Help With My Faith

[PonderingJak]

I was raised a Catholic (and still am, since I’m 14) and never really gave a second thought to my faith, I didn’t even like going to mass! I’m trying to avoid being an atheist, but none of the arguments for God seem to resonate with me. I read somewhere that prayer without faith is meaningless (or something along the lines of that) so what can I do? I want to be convinced without a doubt that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit exist. I really and truly want to be convinced, but can anyone prove God without saying something similar to “well you can’t prove He DOESN’T exist?” Does God talk to any of you?

 

[josh987654321]

I was raised a Catholic (and still am, since I’m 14) and never really gave a second thought to my faith, I didn’t even like going to mass! I’m trying to avoid being an atheist, but none of the arguments for God seem to resonate with me. I read somewhere that prayer without faith is meaningless (or something along the lines of that) so what can I do? I want to be convinced without a doubt that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit exist. I really and truly want to be convinced, but can anyone prove God without saying something similar to “well you can’t prove He DOESN’T exist?” Does God talk to any of you?

Hi PonderingJak

Id first like to ask whether you have read the Gospels or New Testament before? I mainly ask because I came across a quote from C.S. Lewis which I believe explains it really well.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” - C.S. Lewis

I hope you don’t mind if I share the following arguments which helped and resonated with me -

I believe to follow the concept of a purely material universe to it’s logical conclusion, pulls the rug out from under the New Atheists. As John Lennox say’s, If as they claim, there is nothing in the universe except matter and energy, some of which blindly and randomly evolved into the human mind, then how can we rely on our minds in the first place to arrive at this conclusion? Our minds are themselves, according to this Darwinian view, mere random purposeless movements of atoms, unable to recognize truth, or beauty, or goodness, to know anything, or to do science for that matter.

And yet other scientists of undisputed intellectual stature with diametrically opposed views concur that, ‘The reason why what is in my little mind can understand a bit of what is out there is because both of them are traceable back to the same grand designer.’

C.S. Lewis I believe also explains it very well.

“Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.” - C.S. Lewis

“The theory that thought is merely a movement in the brain is, in my opinion, nonsense; for if so, that theory itself would be merely a movement, an event among atoms, which may have speed and direction but of which it would be meaningless to use the words true or false.” - C.S. Lewis

And I believe John Lennox also explains it well.

“The very fact that we do science, means we believe that the universe is rationally intelligible. Why does a scientist believe it is rationally intelligible? Atheism tells us that the human mind is the human brain and it’s the end product of a mindless unguided process, why should I believe anything it tells me if that’s the case? Whereas theism tells me that there is intelligence behind the universe and behind the human mind which fits perfectly with science. In fact the rise of science in the 16th and 17th century came about because people expected law in nature, because they believed in the Law giver (God). So science and faith in God fit perfectly together.” - John Lennox

“I believe in God because I believe in free will. If all we are is matter, then all our actions are due to the laws of physics and random movements of particles. The concept of an immaterial soul allows for the possibility of free will. That’s what really allowed me to grab on to faith in God. I made the decision to decide that I had free will. If I am wrong, then nothing really matters and I can’t control my thoughts and ideas anyway.”

Please continue to next post -

 

[josh987654321]

Extract from the book 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis:

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?

A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if i did that, then my argument against God collapsed too–for the argument depended on saying the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense.

Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe, we should never have know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.

Extract from John Lennox's book 'God's Undertaker':

In some quarters the very success of science has also lead to the idea that, because we can understand the mechanisms of the universe without bringing in God, we can safety conclude that there was no God who designed and created the universe in the first place.

However, such reasoning involves a logical fallacy, which we can illustrate as follows.

Take a Ford motor car. It is conceivable that someone from a remote part of the world, who was seeing one for the first time and who knew nothing about modern engineering, might imagine that there is a god (Mr Ford) inside the engine, making it go. He might further imagine that when the engine ran sweetly it was because Mr Ford liked him, and when it refused to go it was because Mr Ford disliked him. Of Course, if he were subsequently to study engineering and take the engine to pieces, he would discover that there is no Mr Ford inside it. neither would it take much intelligence for him to see that he did not need to introduce Mr Ford as an explanation for it’s working.

His Grasp of the impersonal principals of internal combustion would be altogether enough to explain how the engine works. So far, so good.

But if he then decided that his understanding of the principals of how the engine works made it impossible to believe in the existence of Mr Ford who designed the engine in the first place, this would be patently false - in philosophical terminology he would be committing a category mistake. Had there never been a Mr Ford to design the mechanisms, none would exist for him to understand.

It is likewise a category mistake to suppose that our understanding of the impersonal principals according to which the universe works makes it either unnecessary or impossible to believe in the existence of a personal creator who designed, made, and upholds the universe. In other words, we should not confuse the mechanisms of the universe with either it’s cause or it’s upholder.

The basic issue here is that those of a scientific turn of mind like Atkins and Dawkins fail to distinguish between mechanism and agency.

When Sir Isaac Newton discovered the universal law of gravitation he did not say, “I have discovered a mechanism that accounts for planetary motion, therefore there is no agent God who designed it.” Quite the opposite, precisely because he understood how it worked, he was moved to increased admiration for the God who had designed it that way.

Please continue to next post -

 

[josh987654321]

I would also recommend to simply sit/look outside in silence (maybe say a couple Hail Mary’s or Our Father’s ) for a bit and have a look at the beauty and complexity of nature, there is no way that this happened by mere chance. It is so clearly designed (there are things that have gone wrong with nature from the Christian perspective due to the fall, but nevertheless, it clearly and unmistakably has the signature of ‘design’ left on it).

That is why when the evolutionist wishes to try and explain it away with Neo Darwinian Evolution, I believe the following from G.K. Chesterton is very apt.
G.K. Chesterton:

Modern Histories of mankind begin with the word evolution and with a rather wordy exposition of evolution. There is something smooth and gradual about the word and even the idea. As a matter of fact it is not, touching these primary things, a very practical word or a very profitable idea. Nobody can imagine how nothing could turn into something. Nobody can get an inch nearer to it by explaining how something could turn into something else. This notion of something smooth and slow, like the ascent of a slope, is a great part of the illusion. It is an illogicality as well as an illusion; for slowness has really nothing to do with the question. An event is not any more intrinsically intelligible or unintelligible because of the pace at which it moves. But evolution really is mistaken for explanation. It has the fatal quality of leaving on many minds the impression that they do understand everything else.

Extract from 'There is a God' by Anthony Flew:

Some have said that the laws of nature are simply accidental results of the way the universe cooled after the big bang. But, as Rees has pointed out, even such accidents can be regarded as secondary manifestations of deeper laws governing the ensemble of universes. Again, even the evolution of the laws of nature and changes to the constants follow certain laws. 'We’re still left with the question of how these “deeper” laws originated. No matter how far you push back the properties of the universe as somehow “emergent,” their very emergence has to follow certain prior laws. So multiverse or not, we still have to come to terms with the origin of the laws of nature. And the only viable explanation here is the divine Mind.

I hope the following has somewhat helped you.

God Bless You

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[Googler]

God is a pure and infinitely perfect divine spirit, Creator of all things, and sovereign master of heaven and earth.
We can know from reason that God exists by concluding from the effects in the universe to the existence of a First Cause who is Himself not caused.
God created the world in order to manifest His perfection through the benefits which He bestows on creatures, not to intensify His happiness nor to acquire any perfection.
God is good in that He now shares all of creation with us and is leading us to heaven to share in His own perfect happiness.

The New Testament is the covenant which God has made with the whole human race, through the mediation of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Sinful mankind needs a mediator with the Eternal Father. Christ is the mediator and Mary is the mediatrix.
It was through Mary that Jesus Christ, who is God from all eternity, became man, lived visibly on earth in Palestine and is now invisibly on earth in every church and chapel in the Catholic world where the Holy Eucharist is offered, received and reserved.

A Catholic is a Christian who believes we are to go to Jesus through Mary.
A Catholic is one who is devoted to Mary, which simply means loving her and imitating her virtues.
Mary was the first of Christ’s disciples.
Through Mary’s example we are better able to imitate Jesus.
Through Mary’s intercession we obtain graces from Jesus.
There is no limit what the Blessed Virgin will do for us if only we have the faith to invoke her intercession.

As Pope John Paul II observed in Redemptoris Mater, “Mary guides the faithful to the Eucharist.”
Mary can guide us towards this most holy sacrament, because she herself has a profound relationship with it.
God’s Most Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, guides us, leads us, and intercedes for us to her Son, Jesus, through prayer.
The Catholic Church, the true faith, is only as strong as its faith in Christ’s presence in the Holy Eucharist.

 

[Bookcat]

:

Catechism:

*Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief.
*
Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. (2088)

“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.” (157)

scborromeo.org/ccc/ccc_toc.htm

 

[Bookcat]

Pray. Yes most certainly pray. It is not meaningless. You seek “help” with your Faith (which is by the way not reduced to a feeling I ought to note -for some may be confused on that) - so seeking help “pray”- ask for an increase in Faith. There is the phrase from the Gospels “Lord I believe, help my unbelief”.

Your a 14 year old person who is undergoing both the internal difficulties in growing up as well as the temptations that are about in the current culture (resist them!)…

I was 14 once. I was received into the Catholic Church when I was 18. Now I am 44 - in Jesus of Nazareth and thus in his Church- is true life!

 

[Bookcat]

“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)

"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

You are right to seek faith…in Jesus of Nazareth is our true life.

He is the Logos…the word…the meaning of our life and everything.

In Jesus of Nazareth is true life (and thus in his Church)

Make sure you read the messages from world youth day with Pope Benedict XVI

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/august/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20110818_accoglienza-giovani2-madrid_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2011/august/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20110820_veglia-madrid_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20110821_xxvi-gmg-madrid_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/youth/index_en.htm

 

[fred_conty]

I was raised a Catholic (and still am, since I’m 14) and never really gave a second thought to my faith, I didn’t even like going to mass! I’m trying to avoid being an atheist, but none of the arguments for God seem to resonate with me. I read somewhere that prayer without faith is meaningless (or something along the lines of that) so what can I do? I want to be convinced without a doubt that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit exist. I really and truly want to be convinced, but can anyone prove God without saying something similar to “well you can’t prove He DOESN’T exist?” Does God talk to any of you?

Jesus has appeared to some of the saints who have related their experiences to us. St. Margaret Mary is one to whom the Sacred Heart appeared.
ewtn.com/devotionals/heart/meditation.htm

There are also the miracles of the Eucharist.
catholicdoors.com/misc/eucharisticmiracles.htm

There are also many appearances of Mary such as Lourdes and Fatima.
listverse.com/2008/07/14/top-10-astonishing-miracles/

Here is an appearance to a little girl.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=715460
The Chapel of the Miraculous Medal in Paris.
The following testimony was originally was told to me, by a sister from the Daughters of Charity a few years ago. I have recently amended the account of the testimony, when some new facts came to light. (I thank my both my original source, and the more recent source of this information.)

A mother from Brazil took her dying daughter on a trip to Paris, to visit the chapel where the apparitions of the Miraculous Medal occurred in 1830. When they arrived at the chapel, they saw a nun who was arranging flowers on the sanctuary. The mother asked her if it would be possible for her daughter to touch the chair, that our Lady had sat on while talking to Saint Catherine Labouré during one of the visions. The nun said that it was not allowed. She then went into the back room to get some more flowers. The area where the chair was, had been roped off. The mother thought to herself, “I did not come all this way, just to look at the chair.” She told her daughter to get down on the floor, work her way on her stomach under the rope, move up and quickly touch the chair and then come back. To the mother’s distress the little girl went up to the chair, and placed her head upon it, and would not come back for quite a while despite her mother’s pleading. The mother was worried that the nun would come back and that they would get into trouble. Eventually the little girl came back, and the mother asked her why she had done this. Her reply was “I am sorry mummy, but the lady told me to rest my head on her lap”. After this they returned to Brazil on the plane. Soon after their return to Brazil doctors found that the child was fully healed.

---

There are many more stories like this which give testimony to God thru the saints.

May God bless and keep you. May God’s face shine on you. May God be kind to you and give you peace.

 

[Adonia]

I was raised a Catholic (and still am, since I’m 14) and never really gave a second thought to my faith, I didn’t even like going to mass! I’m trying to avoid being an atheist, but none of the arguments for God seem to resonate with me. I read somewhere that prayer without faith is meaningless (or something along the lines of that) so what can I do? I want to be convinced without a doubt that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit exist. I really and truly want to be convinced, but can anyone prove God without saying something similar to “well you can’t prove He DOESN’T exist?” Does God talk to any of you?

Today is May 28th, 2015 and it all started with Jesus Christ. If he was not God Incarnate, could the everyday son of some obscure Jewish carpenter have caused this reality?

As for convincing you, that is something only you can do - you need to convince yourself by looking at the totality of the Christian experience through the centuries and the things that have happened because of it.

Now, can anyone really be convinced “without a doubt” that all of it is true? Maybe, maybe not, but to me the preponderance of the evidence says it is - and that along with the faith I have leads me to believe in Jesus Christ, in whom we have salvation.

And yes, God has talked to me spiritually by making certain things happen through others as a result of prayer. That is the way he works and when it happens you just know that it was God who made it all come about.

I can see that you have a solid spiritual beginning on which to build and it seems you are at a point in your life where you are questioning the whole scheme of this existence on earth. My advice is to live your life doing the best you can and search unceasingly for the truth and in due time everything will fall into place.

I will pray for you. God bless.