Unless you believe, you will not understand
– Saint Augustine
I’ll be totally honest: I think our religion, as a whole, has so much contradictory nonsense and utter ******** (for lack of a nicer term) that it’s hard for me to maintain my faith. However, at the same time, I want to believe that there’s someone watching out for all of us, and a Higher Being that has a place for us after death.
How do I keep believing in Christ, when I feel like I’m force-feeding myself terrible, unloving, and retarded beliefs?
Well, I am a pretty young guy (seventeen), and most of the problems you have with the Church (not I said, problems
you have, not problems the Church has), are problems I see a lot with the classmates and to those who I teach Catechism to. I want to get more experience in “instructing the ignorant” so to speak, so I’ll try my best. to do just that.
First let me make a request. Please find better and, perhaps, more gentle words to describe the faith and the Church. “terrible, unloving, and retarded” are no ways to decently have a discussion. This is a request and advice.
Secondly, allow me to note something. You remark upon how Catholic beliefs are “terrible, unloving, and retarded”, yet go into great detail about how you really don’t understand them. I am a bit confused. Do you understand them as terrible, unloving, and retarded, or do you not understand them and thus want clarification. This is important because if your mind is made up, you wont really be convinced otherwise.
You mean a specific example of why I feel like our beliefs are contradictory? Alright.
I am going to try to break down your points and answer them from there. I feel this will be more organized.
To begin with, I can’t understand why a loving God would create us, just to put us in a situation where we don’t even know if he exists or not.
When Christ was born to Mary, when He was given by the Father to us, He reaffirmed our faith. He showed us the “new law” for us to rally around. While He only lived thirty three years, He instituted a Church to continue on His ministry. It is this very Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic faith, that carries the banner of truth today. So while we are here, and we “don’t even know if he exists or not”, Christ instituted a teaching body for us to help us in our own faith. As another poster noted, the Church is very much a hospital of sinners. Peter, the first pope, offers us a profound image for our lives. Our Lord spoke to him and said “Who are ye of little faith?” Peter was lacking in faith just as you or I.
After that, he gives a “correct” set of beliefs, among many other “false” beliefs that we’re supposed to somehow decipher as the correct one. Then he allows that “correct” belief to diverge into multiple denominations, allowing for an even more false faiths, among the single correct faith.
Let it be clear that it was not the faith that diverged, but the people. Those correct and true beliefs are still right where they were and always will be. With the Catholic Church. So the legitimacy of the Catholic Faith remains the same, in other words.
However, all before that, he guides a book of that faith (i.e. the Bible) that is apparently the word of law, but ultimately makes it so incredibly vague and largely-interpreting that wars, murdering, and many different interpretations arise from it.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “all before that”. The Bible didn’t come before the Church, no. The Church was instituted by Christ while He was still living. The Bible, on the other hand, wouldn’t come into play till several hundred years later, so I recall.
As to its vague interpretations, this is why we must look at how the Church has historically handled Sacred Scripture. The Church seldom allowed laymen to read scripture for this purpose (that and they were illiterate). Bible studies that are often found in America and in the Western World, were condemned. The Bible was often misinterpreted because it was to be only interpreted by the Holy Catholic Church. The Church HAS interpreted the Bible correctly and divinely. Its allowance into the hands of laymen was a protestant doing, not Catholic.
However, in that entire mess, there is apparently one single belief that is correct. For us Catholics, we’re apparently right (or so declared because of whomever came before us).
As what you note here as a mess isn’t really a mess anymore (at least, not a Catholic mess), I won’t address this further.
From there, I don’t understand why he would give us the ability to sin, give us a plethora of beliefs, sub-beliefs and more (as stated above) to try and figure out which sins are actually sins, and which aren’t.
It isn’t our job to decide what are sins and what aren’t. Sins are sins, and while sins are not subject to human reason, sins are indeed offenses against reason, truth, and right conscience. Thus, it isn’t up to us. The Church already has clearly promulgated what sins are.
And, if for some reason we don’t repent for those sins, or the sins under a different set of beliefs that you thought were false in thinking that you were picking the actually true beliefs, you put yourself in a position where you can be eternally damned into an unimaginably painful hell.
I think you are a bit off with this remark. God did not make death. He does not delight in the death of the living.
Now, let’s take a step back. Hell was made for the angels that disobeyed God.
Is that right? Where did you come to this conclusion as I have never found this to be true.
However, ultimately, God allowed those angels the ability to sin. God made sure that no one could sin in heaven, but for some reason, he allowed the angels to. This means that he allowed sin. He is the source of sin. But let’s move on from that little fact.
First, just because you perpetuate something as a “fact” doesn’t make it so. To say God is the source of sin is erroneous. Sin entered the world through the Devil, the temptor, through his envy and his malice. Those in Heaven are purified, for every trace of sin is erased in Purgatory.
Let’s move on to the fact that after he made hell and after he made humans, he made sure that humans who didn’t repent before death would go to hell, too. This means that he is not only allowing us to go to hell, but also was the being that created our passage to hell.
I already answered that, no, God is not one that created our passage to hell, it was us that created that passage. Please note that Hell is for those who, to the end of their lives refuse to accept God’s love, furthermore it is a self-exclusion.
But then let’s look back at Heaven. God made it so that way we couldn’t sin in heaven. Why did he do that, but not make it so that way we couldn’t sin on Earth?
What would the sense be in doing that? On Earth we have free will. In Heaven, we have a lack of it. We see God face to face, the Beatific Vision. We thus have no reason to choose otherwise.
Or better yet, why didn’t he just create us in heaven?
Clearly it was not in line with the Will of God.
Many say that he gave us free will in order to pick between love and sin, but that’s a problem for two reasons: 1) sin is based upon beliefs (as stated above, which is among a multitude of beliefs);
Who are these “many”? And no, sin isn’t based on beliefs. I reiterate, sin is sin, not what we up and decide is sin.
- it would mean that there is no free will in heaven. If the ability to sin MUST accompany free will, then that would mean that there is no free will in heaven. We would simply be drones in a God-worshipping society, for all eternity.
See above.
Please forgive the length of this post. I wanted to make sure I covered all my bases
