How to have strong faith in a world of Carbon dating, Dinosaurs, Science, Atheist Debaters

[peaceandmercy]

It’s the media, the education, the science, the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

People say it’s wrong to ask for a sign, but i’m struggling to have faith after learning the things i did at school and on youtube via documentaries.

I admit that my frame of mind upon asking this question is fustrated and angry.

 

[Wesrock]

Do you believe your faith requires you to deny that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and the universe 14 billion years old, that dinosaurs existed 65 million years ago, and other developments?

 

[Lou2U]

I wasn’t aware that carbon dating, dinosaurs and science stopped you holding a belief in Catholicism . I guess I’m not really helping your point about Atheist debaters, though. My opinion? If watching things that are making you feel this way, stop watching them. You are under absolutely no obligation to do so.

Lou

 

[meltzerboy]

It’s the media, the education, the science, the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

People say it’s wrong to ask for a sign, but i’m struggling to have faith after learning the things i did at school and on youtube via documentaries.

I admit that my frame of mind upon asking this question is fustrated and angry.

None of the above mentioned should dampen your faith, particularly the age of the earth or the universe and the existence of dinosaurs. Your faith is not anti-science. Insofar as atheist debaters are concerned, they should encourage you to sharpen your faith by becoming more educated about its teachings as a means of engaging in the debate.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

It’s the media, the education, the science, the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

People say it’s wrong to ask for a sign, but i’m struggling to have faith after learning the things i did at school and on youtube via documentaries.

I admit that my frame of mind upon asking this question is fustrated and angry.

None of those things are a difficulty.

God gave us rational minds in a rational universe that we could explore, study, and learn about. Our studies have shown us that the world is multiple billion years old, and that it has been home to a host of amazing creatures throughout history.

I assume you’re having difficulty because you are looking at the first chapters of Genesis as strictly literal. The first nine chapters of Genesis are actually in the form of historical allegory, and if I recall, are poetic in the original Hebrew. They relate historical truths about the nature of God’s relationship with His creation, but are not intended to be used as a “scientifically accurate” depiction of the physical mechanics of creation.

Here’s a bit of further reading:
catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/genesis
catholic.com/tract/creation-and-genesis

 

[commenter5]

I don’t think the op means that catholic are required to believe protestant “young earth” wing nuttery, rather that the realization of how old the earth and humans are and how **many civilizations and religions have come and gone **makes the belief that the one we happen to have been born into just **happened to be the one real, true one **,out of an ocean of time of others, difficult.

 

[Wesrock]

I don’t think the op means that catholic are required to believe protestant “young earth” wing nuttery, rather that the realization of how old the earth and humans are and how **many civilizations and religions have come and gone **makes the belief that the one we happen to have been born into just **happened to be the one real, true one **,out of an ocean of time of others, difficult.

Well, given that there’s a real one, it follows that some people would have to be born into it.

 

[edwest2]

It’s the media, the education, the science, the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

People say it’s wrong to ask for a sign, but i’m struggling to have faith after learning the things i did at school and on youtube via documentaries.

I admit that my frame of mind upon asking this question is fustrated and angry.

Selling ‘doubt’ is part of the strategy. Divine Revelation is outside of the realm of science. Just because others make this claim or that, look to the Church. It’s certainly not suffering a lack of faith.

"The Time Question

“Much less has been defined as to when the universe, life, and man appeared. The Church has infallibly determined that the universe is of finite age—that it has not existed from all eternity—but it has not infallibly defined whether the world was created only a few thousand years ago or whether it was created several billion years ago.”

Source: Catholic Answers

Saying no one made us is denying the reality and power of God. Jesus Christ showed that you can literally raise the dead, cleanse lepers and give sight to the blind without science.

Ed

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

If you read some of the stories about conflicts between faith and science/atheism from the 19th and 20th centuries, it wasn’t “easier to have faith in the past compared to now”, unless perhaps in terms of an overall lack of education for many people so they had fewer outside influences to contend with. Nevertheless, I’m sure when they lost loved ones to war or death, which happened very frequently then, they had the same feelings of anger and doubt at God that many people do today.

I also have read about or watched docs about many scientific areas including carbon dating and dinosaurs and the Big Bang theory and evolution etc. and none of them have been in conflict with my faith. I have no problem accepting these scientific theories and at the same time maintaining my faith in God as taught by the Catholic Church. I’m not sure how they are causing a problem for you as you did not fully explain.

Atheist debaters are easily ignored. I’m not interested in debating with them and I don’t even read whatever they’re going on about. If other people are interested then fine, they can deal with it.

 

[reggieM]

It’s the media, the education, the science, the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Exactly right. We have a large community of Catholics and an immense treasury of wisdom to be found in the saints, doctors and teachers of the Faith. Will we spend more time with that, or more watching atheistic youtube videos? Whatever the answer will tell us something about what we can expect as results.

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

Satan is enticing to us and will gladly tell us lies via propaganda videos. There’s no reward for losing your faith. There is not a greater reward for endangering your faith and weakening it. “Avoid the near occasions of sin”. You have to build strength before (if ever) you become absorbed with videos proclaiming atheism and unbelief.

People say it’s wrong to ask for a sign, but i’m struggling to have faith after learning the things i did at school and on youtube via documentaries.

Calculate the amount of time spent with atheism and match it against the time spent in prayer, spiritual reading, apologetics, bible study. If you’ve got a negative ratio or even something close to equivalent - what would you say to God about that?

 

[reggieM]

Jesus Christ showed that you can literally raise the dead, cleanse lepers and give sight to the blind without science.

True. And we are called to build a strong relationship with Him - a friendship. He has all of the answers to the universe. He is even smarter than atheistic scientists. That is hard to imagine, I know. But immersion in the Faith - prayer, Bible, sacraments, apologetics, growth in virtue, adoration – will serve us far better than atheistic ideologies on Judgement Day.

 

[Nelka]

the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Satan not doing to well convincing us he doesn’t exist.

The more I hear atheists speak the closer they push me to God.

 

[venite_adoremus]

A wise pastor laid this to rest for me. He said that the Church has not defined whether man’s body had evolved. Man’s soul, on the other hand, could not have evolved and is a gift of life from God. End of conflict in my mind,.

 

[NonTimendum]

Carbon dating is a crock. Evolution is laughably stupid as a theory. 90% of “science” is complete BS designed to make you doubt and make uneducated people feel smarter because they believe the “right” things (which loosely translates to some article they read about the hadron collider on Facebook)

It is very easy to trick superstitious people. Most of these atheists are very superstitious.

Best policy is to understand our ideas about the world could be wrong, but the Word Of God cannot be wrong. Once you free yourself of this antitheistic desire to corraberate the Word of God with the words of men, you will feel a lot better about your doubts, you will be liberated from an impossible burden and your faith will grow much stronger. You dont need a second opinion when God tells you something.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

Carbon dating is a crock. Evolution is laughably stupid as a theory. 90% of “science” is complete BS designed to make you doubt and make uneducated people feel smarter because they believe the “right” things (which loosely translates to some article they read about the hadron collider on Facebook)

It is very easy to trick superstitious people. Most of these atheists are very superstitious.

Best policy is to understand our ideas about the world could be wrong, but the Word Of God cannot be wrong. Once you free yourself of this antitheistic desire to corraberate the Word of God with the words of men, you will feel a lot better about your doubts, you will be liberated from an impossible burden and your faith will grow much stronger. You dont need a second opinion when God tells you something.

Carbon dating has not been shown to be inaccurate, and isn’t the only method we have used to determine that the planet / universe is really, really, old.

Evolution is pretty much a settled subject. We have a fairly extensive fossil record showcasing the development of what eventually became the human body. We have also observed micro-evolution within our lifetime.

Most of science is not bull. Some “science” is bull, but most of it is based in sound observation and study.

 

[Lion_IRC]

It’s the media, the education, the science, the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Not me. I love Carbon dating, Dinosaurs, Science, Atheist Debaters - especially atheist debaters, because they are responsible for the resurgence in Christian apologetics.

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

I’m sorry, I really don’t think science goes ‘against us’. Science is more ally than obstacle to biblical theism.

No greater reward needed.

People say it’s wrong to ask for a sign, but i’m struggling to have faith after learning the things i did at school and on youtube via documentaries.

No matter what your understanding of the age of the universe, it DOES have an age.
A 13.7 billion year old universe means that earlier than 13.7 billion years there was no universe - an astonishing fact which supports the cosmological argument for God.

I admit that my frame of mind upon asking this question is fustrated and angry.

That’s often when Internet atheist counter apologists WANT you to feel.

 

[reggieM]

Carbon dating is a crock. Evolution is laughably stupid as a theory. 90% of “science” is complete BS designed to make you doubt and make uneducated people feel smarter because they believe the “right” things (which loosely translates to some article they read about the hadron collider on Facebook)

It is very easy to trick superstitious people. Most of these atheists are very superstitious.

Best policy is to understand our ideas about the world could be wrong, but the Word Of God cannot be wrong. Once you free yourself of this antitheistic desire to corraberate the Word of God with the words of men, you will feel a lot better about your doubts, you will be liberated from an impossible burden and your faith will grow much stronger. You dont need a second opinion when God tells you something.

I’ve spent many years arguing with atheists on science-oriented sites and I can say without exception, they all are bluffing about what they claim to know about the universe and the origin of life and the supposed evolution of biological life. They don’t know. Atheism is darkness and blindness of the soul. But it is also very powerful because of the attractiveness of pride and the lies that support it – so it ensnares many people today who dive headfirst into the devil’s trap.

 

[ClearWater]

It’s the media, the education, the science, the large community of athiests with tons of video’s all over youtube putting doubt in our mind’s.

Surely it was easier to have faith in the past compared to now, is our generation therefore going to get a greater reward given that all these things go against us?

People say it’s wrong to ask for a sign, but i’m struggling to have faith after learning the things i did at school and on youtube via documentaries.

I admit that my frame of mind upon asking this question is fustrated and angry.

I don’t think faith was easier in the past than now. Sometimes, in the past, Christians were fed to the lions, crucified or set on fire. In some places in the world it’s hard like that today, but probably not where we are. We haven’t been asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for our faith, at least, not yet.

 

[peaceandmercy]

I guess the reason I ask this is because I’m a relatively new member of my church, although my mum is a practicing Catholic, I’ve never really had that much insight into Christianity as a whole, I spend years of my life curious about God but have always struggled with faith, one needs to understand the amount of time that I’ve been exposed to the world of science which often consists of many atheist’s looking for answers without a creator.

Simply put, I want to believe in God but I don’t have much faith.

 

[Wesrock]

I guess the reason I ask this is because I’m a relatively new member of my church, although my mum is a practicing Catholic, I’ve never really had that much insight into Christianity as a whole, I spend years of my life curious about God but have always struggled with faith, one needs to understand the amount of time that I’ve been exposed to the world of science which often consists of many atheist’s looking for answers without a creator.

Simply put, I want to believe in God but I don’t have much faith.

Well, to be clear, the Church doesn’t ask you to believe in a 6,000 year old creation, and it doesn’t ask you to reject scientific discoveries about the age of the universe, Earth, or dinosaurs. Even evolution need not be rejected, so long as it doesn’t lead to us denying that there was a first true man and true woman, and that through that first true man’s sin, humanity’s relationship with God was damaged, and that the effects of this sin are received by all men descended from the first man, and that all true men and women are descended from him. That didn’t necessarily occur only 6,000 years ago, though.

For an understanding of Catholicism, I would suggest reading both the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (No rush!)

Most evangelical atheists misconstrue what Catholics believe.