How to deal with uncertainty and what role should religious beliefs have in one's life?

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(Regardless whether one is religious or not; one cannot know of something and be neutral to it.)

And I don’t think it’s appropriate to call it “mythology”. Otherwise, it’s like saying you already know better.

What are your thoughts on this? I am just trying to explore this issue, as it troubles me a lot.
 
It’s an incredibly vague question - what type of uncertainty are you referring to?

What role should religious belief have in one’s life? Well, a central one. Your religious belief (or lack thereof) substantially defines, or should define if you genuinely believe (or genuinely don’t believe), your relationships with everyone around you and your attitudes to everything around you.
 
At the heart of it, I suppose, is choice. We have free will, remember, and we exercise our free will by choosing. Essentially we choose God or we choose the world.

In other words, you are free to choose God’s way, or the world’s way.

This choice answers the first part of your question and helps mould the rest of it. You can still choose God’s way whilst feeling uncertain. Nothing wrong with that at all. Focus on what you are certain about, let the rest follow.

Besides, you can’t predefine or decide on the rest of it; you can only discover through a journey of faith. But it seems that to focus on the journey before the choice is to try to run before you’re aware you can walk.

So, to begin with, focus on what you said here: ‘one cannot know of something and be neutral to it.’ I think that’s pretty important, actually: of course, I would say so, because I’m talking from experience! 😃 Perhaps write down what you do know and are certain about. Hold onto that.

Hold on to this, too: if you ‘know of’ him then you’ve already started your journey. You’re on your way to making that first, most important, choice.

Hope this helps 🙂
 
LilyM said:
It’s an incredibly vague question - what type of uncertainty are you referring to?
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Sort of philosophizing that sometimes leaves us with are a whole set of “big questions” that we currently can’t answer.
 
LilyM said:
What role should religious belief have in one’s life? Well, a central one. Your religious belief (or lack thereof) substantially defines, or should define if you genuinely believe (or genuinely don’t believe), your relationships with everyone around you and your attitudes to everything around you.
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Sure, but from this, it does not follow that some particular religious tradition is the right answer or that it will be easy to choose, or even possible to choose within this one lifetime.
 
cho_pilo said:
Sure, but from this, it does not follow that some particular religious tradition is the right answer or that it will be easy to choose, or even possible to choose within this one lifetime.
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I have struggled with this same thing. In fact, it is very simple. Just do a “scientific experiment” in which you choose to believe (I suggest believing Catholicism, since over many years of such experiments this is what I have found yields results).

Then observe the results.

It has often been said that one cannot understand faith until one has faith. Just try it. (But when you do, look for the way the rules and traditions point to the sentiment of transforming union in Christ and do not look at the value of the rules and traditions in their own right.
 
I really try to understand your question,but I still don’t understand it. If you mean the faith and believing in God,then I can only say that we all have days when we are not strong in faith and that is normal. God is real,and among us in the Gospels and in all created that we see around us,but from time to time we kind of get “blind” and walk “alone” but even then He is with us. If our faith is week,Christ will make it strong again,but we must look hard sometimes,but it is worth it. I am not sure if I answered your question,I hope I did.
 
phoooiee said:
I have struggled with this same thing. In fact, it is very simple. Just do a “scientific experiment” in which you choose to believe (I suggest believing Catholicism, since over many years of such experiments this is what I have found yields results).

Then observe the results.

It has often been said that one cannot understand faith until one has faith. Just try it. (But when you do, look for the way the rules and traditions point to the sentiment of transforming union in Christ and do not look at the value of the rules and traditions in their own right.
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Thanks but one cannot do a proper scientific experiment with a religious view.

In a proper scientific experiment, one has reservations about the results until they come in.

The basic requirement for taking on a religious view is to dismiss all such reservations right at the beginning.
You cannot sincerely take on a religious view while having a Plan B ready.
And without the Plan B ready, it’s not an experiment.
 
Cho pilo, what are you referring to when you say “uncertainty”?

I’m going to assume you are referring to the existence of God and the whole supernatural realm. For people who require “proof”, i.e., scientific evidence, there will never be evidence. The whole premise of evidence is that you are dealing with the 5 senses. When the topic is the supernatural, then by definition you are outside the 5 senses. You can’t prove the supernatural with natural means. However, we know by our faith.

With faith, we have a relationship with Christ and that relationship transforms us. We become more like Him. And our decisions and actions will reflect that. We think, say, and do as we believe. That is the role that religious beliefs should have in one’s life.
 
cho_pilo said:
Thanks but one cannot do a proper scientific experiment with a religious view.

In a proper scientific experiment, one has reservations about the results until they come in.

The basic requirement for taking on a religious view is to dismiss all such reservations right at the beginning.
You cannot sincerely take on a religious view while having a Plan B ready.
And without the Plan B ready, it’s not an experiment.
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Of course, “scientific experiment” is in quotes. It’s not a proper scientific experiment in the same sense as scientists do it, but it is an analogy that I have found to be helpful.

Try placing faith in religion as completely as religion recommends. Contrast your ability to do good (and any other factors that matter to you) against the way you were when you lived your life without having this faith.

You already have your plan A- I’m sure there are times in your life when you have acted without faith- the plan B is to act with faith, even if you have reservations.
 
phoooiee said:
Of course, “scientific experiment” is in quotes. It’s not a proper scientific experiment in the same sense as scientists do it, but it is an analogy that I have found to be helpful.

Try placing faith in religion as completely as religion recommends. Contrast your ability to do good (and any other factors that matter to you) against the way you were when you lived your life without having this faith.

You already have your plan A- I’m sure there are times in your life when you have acted without faith- the plan B is to act with faith, even if you have reservations.
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Tried this, doesn’t work.
 
cho_pilo said:
I don’t know; just like I don’t know what would make it work.
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I remember feeling like that…for me there was always something I had to give up before I could really believe in the way that was required.

Often it was something that seemed like part of myself but once I was rid of it everything was so much better, made so much more sense even.

You might want to look for something like that in yourself?
 
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