Former Catholic seeking assistance

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Faithless_one

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I know I must be crazy asking this question, but it’s been worrying me for some time…

I’ve recently rejected Catholicism to lead an atheist lifestyle and I’ve run into a slump of bad luck. For the past six weeks I’ve been taking a summer course, and hardly passing it. I’m usually a straight A student and I have no idea why I can’t just comprehend this darn subject. I also paint miniatures as a hobby, and I’m finding it difficult to just assemble them, whereas I never even thought about it before. Even my temper seems to have been flaring up. I’ve always been a bit of a hothead but recently little things can drive me nuts. For example, I was trying to glue on a arm on one of my miniature and it just wouldn’t stick, I got so angry I flung my hobby knife straight at the wall and it became embedded…

I’m beginning to wonder if this has anything to do with my rejection of a higher being. I’ve never truly believed in God, even as a young child but it seems strange that I’ve run into all of these problems right after I’ve turned down my beliefs. Maybe I’m just being overly superstitious…

A little perspective you folks would be greatly appreciated.
 
From a Catholic point of view, what you’re describing makes sense. It is God’s will that all of us be saved, and He loves you enough to do what it takes to get your attention and bring you back home to the Church. God will not force anyone’s will, but He is a mighty persuader. I think He’s showing you in a language you can understand the real consequences of abandoning Him.
 
There’s no peace, except through God. This sounds like your calling to reestablish your faith and draw closer to God. You say you’ve never truly believed in God…is there any part of the faith or Creationism that someone can clarify for you?
 
Return to God who loves you and is calling you back.

There is no guarantee that your grades and your success with your hobbies, etc. will improve as a result, but every task will have more meaning when you approach it with a supernatural perspective — when you do everything, as Saint Ignatius of Loyola says, “ad majorem Dei gloriam,” or “for the greater glory of God.”
 
Faithless_one said:
I’m beginning to wonder if this has anything to do with my rejection of a higher being. I’ve never truly believed in God, even as a young child but it seems strange that I’ve run into all of these problems right after I’ve turned down my beliefs. Maybe I’m just being overly superstitious…
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The fact that you suspect a connection between the current state of your life and your formal rejection of God means that, on some level, you really do believe. It also tells me that despite what you may think, you are actually quite spiritually sensitive. 👍

Give in…resistance is futile. I’ve been there and I know. 🙂

God love you,
Paul
 
Faithless_one said:
I know I must be crazy asking this question, but it’s been worrying me for some time…

I’ve recently rejected Catholicism to lead an atheist lifestyle and I’ve run into a slump of bad luck. For the past six weeks I’ve been taking a summer course, and hardly passing it. I’m usually a straight A student and I have no idea why I can’t just comprehend this darn subject. I also paint miniatures as a hobby, and I’m finding it difficult to just assemble them, whereas I never even thought about it before. Even my temper seems to have been flaring up. I’ve always been a bit of a hothead but recently little things can drive me nuts. For example, I was trying to glue on a arm on one of my miniature and it just wouldn’t stick, I got so angry I flung my hobby knife straight at the wall and it became embedded…

I’m beginning to wonder if this has anything to do with my rejection of a higher being. I’ve never truly believed in God, even as a young child but it seems strange that I’ve run into all of these problems right after I’ve turned down my beliefs. Maybe I’m just being overly superstitious…

A little perspective you folks would be greatly appreciated.
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Rejecting a belief in God and changing your worldvew can definitely have an effect on your mood and behavior, so I wouldn’t attribute it to bad luck or superstition. Does the world make less sense to you now, or worse, do you think it has lost all meaning or purpose? If either of these are the case, *of course *it will have a negative impact on other parts of your life.

I think you need to look at what you actually *did *think about your faith, before you made the choice to “lead an atheist lifestyle”. You said you "never truly believed in God, even as a young child ". Why then did you consider yourself Catholic? Weren’t you always an atheist, then?

I would suggest you might want to give some really serious thought to what really turned you off to Catholicism so much that you decided to reject it. Often people don’t know enough about the faith or haven’t had the right personal experiences in a particular church, or have too many negative influences getting to them to keep their faith, especially if they are not naturally inclined to belief, as you said was the case with you.

If you can ask some more specific questions that you have about your doubts, I’m sure you will get some more answers here.
 
I think that God is giving you the signs. Return to Him. He is calling you back.
 
Faithless_one said:
I know I must be crazy asking this question, but it’s been worrying me for some time…

I’ve recently rejected Catholicism to lead an atheist lifestyle and I’ve run into a slump of bad luck. For the past six weeks I’ve been taking a summer course, and hardly passing it. I’m usually a straight A student and I have no idea why I can’t just comprehend this darn subject. I also paint miniatures as a hobby, and I’m finding it difficult to just assemble them, whereas I never even thought about it before. Even my temper seems to have been flaring up. I’ve always been a bit of a hothead but recently little things can drive me nuts. For example, I was trying to glue on a arm on one of my miniature and it just wouldn’t stick, I got so angry I flung my hobby knife straight at the wall and it became embedded…

I’m beginning to wonder if this has anything to do with my rejection of a higher being. I’ve never truly believed in God, even as a young child but it seems strange that I’ve run into all of these problems right after I’ve turned down my beliefs. Maybe I’m just being overly superstitious…

A little perspective you folks would be greatly appreciated.
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seems to me this is more than superstition… perhapse God is letting you see the difference even the little faith that you had made in your daily life. faith is adifficult thing to attain- we cant do it on our own. if we ask, then God grants it and it grows. if we dont ask, we never recieve. so, ask for faith and you will believe.
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys.
HelenaMT said:
Rejecting a belief in God and changing your worldvew can definitely have an effect on your mood and behavior, so I wouldn’t attribute it to bad luck or superstition. Does the world make less sense to you now, or worse, do you think it has lost all meaning or purpose? If either of these are the case, *of course *it will have a negative impact on other parts of your life.

I think you need to look at what you actually *did *think about your faith, before you made the choice to “lead an atheist lifestyle”. You said you "never truly believed in God, even as a young child ". Why then did you consider yourself Catholic? Weren’t you always an atheist, then?

I would suggest you might want to give some really serious thought to what really turned you off to Catholicism so much that you decided to reject it. Often people don’t know enough about the faith or haven’t had the right personal experiences in a particular church, or have too many negative influences getting to them to keep their faith, especially if they are not naturally inclined to belief, as you said was the case with you.

If you can ask some more specific questions that you have about your doubts, I’m sure you will get some more answers here.
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Let me answer a few of your questions.

I was baptized at the age of 12 and then went through the communion and such a year later. I truly could care less about religion back than and was strongly urged by my Mother to become Catholic in order to increase my chance of getting into a prestigious Catholic college prep. I figured that it would be well worth it from an academic standpoint and agreed. As I said I never truly even gave a thought to spirituality until after my baptism. After about 2 years of trying to keep faith I started to falter.

My view of life is extremely negative (despite growing up in a loving home) and I’m introverted. I had an amazingly difficult time making friends in highschool due to my shyness and seeing bad news after bad news on television was no assistance either. At first I came to hate god, thinking it cruel and merciless, rather than the benevolent force I was taught it was. Just now I’ve completely given up hope in god and as I said, my fortunes have seen to plummet. The connection I made between my bad luck and faith truly has (at least in my opinion) nothing to do with being spiritually sensitive, its merely the timing.

If I do finally decide that I want to make amends how should I reconnect with God?
 
Faithless_one said:
If I do finally decide that I want to make amends how should I reconnect with God?
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Everyone connects with God in a different way,I think. If I were you, I would start by praying to God to *give you *faith and to help you through your unbelief. Even ask Him to give you some sign you will recognize. It would also help if you do this in a place where you have felt the most close to God (if that was never, then I guess wherever you feel the most at peace will do).

The problem of evil is a big hurdle even for believers . If that’s something your’re trying to resolve, you should look into how different Catholic (or other Christian) writers have dealt with it and see if it makes more sense to you. There are good threads on this forum that have dealt with this too.
 
Faithless_one said:
Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Let me answer a few of your questions.

I was baptized at the age of 12 and then went through the communion and such a year later. I truly could care less about religion back than and was strongly urged by my Mother to become Catholic in order to increase my chance of getting into a prestigious Catholic college prep. I figured that it would be well worth it from an academic standpoint and agreed. As I said I never truly even gave a thought to spirituality until after my baptism. After about 2 years of trying to keep faith I started to falter.

My view of life is extremely negative (despite growing up in a loving home) and I’m introverted. I had an amazingly difficult time making friends in highschool due to my shyness and seeing bad news after bad news on television was no assistance either. At first I came to hate god, thinking it cruel and merciless, rather than the benevolent force I was taught it was. Just now I’ve completely given up hope in god and as I said, my fortunes have seen to plummet. The connection I made between my bad luck and faith truly has (at least in my opinion) nothing to do with being spiritually sensitive, its merely the timing.

If I do finally decide that I want to make amends how should I reconnect with God?
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angelfire.com/ca3/rafaelm…athepieta.html
catholicforum.com/churche…vinemercy1.htm
our.homewithgod.com/divinemercy/
 
First off, your lack of faith has nothing to do with the existence of God.

Secondly, your inability to study or sudden irritability has nothing to do with the existence of God.

The existence of God is a fact, and your needs, wants and desires do not make a Genie appear in order to grant you your 3 wishes.

God is not here to serve you, you are the creature, He is the Creator and just because you aren’t getting your little way and getting everything your little selfish heart desires doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist.

We are here to serve God and worship God, where has this concept of God being our servant come from? It comes from PRIDE the same sin that fell upon Satan the Liar. He was proud from the beginning.
 
Ted_in_Charlott said:
The existence of God is a fact
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Unless you have some scientific evidence to back that up it has little to do with what I was asking. Debating god’s existence on a primarily Christian forum would be kinda ironic wouldn’t it? 😛

Twas hoping some folks could help me interpret if these unfortunate events (which some indeed have) were some sort of spiritual recall and not me being overly-superstitious.
 
Faithless_one said:
Unless you have some scientific evidence to back that up it has little to do with what I was asking. Debating god’s existence on a primarily Christian forum would be kinda ironic wouldn’t it? 😛

Twas asking some folks could help me interpret (From a religious perspective) if these unfortunate events were some sort of spiritual recall and not me being overly-superstitious.
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Faithless_one said:
I know I must be crazy asking this question, but it’s been worrying me for some time…

I’ve recently rejected Catholicism to lead an atheist lifestyle and I’ve run into a slump of bad luck. For the past six weeks I’ve been taking a summer course, and hardly passing it. I’m usually a straight A student and I have no idea why I can’t just comprehend this darn subject. I also paint miniatures as a hobby, and I’m finding it difficult to just assemble them, whereas I never even thought about it before. Even my temper seems to have been flaring up. I’ve always been a bit of a hothead but recently little things can drive me nuts. For example, I was trying to glue on a arm on one of my miniature and it just wouldn’t stick, I got so angry I flung my hobby knife straight at the wall and it became embedded…

I’m beginning to wonder if this has anything to do with my rejection of a higher being. I’ve never truly believed in God, even as a young child but it seems strange that I’ve run into all of these problems right after I’ve turned down my beliefs. Maybe I’m just being overly superstitious…

A little perspective you folks would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

People go through bad patches or suffer for a long time, or go through whatever the problem may be, whether they are former Catholics or not. Catholics are as likely as militant atheists to meet with unpleasant experiences - the differences lie in what people make of what happens.​

You say yourself that you’ve “never truly believed in God, even as a young child”: but if problems are, or seem to be, suddenly starting now, why should dropping Catholicism (which is a rather pointless form of life if one has no living faith in God) be the reason for the problems ?

Besides, that X follows Y in time, is no proof that Y is the cause of X: watching baseball does not cause thunderstorms, even if a thunderstorm comes after a game of baseball. That this trouble or that comes after someone drops Catholicism, is no proof they are a result of or caused by dropping Catholicism.
 
Faithless_one said:
Unless you have some scientific evidence to back that up it has little to do with what I was asking. Debating god’s existence on a primarily Christian forum would be kinda ironic wouldn’t it? 😛

Twas hoping some folks could help me interpret if these unfortunate events (which some indeed have) were some sort of spiritual recall and not me being overly-superstitious.
Click to expand...

Scientific evidence is entirely right & good for the sciences - but it is worthless, because totally irrelevant, to the question of God.​

It would be relevant to Christian ideas of God if Christians thought that God was not the Creator of the universe, but an item, & a material item at that, in it. But the belief is in “God…the Creator of Heaven and earth, and of all things, visible and invisible”. He is not part of His own creation, so He cannot be found “in” it. People don’t call upon scientific means in order to appreciate a work of art - neither can scientific knowledge & methods tell us anything about God. 🙂
 
Faithless_one said:
I know I must be crazy asking this question, but it’s been worrying me for some time…

I’ve recently rejected Catholicism to lead an atheist lifestyle and I’ve run into a slump of bad luck. For the past six weeks I’ve been taking a summer course, and hardly passing it. I’m usually a straight A student and I have no idea why I can’t just comprehend this darn subject. I also paint miniatures as a hobby, and I’m finding it difficult to just assemble them, whereas I never even thought about it before. Even my temper seems to have been flaring up. I’ve always been a bit of a hothead but recently little things can drive me nuts. For example, I was trying to glue on a arm on one of my miniature and it just wouldn’t stick, I got so angry I flung my hobby knife straight at the wall and it became embedded…

I’m beginning to wonder if this has anything to do with my rejection of a higher being. I’ve never truly believed in God, even as a young child but it seems strange that I’ve run into all of these problems right after I’ve turned down my beliefs. Maybe I’m just being overly superstitious…

A little perspective you folks would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
I once rejected God as a teenager, and immediately afterward got into a motorcycle wreck. Talk about coincidental and scary. Nope…I can’t ‘go it alone’. Without Jesus Christ, I have no life.
 
The saddest funeral I ever attended was that of a childhood friend who died young (around college age), and whose father was an atheist. The father, whom I had always thought of as a strong and manly man, was crying his eyes out inconsolably with grief.

Bad things happen to all of us, whether we believe in God or not. Personally, I would not want to go through bad things without God.

This particular week I have lived through an exhausting spiritual battle, and it was confirmed to me again just how important prayer is, and relying on God instead of our fellow man, because our fellow man will all too often disappoint in our hour of need, whereas the love of God can change hearts and save lives.

Now could this particular “spate of bad luck” be God trying to get your attention, Faithless_one?

It could be. I hope you will ask Him.

~~ the phoenix
 
Once again I appreciate all your perspectives. I’ll be sure to reflect on the subject and try a prayer or two.
 
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