Have you stopped seeking truth or have you given up and just accepted your faith tradition without question?

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eucharisteo

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Have you stopped seeking truth or have you given up and just accepted your faith tradition without question?
 
I continually learn through reading posts and answering posts. Funny how a reply will get one searching for answers all over the internet. So really I continue to learn by seeking but each time I seek, it seems to reinforce my faith. I know where the truth is therefore I haven’t felt a need to literally look outside of the CC on purpose for truth.

Don’t get me wrong; there are things that I’m still wondering about and that I need to pray about because I’ve come to find out that not all my beliefs line up perfectly to the Church :eek: . This is where I prayfully seek, and have to come to the conclusion that beings that my faith is apostolic, I will trust the Church and hope to come to an understanding one day. Now if I had huge problems with tons of doctrine, then you can bet that I would be searching for more answers.

So have I stopped seeking truth? Technically yes, because I already have it.
Oh and as for “giving up” no… I call it surrendering to Jesus’ teachings 😃
 
10 years ago, I was a Presbyterian and had stopped seeking truth. Reformed Protestants - especially in my particular local church - had all the answers and knew everything. No one else was even close. We were the best, and there was no reason to even consider what others believed. We accepted without question. No, forget the “we”…I accepted without question.

I can’t believe that I ever thought that way. Perhaps it’s easy to be like that when everyone around you is acting that way, but that’s no excuse at all. I was a fool.

10 years is a long time to seek truth, and there have been many detours. But I’m seeking once more…seeking and finding…and growing in Him in the process.
 
eucharisteo said:
Have you stopped seeking truth or have you given up and just accepted your faith tradition without question?
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I thought the point of faith was to believe as you’re told. For one to have faith they must have knowledge without proof right?
 
I underwent this year what could only be described as a total religious conversion. I was Catholic, but in name only. I looked at every philosophy (I still admire Zen Buddhist philosophy, insofar as the Church can be reconciled with it of course) and was tempted by several Atheist philosophies. But they troubled me; I couldn’t accept that we lived in a meaningless universe. It was then I turned back to Christianity. I was tempted briefly by Presbyterianism before I realized that, hey, I never bothered to learn about MY Church. Well, I did, and you know what? I had to be a Catholic. The Catholic Church was True; I was seeking the Truth. My search was over, and it had ended right where I began.

So do I accept Tradition? Yes. Always. Without question? No, I ask questions every time I don’t understand something, but I still accept Tradition. Have I stopped seeking Truth? Yes, because I’ve found it.
 
I have faith that the Roman Catholic Church is the Church the Lord Jesus Christ founded 100% AND I’m still not afraid to ask questions. The answers have only deepened my faith, not questioned it.
 
lynx said:
I thought the point of faith was to believe as you’re told. For one to have faith they must have knowledge without proof right?
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That would be foolhardy. Faith and reason can co-exist.
 
eucharisteo said:
Have you stopped seeking truth or have you given up and just accepted your faith tradition without question?
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The pursuit of truth is a worthy one, and one that I will not give up on, nor will I shut the door to any information if it challenges the information I already hold to as truth. I am willing to change any of my positions upon more information.
 
Marc_Anthony said:
I underwent this year what could only be described as a total religious conversion. I was Catholic, but in name only. I looked at every philosophy (I still admire Zen Buddhist philosophy, insofar as the Church can be reconciled with it of course) and was tempted by several Atheist philosophies. But they troubled me; I couldn’t accept that we lived in a meaningless universe. It was then I turned back to Christianity. I was tempted briefly by Presbyterianism before I realized that, hey, I never bothered to learn about MY Church. Well, I did, and you know what? I had to be a Catholic. The Catholic Church was True; I was seeking the Truth. My search was over, and it had ended right where I began.

So do I accept Tradition? Yes. Always. Without question? No, I ask questions every time I don’t understand something, but I still accept Tradition. Have I stopped seeking Truth? Yes, because I’ve found it.
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Meaningless universe?

You must have a very unusual standard for meaningful universes.
 
lynx said:
I thought the point of faith was to believe as you’re told. For one to have faith they must have knowledge without proof right?
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Faith is knowing that Christ is out there, and holding to him while we suffer through the trails of life. Faith is no mere act of easiness, but an ongoing struggle for truth, hope, and love. Faith is having proof and knowing. Without knowing, or proof, it is impossible to have true faith in something. The act of faith alone is one of the greatest works we can see. For though there are many that would deny the existence of Christ himself, we fight on with our faith. We know, we trust, we believe.

We have faith.
 
Teneas said:
Faith is knowing that Christ is out there, and holding to him while we suffer through the trails of life. Faith is no mere act of easiness, but an ongoing struggle for truth, hope, and love. Faith is having proof and knowing. Without knowing, or proof, it is impossible to have true faith in something. The act of faith alone is one of the greatest works we can see. For though there are many that would deny the existence of Christ himself, we fight on with our faith. We know, we trust, we believe.

We have faith.
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I read the footsteps thing, and isn’t it Christ who carries you through your struggles in life?
The guy pointed to one set of footprints and accused Christ of not being there at those hard times. That’s when Christ replies he carried him then.

Was that just yet another way to use people’s emotions and get them to believe things about Christ we have no way of knowing?
 
lynx said:
I thought the point of faith was to believe as you’re told. For one to have faith they must have knowledge without proof right?
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No. Faith should be understood more as faithfulness, with a dash of hope thrown in.

The hope part really applies to everyone. Why do we choose to believe the universe is rational and knowable? Why do we choose to believe the world we percieve is real, and not a dream? Why do we believe in the law of non-contradiction, the foundation of all human inquiry?

There can be no proofs of such things. We think they are more lilely than not, or we decide there is no point to living as if they were not true. (Or we don’t think about it at all, but we won’t mention that.) Choosing to believe in such a way is an aspect of hope.

As for faith, or faithfulness, it is rather like a marriage. No marriage can work without faith or trust in one’s spouse. You don’t just marry anyone, you take time to get to know about the person, to see that he is trustworthy, loving, and so on. But once married, you must give over some of that judgement.

Even then, if you suspect your spouse is not what you thought, say you think he has another family in he next town, it is ok to investigate that, and if it’s true you ought to act upon it. But you don’t go looking for such things, or harbour suspicions based on malice or jealousy or idle gossip. And when times get tough, you don’t run out, and when there are misunderstandings, you forgive.
 
Christ said he is the truth, when he said he is the way, the truth and the life. When Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus, he asked what is truth? The irony is that Jesus stood in front of him, who claimed to be the truth. Pilate looked at Jesus but did not see.
This reflects the fact that the opening poster and Catholics have quite different models of truth. Catholics believe that people can find the truth and do not have to keep looking for it as if it were not found. Accepting such truth, if we keep seeking the truth then, it means trying to come to a deeper understanding in it, not moving on as if we had not found it.
 
mdgspencer said:
Christ said he is the truth, when he said he is the way, the truth and the life. When Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus, he asked what is truth? The irony is that Jesus stood in front of him, who claimed to be the truth. Pilate looked at Jesus but did not see.
This reflects the fact that the opening poster and Catholics have quite different models of truth. Catholics believe that people can find the truth and do not have to keep looking for it as if it were not found. Accepting such truth, if we keep seeking the truth then, it means trying to come to a deeper understanding in it, not moving on as if we had not found it.
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However, we are humans, and fallen, and are in space and time. That means that we are capable of making errors in logic and reasoning, and are limited too as far as the facts and information at our disposal. None of us can really claim to know we have the Truth in the same way as one who stands face to face with God. So it is never impossible that we will discover “more” truth, or - alas - that what we thought was truth, isn’t.
 
lynx said:
I thought the point of faith was to believe as you’re told. For one to have faith they must have knowledge without proof right?
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No… no. Wow.

Faith is something we all have. We have faith every time we set the alarm clock that because we paid the bill our electricity will stay on. That’s a little bit of faith, right? But it is very reasonable to have enough faith that the electricity will stay on to rely on an electric alarm clock, right? Even tho we don’t have proof?

In the same way, it is very reasonable to believe in God. For Catholics, who believe not what man decided what the Bible means but those truths which God has taught us, it is very reasonable to believe.

It is very reasonable to believe in God as well. Even Aristotle was able to figure out God’s existence (altho he was very intelligent).

When I consider my journey into Catholicism and through until now, everything I have learned is eminently reasonable, and the best part is that it all fits. There are no loose ends. Why does evil exist? Catholicism has an answer. Why must we suffer? Catholicism has an answer. How can we know what to do, how can we know we are forgiven, what will happen after death–Catholicism answers all these questions and! *the answers make complete sense. *

So in reality, the more I question my Faith, and the more answers I come across, the more reasonable it is, and the more faith I have.

The question of proof… it depends on what one will accept as proof. I proved that living a God-less materialist existence was really kinda the pits. To prove irrefutably that God exists by the scientific method, which is designed only for the material world and doesn’t work for the supernatural realm, is indeed impossible, but that is the standard to which most who ask the question require the proof to adhere.

But to show that it is more reasonable to believe in God than to disbelieve is very possible to someone who is willing to consider that maybe there is more in existence than that which we are able to perceive with our physical senses. To show that living by God’s laws is not only better for individual human beings but for entire societies is very possible, for those who are willing to be honest about what makes people happy.

So, to answer the original question of this thread, I still seek Truth, I just seek it deeper and always find it in the Catholic Faith.
 
The first poster said: I thought the point of faith was to believe as you’re told. For one to have faith they must have knowledge without proof right?

The second poster after this said: that would be foolhardy. Faith and reason can coexist.
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 These two posts raise this question in my mind. What of some simple person, of which there are many. without any great intelligence? Without any substantial education? How is such a person to go a quest for the truth, trying out all the claims for truth (though he doesn't even know what these claims are)? It is true that faith and reason should go together. But what if he doesn't even know the reasons.
How many can really go on the quest for truth proposed? Maybe for a great many people it would be best if God revealed Himself and asked people to accept what he said. Actually, perhaps it would be best of God revealed Himself for the sake of everyone, though in some areas He left us to seek the truth, such as our vocation in life and how, for example, to live morally at work.
 
When you stop seeking truth, you surrender your faith.

The question is, HAVE YOU STOPPED SPEAKING THE TRUTH. Would you rather shirk away than express the truth to the liberals or relativists? In our “I am not going to get involved” world, have you lost the courage of your faith and as such do not speak the truth?
 
eucharisteo said:
Have you stopped seeking truth or have you given up and just accepted your faith tradition without question?
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In continue to learn the faith so I can better respond to others that are lost.

The evidence however is overwhelming in my experience. It is the Catholic Church that has the fullness of truth and the real faith. There just is no question about it. I now presume the Catholic Church is on the right side to begin with. I still have an obligation though, to use my God-given abilities seek the truth in all cases.

Therefore, I will never stop seeking the Truth. The issue is, it always leads to my faith tradition - The Catholic Church.

No question!
 
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