Having serious doubts about faith

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I am so confused atm. Well, it’s been like this for a long time now. There is no one I dare to talk about this with in real life as I fear nobody would understand me and/or judge me.

It just seems like religion is so complicated and sometimes not logical. One part of me questions which faith is right and another part of be questions if it even makes sense to have any faith at all.

Everyone knows this world is quite unfair. You have people who have access to clean water, a warm house, education, healthcare, all the possibilities in the world. Then you have people who would be thrilled to even have a cup of rice a day and who has to walk miles and miles only to be able to get dirty water. This alone makes me question things. God loves us all… So why do some people have to suffer so much more than others?

I read about a woman who had been raped multiple times as a child. Then she was forced into a marriage with a man who who abused her physically, sexually and emotionally. And now she lives that life, in extreme poverty and getting abused daily. She was a Christian. Why would God allow someone to suffer endlessly like her?

We thank God for our blessings. If a person for example escapes a bad situation or survives a car crash miraclesly, we thank God and say God helped us and saved us. But what about the others? What about the person that did get hurt, or that did end up in the bad situation? Why did God not protect them too? Was it God’s will? I don’t understand.

Then about which faith is right. Most people are so certain that theirs religion is indeed the right one and that everyone else is wrong. So how can we know? How do we truly know which one is the right one. If you ask a Protestant, he/she will say Catholics are demonic and are following the path of the devil and will go to hell. If you ask a Muslim they will say that Islam is the right religion and that Christians are going to hell for polygamy. Even Orthodox say that Catholics are devilish because we have a pope. And of course, asking an atheist will lead to him thinking you are brainwashed. It’s all so confusing to me.

I just want to be sure in my faith and follow God, but all these doubts and situations seriously make me question my faith and I’m just really lost.
Please no mean comments, I did not mean any harm with this post, I just really want to understand all of this and how to deal with it.
 
therose01 said:
I just want to be sure in my faith and follow God, but all these doubts and situations seriously make me question my faith and I’m just really lost.
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The place to start is with you. Not everybody else in the world. Not things you don’t understand. Not how God judges and manages the universe.

You start with what you’ve been given. You have the gift of faith. It’s a treasure. You have to preserve it, foster it, and build it up. If you lose it, people will still go hungry, but you will simply be one more with no faith and impoverished.

So, you have to build up your faith. Right now, it is weak. It has to grow stronger.
Secondly, you have to build up your own sanctification in Christ. Work on yourself. Make yourself a better person - with the help of God.

There are no easy and simple answers to how God has created the world, how He loves every person, how He judges with mercy and righteousness, how He will reward in the end. It takes a lifetime of prayer - growing near Him - and He will show you. He’s the only one who can. No human being can give you all the answers of life. The Church gives us the direction - showing the path. Prayer, sacraments, spiritual reading, good works of mercy to others, living the virtues, devotions, communion of saints. But nobody can tell you fully the mind of God.

He loves you. He wants you closer to Him. He knows all of the suffering in this world. Every bit of it has meaning. We can see it on the crucifix. Nobody was more innocent. But we can see that Jesus suffered. Why? We have to learn that. The crucifixion is lived out in the world. Suffering continues to redeem and open heaven for those in sin.
 
I’ve had a rough summer. Lacking energy, getting winded easily, and other symptoms as well. Several different physical issues have come to light recently but this has only deepened my faith in a divine presence. There are reasons for everything that happens to me though I may not ever know those reasons.
Do I deal with issues no matter how difficult, skillfully or unskillfully? Do I act out of fear or from a place of peace? Those around me seem to want me to act whether they realize or not out of fear. I have chosen so far to act from a place of peace for the most part and this seems to be working.
I encourage you to act from a place of peace, be not afraid so to speak and let go of your anxieties and fears as much as possible. You just may find the answers you are seeking about your faith. Allow yourself to develop more patience.
 
therose01 said:
I am so confused atm. Well, it’s been like this for a long time now. There is no one I dare to talk about this with in real life as I fear nobody would understand me and/or judge me.

It just seems like religion is so complicated and sometimes not logical. One part of me questions which faith is right and another part of be questions if it even makes sense to have any faith at all.

Everyone knows this world is quite unfair. You have people who have access to clean water, a warm house, education, healthcare, all the possibilities in the world. Then you have people who would be thrilled to even have a cup of rice a day and who has to walk miles and miles only to be able to get dirty water. This alone makes me question things. God loves us all… So why do some people have to suffer so much more than others?

I read about a woman who had been raped multiple times as a child. Then she was forced into a marriage with a man who who abused her physically, sexually and emotionally. And now she lives that life, in extreme poverty and getting abused daily. She was a Christian. Why would God allow someone to suffer endlessly like her?

We thank God for our blessings. If a person for example escapes a bad situation or survives a car crash miraclesly, we thank God and say God helped us and saved us. But what about the others? What about the person that did get hurt, or that did end up in the bad situation? Why did God not protect them too? Was it God’s will? I don’t understand.

Then about which faith is right. Most people are so certain that theirs religion is indeed the right one and that everyone else is wrong. So how can we know? How do we truly know which one is the right one. If you ask a Protestant, he/she will say Catholics are demonic and are following the path of the devil and will go to hell. If you ask a Muslim they will say that Islam is the right religion and that Christians are going to hell for polygamy. Even Orthodox say that Catholics are devilish because we have a pope. And of course, asking an atheist will lead to him thinking you are brainwashed. It’s all so confusing to me.

I just want to be sure in my faith and follow God, but all these doubts and situations seriously make me question my faith and I’m just really lost.
Please no mean comments, I did not mean any harm with this post, I just really want to understand all of this and how to deal with it.
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Hi, Rose!

Yeah… it is a difficult thing… there’s so much horror and confusion… so much that seems incomprehensible… so much that seems void and useless and unfair…

Let’s knockout the atheists… they claim to not believe; yet they go to extreme measures to dissuade Believers from the Faith–I’ve been engaged by some atheists that are more knowledgeable of Scriptures and Church history than many Catholics and other Christians. Theirs is a religion based on rejection of God. Theirs is a religion based on the premise that what is not seen/known cannot be valid–yet, science keeps ruling them wrong!

Muslims… their holy book commands them to murder those who do not believe as they–torture, exploitation, murder, terrorism, chaos… enough said!

Protestant–well, their default is to protest against the Church (which reminds me of what I overheard a few Muslims state ‘we do the opposite of what *they *do…’); these, for the most part, well-intended Christians want to Follow Christ in absence of His Foundation; the only way that someone can supplant the rightful authority of a household is if he/she runs the household down, remove the rightful agents and place themselves in their stay–was that Jesus’s Plan for His Founded Church?

Orthodoxy (not in the case of state orthodoxy) wants what everyone wants: autonomy! Having to answer to someone else cannot allow full autonomy (which brings us to the Protestants again); until all Christians realize the futility of disunion we will have the various schisms alive and well in the Body of Christ–ask any Christian where it is Commanded that the Body of Christ exist in splinters?

Since we have been created with freewill, how can God control what we do?

Life is not unfair because of Creation. Life is unfair because man chooses gluttony over generosity; he chooses power and control over love and charity.

When people can spend billions of dollars on “their pets” while millions go hungry, without medical aide, without shelter, without water, without education… hope… it is a sign of man’s failure.

Where does God come in?:
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
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(1 St. John 3:16-18)
The failure of man is that Believers are not United in Love; the failure of man is that Believers follow the world as much as they follow God. The failure of man is that greed and power mongering has its rewards in the here and now. The failure of man is that Satan has convinced man (even Christians) that he will surely not die nor be judged for his actions and/or omissions.

Maran atha!

Angel
 
jcrichton said:
Life is not unfair because of Creation. Life is unfair because man chooses gluttony over generosity; he chooses power and control over love and charity.

When people can spend billions of dollars on “their pets” while millions go hungry, without medical aide, without shelter, without water, without education… hope… it is a sign of man’s failure.
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Rose:
The above two sentences perfectly answer your dilemma over the seemingly unfair nature of the current state of affairs. Could’t say it any better myself.

Your questions and dilemmas are really quite common among believers at one time of another. Be assured you are not alone. My suggestion is to go back to the beginning and answer the first question; Is there a God? Then, what form does this God take? What is the nature of the relationship between man and his Creator. Then, what is the meaning of the Jesus story, and how does it relate to you. And so on.

I have entertained all the doubts and dilemmas you cite. I think you may be at a point where all that you have been told is something applied to your heart and soul. Might it be time to find the beliefs that you seek, from within? Organically rather than simply what others have told you.?

Good luck, and a prayer said for a happy resolution to all that which bothers you.

Shalom
 
This is about the most hard problem in theology and is called “the problem of natural evil”.

Evil done by free agents is easy to understand but evil things not directly caused by free agents is very hard to understand. Saint Augustine said there’s no solution to this problem. We will only understand it at the end of times.

But evil is also a problem to a pure materialistic view. Why we perceive evil at all? Why no other species perceive evil?

Evil is a hard problem in every worldview known to man.
 
God invites you and me to partner with him to bring food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty. He is the source of good things in this world. Think of Mother Teresa walking the streets of Calcutta.

There is evil in this world. Be a force for good in this world.
 
I don’t know if this will help, but I’m reading this right now.

shop.catholic.com/why-we-re-catholic-our-reasons-for-faith-hope-and-love.html

I see that you’re a new member, so please don’t get turned off by the word “shop”. I’m not exceptionally savvy with digital purchases, but I’ll buy it for you if you can tell me how in a PM.

Extra thanks, BTW, to anyone who can explain how to set an email alert for PMs…on the interface that we’ll have tomorrow that is!
 
Pray for faith, even if you have to say “God, I’m not even sure that you’re there, but I could use a little help. Strengthen my faith. Give me hope. Let me see your love and pass it on to those around me.”

I’m praying for you too.
 
In my experience, the poor and suffering have far more faith than the rich and healthy. Jesus explained this dynamic very clearly in the story of Lazarus and the rich man:

biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+16%3A19-31&version=DRA

As for Catholicism vs other religions, I would take the time to study them. There really is no comparison. No other religion claims anything close to what is told in the four Gospels.
 
Hard things sometimes make strong people. I think that’s why Jesus went through the suffering He did. It wasn’t to show us the easy way. It wasn’t to show us the path with no stones.

It was to show us that even God can suffer. That it’s a thing to bear for a greater good. That it can help bring a person to a higher spiritual place than they could ever have hoped to get to otherwise.

Think on this. Many of the best poets and song writers only got there through suffering. It’s like a direct path to the real is opened up. It’s like an authority on life is given out in that.

I mean imagine a world with no suffering? Is anyone really doing anything worthwhile?

If climbing a mountain no bigger than a footstool was the idea of a challenge in the here and now? What an empty and vapid place this would be. I mean how much credibility would any of us really have.

It’s like when people born rich complain about how ‘hard’ things are. It’s really tough to look them straight on and agree with full force.

But now think of this woman with her tough struggle you’ve outlined. You can honestly respect a woman like that. She’s someone you’d listen to in a minute if she took the podium.

I mean if she decided to educate the world on suffering? Well she’s an authority. She’ll give a good talk and it’ll mean something and it’ll matter.

The guy whose worst day involved losing his hat on a windy day on his yacht? Not so much.

Peace.

-Trident
 
I don’t understand.
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If you want to understand, you have to learn first to not understand. A wise man knows what he does not know.

We can’t have absolute certainty for everything, but we can have a fair amount of certainty.

Faith is trust in God: trust that all our suffering is for the sake of something great, something so great that it will make all of the suffering worth it. He even gives us a glimpse of what all of our suffering is ultimately for in His Death and Resurrection.
Most people are so certain that theirs religion is indeed the right one and that everyone else is wrong.
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Why does everyone else have to be wrong? The Muslims are correct that there is one God; the Protestants are correct that we are justified by faith. It’s just that it is also true that God is three persons too, and that we are justified by works too. It’s not that everyone else is wrong, it’s more like everyone else is only seeing part of the whole: they are only seeing things from a limited perspective. Everyone is usually correct, given their perspective, after all. It’s just that we see more than they see, because we see by faith, and not by sight: we see with the eyes of God, rather than our own.

You know how people today try to synthesize different religions together? They haven’t realized yet that the Catholic Church is that very synthesis.

Tell you what, I recommend reading G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man. He gives a strong case that all that is true, good, noble, and beautiful in all the philosophies and religions and cultures of the world are compatible and fulfilled within the Catholic Church:

Text:
gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/everlasting_man.html

Audio:
archive.org/details/EverlastingMan

Christi pax.
 
Lucretius said:
If you want to understand, you have to learn first to not understand. A wise man knows what he does not know.

We can’t have absolute certainty for everything, but we can have a fair amount of certainty.

Faith is trust in God: trust that all our suffering is for the sake of something great, something so great that it will make all of the suffering worth it. He even gives us a glimpse of what all of our suffering is ultimately for in His Death and Resurrection.

Why does everyone else have to be wrong? The Muslims are correct that there is one God; the Protestants are correct that we are justified by faith. It’s just that it is also true that God is three persons too, and that we are justified by works too. It’s not that everyone else is wrong, it’s more like everyone else is only seeing part of the whole: they are only seeing things from a limited perspective. Everyone is usually correct, given their perspective, after all. It’s just that we see more than they see, because we see by faith, and not by sight: we see with the eyes of God, rather than our own.

You know how people today try to synthesize different religions together? They haven’t realized yet that the Catholic Church is that very synthesis.

Tell you what, I recommend reading G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man. He gives a strong case that all that is true, good, noble, and beautiful in all the philosophies and religions and cultures of the world are compatible and fulfilled within the Catholic Church:

Text:
gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/everlasting_man.html

Audio:
archive.org/details/EverlastingMan

Christi pax.
Click to expand...
Well said. Good job man 👍
 
Hi Rose! I can’t give you any great theological answers but I can tell you my story. In 2012, my husband started to show the signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E. the concussion disease football players get & the subject of the movie “Concussion” starring Will Smith).

At 59 years old, my husband suffers from moderate dementia and is often like a child. I certainly wasn’t planning on this. I was hoping that he and I would be enjoying life and our grandchildren. Now, I have to make sure he eats, dresses appropriately and doesn’t wander from the house. I suffer deeply because of this.

However, because of my husband’s disease, I have grown deeply in faith. I have received wonderful graces that I would never have received without the suffering of being a caregiver. I have drawn closer to Christ and am learning more about trusting Divine Providence every day.

My suffering has opened up spiritual doors for me. I don’t regret a thing. Each day, I am given the grace to minister to my husband. I am given the wisdom to navigate the healthcare system. I am given the courage to face the day. Every day, God tells me “You are brave.”

I hope my sharing this gives you hope and a little insight. God bless you and strengthen your faith!
 
therose01 said:
I am so confused atm. Well, it’s been like this for a long time now. There is no one I dare to talk about this with in real life as I fear nobody would understand me and/or judge me.

It just seems like religion is so complicated and sometimes not logical. One part of me questions which faith is right and another part of be questions if it even makes sense to have any faith at all.

Everyone knows this world is quite unfair. You have people who have access to clean water, a warm house, education, healthcare, all the possibilities in the world. Then you have people who would be thrilled to even have a cup of rice a day and who has to walk miles and miles only to be able to get dirty water. This alone makes me question things. God loves us all… So why do some people have to suffer so much more than others?

I read about a woman who had been raped multiple times as a child. Then she was forced into a marriage with a man who who abused her physically, sexually and emotionally. And now she lives that life, in extreme poverty and getting abused daily. She was a Christian. Why would God allow someone to suffer endlessly like her?

We thank God for our blessings. If a person for example escapes a bad situation or survives a car crash miraclesly, we thank God and say God helped us and saved us. But what about the others? What about the person that did get hurt, or that did end up in the bad situation? Why did God not protect them too? Was it God’s will? I don’t understand.

Then about which faith is right. Most people are so certain that theirs religion is indeed the right one and that everyone else is wrong. So how can we know? How do we truly know which one is the right one. If you ask a Protestant, he/she will say Catholics are demonic and are following the path of the devil and will go to hell. If you ask a Muslim they will say that Islam is the right religion and that Christians are going to hell for polygamy. Even Orthodox say that Catholics are devilish because we have a pope. And of course, asking an atheist will lead to him thinking you are brainwashed. It’s all so confusing to me.

I just want to be sure in my faith and follow God, but all these doubts and situations seriously make me question my faith and I’m just really lost.
Please no mean comments, I did not mean any harm with this post, I just really want to understand all of this and how to deal with it.
Click to expand...
As Mary said to St. Bernadette, “I cannot promise you happiness in this life, but only in the next.”

Everyone has a cross. In the next, happiness.

Always be faithful to your prayers whether you want to or not. Because prayer is an expression of faith and strengthens faith.
 
Belief in religion is not faith. People who follow religion without faith, often leave religion as it becomes foolishness to them.

Faith, is a gift from God. It is His revelation to the person, however that may happen.

Religion is a response to faith.

If you desire faith, go to the source of faith, Jesus Christ. Surrender your entire being to Him and ask Him to come into your life.

Be willing to abandon your own ideas and thoughts about religion, life and whatever He may ask of you.

In other words, as the old teaching goes, “you must die to self, in order to be reborn in Christ.”

God Bless
Jim
 
Lucretius said:
If you want to understand, you have to learn first to not understand. A wise man knows what he does not know.

We can’t have absolute certainty for everything, but we can have a fair amount of certainty.

Faith is trust in God: trust that all our suffering is for the sake of something great, something so great that it will make all of the suffering worth it. He even gives us a glimpse of what all of our suffering is ultimately for in His Death and Resurrection.

Why does everyone else have to be wrong? The Muslims are correct that there is one God; the Protestants are correct that we are justified by faith. It’s just that it is also true that God is three persons too, and that we are justified by works too. It’s not that everyone else is wrong, it’s more like everyone else is only seeing part of the whole: they are only seeing things from a limited perspective. Everyone is usually correct, given their perspective, after all. It’s just that we see more than they see, because we see by faith, and not by sight: we see with the eyes of God, rather than our own.

You know how people today try to synthesize different religions together? They haven’t realized yet that the Catholic Church is that very synthesis.

Tell you what, I recommend reading G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man. He gives a strong case that all that is true, good, noble, and beautiful in all the philosophies and religions and cultures of the world are compatible and fulfilled within the Catholic Church:

Text:
gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/everlasting_man.html

Audio:
archive.org/details/EverlastingMan

Christi pax.
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Hi!

Excellent post!

…though I am quite biased since you sounded a bit like mom (highlighted); even when someone would wrong her she was their first apologist… she Saw God Working even in man’s sufferings (which I link to: St. Matthew 24:22 And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.); she Lived the motto, “Jesus, I Trust in You!”

Maran atha!

Angel
 
Liturgy_Geek said:
Hi Rose! I can’t give you any great theological answers but I can tell you my story. In 2012, my husband started to show the signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E. the concussion disease football players get & the subject of the movie “Concussion” starring Will Smith).

At 59 years old, my husband suffers from moderate dementia and is often like a child. I certainly wasn’t planning on this. I was hoping that he and I would be enjoying life and our grandchildren. Now, I have to make sure he eats, dresses appropriately and doesn’t wander from the house. I suffer deeply because of this.

However, because of my husband’s disease, I have grown deeply in faith. I have received wonderful graces that I would never have received without the suffering of being a caregiver. I have drawn closer to Christ and am learning more about trusting Divine Providence every day.

My suffering has opened up spiritual doors for me. I don’t regret a thing. Each day, I am given the grace to minister to my husband. I am given the wisdom to navigate the healthcare system. I am given the courage to face the day. Every day, God tells me “You are brave.”

I hope my sharing this gives you hope and a little insight. God bless you and strengthen your faith!
Click to expand...
Hi, Terry!

Excellent testimonial!

My prayers are with you!

Maran atha!

Angel
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Belief in religion is not faith. People who follow religion without faith, often leave religion as it becomes foolishness to them.

Faith, is a gift from God. It is His revelation to the person, however that may happen.

Religion is a response to faith.

If you desire faith, go to the source of faith, Jesus Christ. Surrender your entire being to Him and ask Him to come into your life.

Be willing to abandon your own ideas and thoughts about religion, life and whatever He may ask of you.

In other words, as the old teaching goes, "you must die to self, in order to be reborn in Christ."
God Bless
Jim
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Hi, Jim!

This is the grave problem in today’s world… people do not want to die to self… people have been trained to proudly promote self and everything that the wind may carry with it… self-promotion is the neo-god.

Maran atha!

Angel
 
Even Saint Therese had a period of struggling with faith.
May God bless and help you though your own painful struggles with faith.
 
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