Help with doubts

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Would anyone be willing to offer advice for dealing with doubts about the Catholic faith and the existence of God? Also, could anyone please share what it is that gives them a strong faith and trust in the Lord and His Church? Thanks to anyone willing to join a conversation about this. 🙂
 
Hey there,
You’re not alone in this. I think about this stuff all of the time, especially because I come from a very scientific, atheist family.

But, sometimes, I can sort of feel something that makes me have faith. I really think that love itself is what makes me believe.

Just my two cents 🙂
 
Keeping it short, I have two things.

First, faith is a choice, not a feeling. At some point, i just had to choose to believe or not, and then run with it.

Second, I bring my brain full on into my understanding of the faith. I don’t just find out what the Church teaches, but why it holds these teachings and how it defends them. I take into account history, scripture, the Catechism, Tradition, science, logic, etc.

But when I am in the midst of doubt myself, I just remember the words of St. Peter: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life. (John 6)

God bless you!

Gertie
 
I lately have been tempted to doubts, usually after heavily interacting with another faith tradition. :mad:😦
However, as well as Saint Peter, and knowledge and understanding, I have found two other “helps.”
i. The witness of the Saints in the Catholic Church and Eucharistic Miracles
ii. Recalling that God is using these doubts to strengthen my faith and draw me closer, calling me to rely on Him, not my own understanding or feelings.

I wish you strength and all the comfort necessary to see you through. I had to recall the Saints just this morning at Mass.
The worst of it for me is that I am close to 40 and am just now beginning to be tempted. I know they are temptations however, due to the evidences that when I choose faith I am at Peace and when I am tempted I am greatly unsettled and agitated. I also believe I have reached this point only because I have been growing in faith. There is some saying relative to the devil not caring if you practice as long as you don’t believe.
:gopray::bible1::highprayer:
Stay in prayer, Scripture and the Sacraments, and finally
“BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD”
 
Hold fast to Jesus of Nazareth the Christ and Risen Lord! He loves you! He is the Way the Truth and the Life! Even in difficulties and even in darkness – he is the Good Shepherd.

“Doubts” can occur involunarily for various reasons. Not only temptation but also as a part of ones purification (permitted for that reason) at various points in one spiritual life.

And as the Catechism (257) notes :“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”

Also remember that there is a difference between “voluntary doubt” and “involuntary doubt” --This is what the Catechism says of that latter:

“Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity.”

Temptations against Faith can thus come …the best way to fight against such is more by flight then by fight. (such is the age old advice --same with the temptations against the virtue of chastity).

In fact most “temptations of thought” are are better to “ignore”…

And the great Catholic Philosopher Josef Pieper noted sometimes one has to even to simply stand fast as a kind of martyr in silence holding fast to ones Faith…in the midst of temptations against faith…even in the the midst of ones own involuntary feelings or thoughts --that assail one like arrows…(not consenting).

or as St. Therese did… simply say or write “Credo” (I believe).

Or silently make the sign of the cross…(as ones profession).

Hold fast to Jesus of Nazareth

In him is true life!
 
Find a RCIA class to join. Praying for your faith to increase.
 
“Life is not a simple product of laws and the randomness of matter, but within everything and at the same time above everything, there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesus has revealed himself as Love.”

–Pope Benedict XVI (Encyclical on Hope)

“We believe in God. This is a fundamental decision on our part. But again the question has to be asked: is this still possible today? Is it reasonable? From the Enlightenment on, science, at least in part, has applied itself to seeking an explanation of the world in which God would be unnecessary. And if this were so, he would also become unnecessary in our lives. But whenever the attempt seemed to be nearing success - inevitably it would become clear: something is missing from the equation! When God is subtracted, something doesn’t add up for man, the world, the whole universe. So we end up with two alternatives. What came first? Creative Reason, the Creator Spirit who makes all things and gives them growth, or Unreason, which, lacking any meaning, yet somehow brings forth a mathematically ordered cosmos, as well as man and his reason. The latter, however, would then be nothing more than a chance result of evolution and thus, in the end, equally meaningless. As Christians, we say: “I believe in God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth” -I believe in the Creator Spirit. We believe that at the beginning of everything is the eternal Word, with Reason and not Unreason.”

– Pope Benedict XVI (12 Sept 2006 Homily in Regensburg) (note he is not saying that there can be no kind of “evolution” involved in things …by God)
 
"The resurrection, then, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by means of his “Passover”, his “passage”, that has opened a “new way” between heaven and earth (cf. Heb 10:20). It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb. In fact, at dawn on the first day after the Sabbath, Peter and John found the tomb empty. Mary Magdalene and the other women encountered the risen Jesus. On the way to Emmaus the two disciples recognized him at the breaking of the bread. The Risen One appeared to the Apostles that evening in the Upper Room and then to many other disciples in Galilee. "

-Pope Benedict XVI Urbi et Orbi message 2009
 
Another great text from Pope Benedict XVI April 2009

“Consequently, it is fundamental for our faith and for our Christian witness to proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as a real, historical event, attested by many authoritative witnesses. We assert this forcefully because, in our day too, there are plenty of people who seek to deny its historicity, reducing the Gospel narrative to a myth, to a “vision” of the Apostles, taking up and presenting old and already worn-out theories as new and scientific. For Jesus, of course, the Resurrection was not a simple return to his former life. Should this have been the case, in fact, it would have been something of the past: 2,000 years ago someone, such as, for example, Lazarus, was raised and returned to his former life. The Resurrection is placed in another dimension: it is the passage to a profoundly new dimension of life that also concerns us, that involves the entire human family, history and the universe. This event that introduced a new dimension of life, an opening of this world of ours to eternal life, changed the lives of the eye-witnesses as the Gospel accounts and the other New Testament writings demonstrate; it is a proclamation that entire generations of men and women down the centuries have accepted with faith and to which they have borne witness, often at the price of their blood, knowing that in this very way they were entering into this new dimension of life… This is the victory of Easter, our salvation! And therefore we can sing with St Augustine: “Christ’s Resurrection is our hope!”, because it introduces us into a new future.”
 
There are voluntary and involuntary doubts about the faith.

I would mention whichever (perhaps both) applies in your case at your next Confession.
 
PrincessRenae said:
Hey there,
You’re not alone in this. I think about this stuff all of the time, especially because I come from a very scientific, atheist family.

But, sometimes, I can sort of feel something that makes me have faith. I really think that love itself is what makes me believe.

Just my two cents 🙂
Click to expand...
Please do not lump science and atheism together.
 
Gertabelle said:
Keeping it short, I have two things.

First, faith is a choice, not a feeling.
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Is it not both? We’re always told faith is a gift. Yeah, you choose to cooperate with it, but you also just receive it.
 
Ziegler629 said:
Would anyone be willing to offer advice for dealing with doubts about the Catholic faith and the existence of God? Also, could anyone please share what it is that gives them a strong faith and trust in the Lord and His Church? Thanks to anyone willing to join a conversation about this. 🙂
Click to expand...
Make an Act of Faith with all your heart whenever you begin to doubt. Pray your rosary daily and fervently for an increase in Faith. Ask Mary to help you and recommend yourself to her whenever you begin to doubt. Remember all the miracles God performed throughout history (the parting of the Red Sea, the resurrection of Lazarus, etc.). Read a good book about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. One excellent book is: *The Devotion to the Sacred Heart *by Rev. Fr. John Croiset, S.J… God bless you.
 
PrincessRenae said:
They often go hand in hand. Are you not aware that many scientists are atheists as well?
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Yes, many are. But I am certainly not the only scientist who believes in God. Especially the Catholic Church is open to science and welcomes it as a contribution to our knowledge of the world.

We should not encourage the false dichotomy: either religion or science.
 
Hans_W said:
Yes, many are. But I am certainly not the only scientist who believes in God. Especially the Catholic Church is open to science and welcomes it as a contribution to our knowledge of the world.

We should not encourage the false dichotomy: either religion or science.
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I agree, but unfortunately that’s how it is for most of my family. I like that the church doesn’t conflict with science, but we are living in a world where being smart means believing in nothing. I was always encouraged NOT to believe in such “silly” things.
 
PrincessRenae said:
I agree, but unfortunately that’s how it is for most of my family. I like that the church doesn’t conflict with science, but we are living in a world where being smart means believing in nothing. I was always encouraged NOT to believe in such “silly” things.
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Can I suggest getting some people to read St Thomas Aquinas.

St Thomas Aquinas would make some of the “smartest” people in the world today look really stupid.
 
ckutac said:
Can I suggest getting some people to read St Thomas Aquinas.

St Thomas Aquinas would make some of the “smartest” people in the world today look really stupid.
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I’ll have to look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
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