Free Will To Sin?

[Trelow]

OkeyDokei:

In my entire life, not one real prayer has been answered of mine…Never! Not asking my father to come home from Iraq or for these wars to end soon…Not asking for a better education, strength to my friends, sick family members, homeless, poor, nonthing! Please do not tell me to pray.

In my life the only thing i have seen that i can rely on IS my own ability to decern the truth…This is the only thing which has the ability to guide me correctly through choices and actions. My own logic has had the ability to keep me alive and healthy. Prayers have given me nothing.

Yes isn’t the only answer you can get. You get what is for the greater benifit for yoru soul, not always what you want, actually it’s very rarely what you want, like you said we are faliable. Besides you can’t force your will upon God. “Let not my will be done, but Yours.”

You can come to the Church through logic. But I can’t help you there, the supernatrual has always played a large part in my life.

I understand that you are lost, but that’s no reason to eat the white berries. I’ll be praying for you. God bless.

 

[OkeyDokei]

And if you pray, and i turn atheist tonight, does this mean it is best for my soul since our prayers are always answered in some or form??

 

[Trelow]

OkeyDokei:

And if you pray, and i turn atheist tonight, does this mean it is best for my soul since our prayers are always answered in some or form??

Ther are many people whom become athiests before they become Catholic, stranger things have happened.

 

[OkeyDokei]

So you are saying, if i turn atheist tonight, i am guarenteed to turn back because it is in my soul’s best interest…

All because you sat down by your bed side and uttered a few words to your ceiling?

Edit:: last post of the night, got a paper to write.

 

[Trelow]

OkeyDokei:

So you are saying, if i turn atheist tonight, i am guarenteed to turn back because it is in my soul’s best interest…

All because you sat down by your bed side and uttered a few words to your ceiling?

Edit:: last post of the night, got a paper to write.

Not without the consent of your will, just as we can’t force things on God, He won’t force things on us.

Nah, I’ll be praying rosarys fo rya, Moma’ll get the messge to Him.

Me too, no paper, but time with wife.

 

[MistyF]

OkeyDokei,

I got about halfway through this thread, and found it a bit hard to follow because it’s jumping all over the place. But, I just wanted to reach out and let you know that having doubts and questions need not mean the end of your faith. I’ve been agnostic - bordering on athiesm, really - for 10 years. Recently, that changed for me. Of course, what changed my mind was different than it might be for you. But what changed my mind was because I saw God’s love, and He touched my heart.

I have many friends who are gay - I myself am bisexual, but it’s not an issue for me to resist that temptation, because even when I was agnostic, I was monogamous.

I know there were many more issues that you raised throughout this thread. I hope you’ll think on this one point, though. IF the Catholic Church is right, and their teachings are God’s teachings…then would you follow God’s will, or would you turn your head away, knowing that hell awaits you? If your answer is that you would follow God’s will, then you owe it to yourself to honestly open your heart to His teachings and find out for certain. That will mean accepting the teachings as a whole, even where you have doubts, for the purposes of investigation.

I am currently doing that, because I am coming into the faith disagreeing with many things - gays, birth control, for example - but, I know that in order to fit the whole puzzle together I can only work with one piece at a time. If I took every piece of the puzzle God has given us and held them all at once, trying to fit them together all at once, it would never work. But, if I understand what the larger picture is, and then I take it just a section at a time, I’ll have the whole puzzle fit together eventually.

And I am not 100% sure where you are coming from, if you were raised Catholic, or if you converted and are now doubting, or if you never were Catholic and are questioning Catholic beliefs. But, it seems like you have the general picture. And so, if you are going to walk away from this with no worries - examine each of your doubts about the faith, one at a time.

Do you know what started your doubts in the first place? That might be a good place to start. Or start with some of the “smaller” questions, and work from there. Do you have someone in your local parish that might help you in person? With the nature of forums, the conversation has a tendency to become argumentative, and that isn’t going to answer your questions, it’s just going to exasperate you.