love, his forgiveness, his healing, and to bring down a blessing upon those around us. This is why we are here.

Our Blessed Mother asked at Fatima to pray and offer sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and peace in this world. This should be our thought before we get out of bed. Make a spiritual offering of the day and be the soldier that Christ has called us to be. You can have a huge impact on the world! Embrace that today!
 
Also, I feel that I’ve wronged my child by having her and bringing her into this cruel reality of probably damnation.
 
You reminded me of Peter, who stepped out of the boat to walk to Jesus and then he looked around and saw the wind and waves and began to sink. All of us live through some kind of Peter moment. Ask him to pray for you and bring your eyes back on Christ. Praise God throughout the day to lift yourself, or should I say have God lift you. God bless you.
 
I’m terrified of him. I try to follow the commandments out of pure fear.
 
You may want to consider getting professional help. You could be suffering from depression.
 
EasternCelt said:
Hi All:

I have found that in contemplating the existence of hell and the traditional view of Augustine and Thomas, among others, that the vast majority of people will be there that I am becoming a bit of a nihilist. Everything has lost its beauty, I can’t enjoy my wife and child like I should, and I’ve grown cold toward God. I am struggling with the belief that it would have been better if we had never been created.
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You might be better to embrace the teachings of the Church in our own era because the purpose of the living Church is to minister to the people of it’s day. Here is what Pope St JPII explains about Hell. He did a a trilogy of Wednesday audiences for the public in 1999 on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory and it is a pity that it hasn’t reached all Catholics today.

The images of hell that Sacred Scripture presents to us must be correctly interpreted. They show the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God. Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy. This is how the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the truths of faith on this subject: To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell’

Eternal damnation, therefore, is not attributed to God’s initiative because in his merciful love he can only desire the salvation of the beings he created. In reality, it is the creature who closes himself to his love. Damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person and confirmed with death that seals his choice for ever. God’s judgement ratifies this state.

http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2heavn.htm#Hell

Hope that helps allay your fears.
 
I actually did this, but they’re not theologically-minded and that’s the source of my pathology.
 
Is this a psychological separation? I come from the Orthodox Church originally and they deny a separation from God (which they hold as impossible), but say that God is the wicked’s experience of the Light of God is hell.
 
EasternCelt said:
Is this a psychological separation? I come from the Orthodox Church originally and they deny a separation from God (which they hold as impossible), but say that God is the wicked’s experience of the Light of God is hell.
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Psychological separation could be involved but isn’t the genesis of rejection of God since we know that some people although ‘invincibly ignorant’ of God and Christ, may also be saved through following Gods laws written on their hearts.
 
Whenever I feel this way, I listen to Gregorian Chant. Go listen to Mass VIII and I guarantee it will absolutely cheer you up. Just listen and contemplate the Cross, the Eucharist, Mary, The Trinity, the Church. Prayers
 
Sounds like obsessive behavior. A psychiatrist will be able to help you with that. You don’t even need to bring religion into it.
 
Read above, I have. It’s anxiety induced by religious belief. Basically, she thinks I 1) take religion too seriously and 2) need to deepen my understanding of my religion. The problem is that the more one reads, the more pessimistic one becomes. Just read St. Leonard of Port Maurice, or Augustine, or Thomas, etc. and they are extremely pessimistic. The problem is that I was always taught the love of God and just pushed hell to the side and didn’t think about it much. However, that doesn’t make hell go away and the implications of what hell says about God is always in the air with me. I don’t think it’s accurate to tell people, “God loves you”, but we should instead say, “Jesus is Lord and you had better repent or he will take vengeance upon you for being rebel.”

I think part of the problem is that I can’t reconcile the two messages. If the message really is that bleak, that’s fine, but I just need to know that it’s the truth and try my best to get my wife and child out of the massa damnata.
 
According to classic Catholic teaching, he does though. Read St. Leonard of Port Maurice’s sermon or Aquinas on the justice of God.
 
By now you should realize that this is a psychological issue. One cannot snap out and get over this.
 
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Bad luck . broken mirror Catholic Living
We are sincerely sorry to hear of your struggles. However, the CA Forums are unfortunately not set up to provide intensive spiritual counseling. Our best advice is for you to seek out a good priest on the local level who knows you or can get to know you because he’ll be treating you in the most fruitful counseling environment: a three-dimensional one. You may also wish to consider getting other support on the local level from a licensed counselor who is respectful of your Catholic Faith. Regard…
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EasternCelt said:
I actually did this, but they’re not theologically-minded and that’s the source of my pathology
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I kinda doubt it. Your depression and anxiety has taken the form of a fixation on hell, but that’s because you’re a religious person. Your pathology would be there regardless. If you were an atheist, you’d just find something else to obsessively worry over. You’d become a hypochondriac or you’d be terrified of the idea that nuclear war about to break out and you needed to build a fallout shelter, or you’d obsess over fringe conspiracy theories, etc.

I’m not saying this to mock you, of course. But I think your disorder is just being filtered through a religious lens, rather than causing the disorder.

Keep going with the psychological help and spiritual counseling.
 
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