I desperately want to be Catholic. But I have some issues

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sonorus
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Sonorus

Guest
Ok so here’s a brief story of where I’m at. I started out agnostic-athiest, then met this Catholic girl, and have been dating her for 9 months. 6 months in I started to become curious about her faith, and am now going to RCIA. I’ve fully believed with my heart and soul for like…a day at a time. Then doubts creep in.
  1. I read the Case for Christ, and was…mostly convinced that the gospels are historically accurate. But still think the “unlikely” secular objections like Jesus was a legend and such are still quite a bit more likely then somebody getting raised from the dead.
  2. During one of my faithful periods (and I am baptized) , I received the sacrament of Reconciliation, and felt happy and light. But, I soon had doubts that that feeling of happines was just because I thought I was forgiven by God. If there wasn’t a God, but I thought there was, I still would’ve felt the same way.
  3. Likewise, during adoration on a retreat after being prayed over, I realized for the first time how much God, the creator of the universe, loved me, personally. I was crying. But within a day, the same though creeped up in my head that even if God didn’t exist, I would’ve felt that strongly. And now I doubt that experience.
  4. This is again similar to 2 and 3, but I can’t help but think that prayer is just psychological. I know that you aren’t really supposed to feel anything during prayer, and it’s a battle, and so forth, but it still seems like a cop-out answer. I feel a lot of the time I’m just throwing thoughts into the wind. And it doesn’t seem like petitioning for stuff in prayer does much. Otherwise wouldn’t Christians be objectively better off as far as disease, famine, ect go? They don’t seem to be.
  5. The Catholic Churches stance on homosexuality makes sense, I suppose. But I was a firm advocate of gay rights before I began to investigate Catholicism. Every time I see a post or news article on the Catholic Church actively fighting gay marriage it seems like a bullet hits my heart, and also my poor little candle of faith that’s threatening to be burnt out before it can grow. My family is also firmly gay rights so this makes it even more difficult. When you are outside the church, it does really feel like horrible discrimination. If God exists, why would he create a class of people he then bans from romantically loving another? If I were gay, that would be horrible!
  6. Christianity just seems…too good to be true. Afterlife? All powerful God who loves us unconditionally? If it’s so true, why isn’t it…more prominent? I mean I know it’s prominent but in my every day life I sure don’t’ feel like it’s true unless I’m trying to force it in. There are very little, if any, modern miracles. Only the gospels to go on.
  7. Atheism growing, and there are lots of other religions. If they are all convinced they are right, how do I know I’m right by picking Catholicism? And are we more convinced then they are that we are right? If they, a false religion, are just as convinced, and we have actual contact with God and such…do they also have contact with their “Gods”? If so, religion is all just made up by humans. Us interpreting feelings and thoughts and attributing it to God.
I’ve been researching a lot. Many questions I’ve had have been answered successively. But the it’s too good to be true thing really puts doubts in my brain. I’m sorry for the long post. But I need guidance. I’ve been praying a rosary novena for faith, been praying to God, and it…just hasn’t been working. I’m putting my trust in him, and continuing along the path, but I don’t know. It’s so hard. Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you. I’m seeking. I’m knocking. But sometimes I feel like I’m just kidding myself. Please help. And a prayer or two wouldn’t be unappreciated either. 🙂
 
Sonorus said:
  1. I read the Case for Christ, and was…mostly convinced that the gospels are historically accurate. But still think the “unlikely” secular objections like Jesus was a legend and such are still quite a bit more likely then somebody getting raised from the dead.
**Jesus was a Legend… we don’t have a 2000 year old church, thousands upon thousands of Martyrs and more written documents on any person every on just a Legend…

Jesus lived about 99 percent of Historians agree , then you attack whether he died or not, and the testimonies are good evidence as well as the spread of unpopular Christianity and how it flourished**
  1. During one of my faithful periods (and I am baptized) , I received the sacrament of Reconciliation, and felt happy and light. But, I soon had doubts that that feeling of happines was just because I thought I was forgiven by God. If there wasn’t a God, but I thought there was, I still would’ve felt the same way.
**God seems to be knocking on your door have Faith and your Faith will save you!
**
3) Likewise, during adoration on a retreat after being prayed over, I realized for the first time how much God, the creator of the universe, loved me, personally. I was crying. But within a day, the same though creeped up in my head that even if God didn’t exist, I would’ve felt that strongly. And now I doubt that experience.

it seems like your trying to reason God in your own terms, with our Universe being created, and our Universe being temporary we already have proof of a creator
  1. This is again similar to 2 and 3, but I can’t help but think that prayer is just psychological. I know that you aren’t really supposed to feel anything during prayer, and it’s a battle, and so forth, but it still seems like a cop-out answer. I feel a lot of the time I’m just throwing thoughts into the wind. And it doesn’t seem like petitioning for stuff in prayer does much. Otherwise wouldn’t Christians be objectively better off as far as disease, famine, ect go? They don’t seem to be.
**be a Christian isn’t about living well, it calls for suffering, just because we pray doesn’t mean our prayers will be answered according to our desires. **
  1. The Catholic Churches stance on homosexuality makes sense, I suppose. But I was a firm advocate of gay rights before I began to investigate Catholicism. Every time I see a post or news article on the Catholic Church actively fighting gay marriage it seems like a bullet hits my heart, and also my poor little candle of faith that’s threatening to be burnt out before it can grow. My family is also firmly gay rights so this makes it even more difficult. When you are outside the church, it does really feel like horrible discrimination. If God exists, why would he create a class of people he then bans from romantically loving another? If I were gay, that would be horrible!
**The Catholic church stance on homosexuality is that they are also children of God and welcomed to the church, being GAY IS NOT A SIN - but having homosexual sex is, just like having premarital sex and cheating on your wife. which is why recognizing gay marriage isn’t about rights, if it was Gays should fight for equal beneifts in the federal and state levels for Civil Unions not to redefine a word ( I say this also standing up for Gay people , I voted for Gay marriage in california but with further research I am now against same sex marriage but for same sex civil union rights
**
6) Christianity just seems…too good to be true. Afterlife? All powerful God who loves us unconditionally? If it’s so true, why isn’t it…more prominent? I mean I know it’s prominent but in my every day life I sure don’t’ feel like it’s true unless I’m trying to force it in. There are very little, if any, modern miracles. Only the gospels to go on.

its about Faith , Its like saying my dad loves me unconditionally why isn’t he always keeping me out of harms way… this is not a great analogy but it works. you are your own person and free to make your own choices - will you choose God…??
  1. Atheism growing, and there are lots of other religions. If they are all convinced they are right, how do I know I’m right by picking Catholicism? And are we more convinced then they are that we are right? If they, a false religion, are just as convinced, and we have actual contact with God and such…do they also have contact with their “Gods”? If so, religion is all just made up by humans. Us interpreting feelings and thoughts and attributing it to God.
    **
    Why Pick Catholicism because with research you will find that the evidence for God is good , and there is the MOST evidence for christianity arecheologically, historically and scientifically - but which Christianity - look at the early Christians and what they believed and study it - you will see the Catholic Church is the same Christianity as back then not changing a core belief in 2000 years surviving the rise and fall of many empires just like it was predicted to :D**
)
Click to expand...
**
YOU HAVE MY PRAYERS, you are on the right path - here on Catholic answer forums, you shall find Faith and answers here.

remember only Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life… no others, no buddha , not muhammed - just Jesus**

👍
 
Gay rights and gay marriage are two different issues. Gays have a right to be provided with a legal ceremony, by the Govt, that will give them the same legal rights as a heterosexual married couple. As long as they keep the church out of the equation, I am all for those rights.

But the moment gays start wanting to be married, I am against it. A marriage always has been, and always will be, between a man and a woman.

Gays should invent a new word for this new legal state they want, and a new word for the gay spouse, and present that to the govt, and I think they would have a better chance of getting what they want. After all, what they want is totally NEW.

So, if you support gay rights, you will not be out of line with your family, but if you protest the calling of this legal state ‘marriage’, you are supporting the church.
 
I don’t think I have the answers to your questions, I just want you to know I used to have (almost) the same questions. I was an atheist for the first 40 years of my life. Now I’m an active catholic. These doubts used to haunt me, too.

You’ve come to the very essence of FAITH. Faith is a choice. You can never have a solid evidence of God’s existence in this life. Hints yes, but evidence? God gave us free will to accept him or to renounce him. Whenever I have similar doubts (and they ARE getting rare and less powerful with time), I tell myself: I choose God, no matter what. This helps me.
 
komlossy said:
I don’t think I have the answers to your questions, I just want you to know I used to have (almost) the same questions. I was an atheist for the first 40 years of my life. Now I’m an active catholic. These doubts used to haunt me, too.

You’ve come to the very essence of FAITH. Faith is a choice. You can never have a solid evidence of God’s existence in this life. Hints yes, but evidence? God gave us free will to accept him or to renounce him. Whenever I have similar doubts (and they ARE getting rare and less powerful with time), I tell myself: I choose God, no matter what. This helps me.
Click to expand...
You want to be a Catholic, but have some issues? We all do! The biggest issue is we are all sinful, fallen human beings! Even Pope Benedict himself said in his inauguration speech that he is " a poor, sinful laborer in the Lord’s vineyard"
 
To OP, just ASK Our Lord for the gift of FAITH!! Ask him that you want him in your life and to help remove these doubts.

A great resource is Father Barron. Search on youtube for his videos also check out wordonfire.org or lighthouse media.org. They are great resources to help us on our journey.

Have you ever asked yourself about the eucharistic miracles and saints and their uncorrupted bodies and the miracles that have occurred thru their intercession? No other faith has this witness of the Lord’s Presence!

smg-ri.org/pwsm-ri/Paranormal%20in%20the%20Church/Catholic-Paranormal-Phenomena.html

Blessings,

Claudia
 
God’s peace. To have a lively faith involves an act of the will. Catholics must choose to be Catholic, and this means making choices every minute–if not every day. Feelings are nice when they support your choice, but what if they don’t? I know that if someone ever put a gun to my head and asked me if I were Catholic, I would have the same horrid sinking sensation in my gut as I have on every other occasion that I have faced death. What I would choose to say at that moment would be vastly more important than how I felt about it.
I would say that from your initial account, you are trusting your feelings to be the final judge of the truth of Catholicism. All of us struggle with this! Just remember that your feelings are fallen, like the rest of your sinful nature, and they can (and will) lead you astray. If I were you, I would take the opportunity to have a private appointment with a trustworthy priest for absolution and advice on how to strengthen your resolve.
All of us here are praying for you! Blessings, ~Br. Carlo~
 
Sonorus said:
Ok so here’s a brief story of where I’m at. I started out agnostic-athiest, then met this Catholic girl, and have been dating her for 9 months. 6 months in I started to become curious about her faith, and am now going to RCIA. I’ve fully believed with my heart and soul for like…a day at a time. Then doubts creep in.
Click to expand...
WELCOME…
As Christ Himself tells us - “Be not afraid”. This is a journey and it will take time. Doubts are but an invitation to growing closer to God.
  1. I read the Case for Christ, and was…mostly convinced that the gospels are historically accurate. But still think the “unlikely” secular objections like Jesus was a legend and such are still quite a bit more likely then somebody getting raised from the dead.
Click to expand...
“Likely” is precisely what the resurrection should NOT seem like. The greatest of all miracles. The one by which we are restored to God SHOULD be the most unlikeliest of occurrences don’t you think?
I mean - after all - the more “likely” the resurrection is, the less “impact” it has.

People who saw Jesus after the resurrection were willing to die rather than recant what they had witnessed. Who would do so for something that did not happen?
  1. During one of my faithful periods (and I am baptized) , I received the sacrament of Reconciliation, and felt happy and light. But, I soon had doubts that that feeling of happiness was just because I thought I was forgiven by God. If there wasn’t a God, but I thought there was, I still would’ve felt the same way.
Click to expand...
  1. Likewise, during adoration on a retreat after being prayed over, I realized for the first time how much God, the creator of the universe, loved me, personally. I was crying. But within a day, the same thought crept up in my head that even if God didn’t exist, I would’ve felt that strongly. And now I doubt that experience.
Click to expand...
What happens here, and it is not uncommon, is that you are confusing emotion with conviction. The “feelings”, while wonderful, are fleeting. The actual belief is what counts. In this, the evil one is not happy at losing you and is trying to drag you back into the chains of your disbelief.
This is coupled with the fact that your engrained thought process is to think critically and skeptically. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be of great help, but it needs to be balanced.
While you can certainly say there might be another explanation, neither can you deny that God is the the best and most hopeful one.
  1. This is again similar to 2 and 3, but I can’t help but think that prayer is just psychological. I know that you aren’t really supposed to feel anything during prayer, and it’s a battle, and so forth, but it still seems like a cop-out answer. I feel a lot of the time I’m just throwing thoughts into the wind. And it doesn’t seem like petitioning for stuff in prayer does much. Otherwise wouldn’t Christians be objectively better off as far as disease, famine, etc go? They don’t seem to be.
Click to expand...
There are two aspects to this…
First, there is no reason to think that there isn’t a psychological aspect to prayer…I recall a line from a movie about C.S. Lewis…where he says, “(prayer) does not change God, it changes me”…
Second, the matter of petitioning…This is a more difficult one and one that requires the greater understanding. All of our petitions must begin and end with the submission of our will to His. The Lord’s prayer’s first petition is that God’s will (not ours) be done, “on earth as it is in heaven”. Jesus Himself in the Garden, ended His prayer with the submission of His (human) will to that of the Father. Such submission takes faith, time, understanding and above all, Love and humility.

Lastly - I have a bit of a question…You say, “you aren’t really supposed to feel anything during prayer…” I don’t think I’ve ever heard this before…Can you elaborate on this?

(Cont)
 
(Cont)
  1. The Catholic Churches stance on homosexuality makes sense, I suppose. But I was a firm advocate of gay rights before I began to investigate Catholicism. Every time I see a post or news article on the Catholic Church actively fighting gay marriage it seems like a bullet hits my heart, and also my poor little candle of faith that’s threatening to be burnt out before it can grow. My family is also firmly gay rights so this makes it even more difficult. When you are outside the church, it does really feel like horrible discrimination. If God exists, why would he create a class of people he then bans from romantically loving another? If I were gay, that would be horrible!
Click to expand...
Another tricky question with a number of nuances…
First, in the matters of law, it should be noted that we are acting within our rights as citizens to oppose a change in existing law for reasons that seem good to us. If the law IS changed over our objections…then we will need to deal with it in love and without persecution.
Second…God has created many people with many crosses. Is the person with Same Sex Attraction different than the person with an attraction to children? Both attractions are disordered and the Church must, if she is to speak consistently, but condemn both.
We all have our burdens. God loves us and will guide us if we let Him.
  1. Christianity just seems…too good to be true. Afterlife? All powerful God who loves us unconditionally? If it’s so true, why isn’t it…more prominent? I mean I know it’s prominent but in my every day life I sure don’t’ feel like it’s true unless I’m trying to force it in. There are very little, if any, modern miracles. Only the gospels to go on.
Click to expand...
Again, this is really a matter of what one looks for and sees. In our daily lives, what do we what are our (name removed by moderator)uts?..what do we “hear about” on the news? When we are out and about, what things catch our eye and our notice? Are they things of grace or things of sin? Adjust your eye to God’s view - see others as God sees them…act as God wishes us to act, in Love for Him and for our neighbor. See how quickly your outlook changes.

Yes Christianity CAN seem “too good to be true” and yet, it is true. Love is the foundation, the force of all creation, the very essence of God Himself. Focus on this Agape Love and all else will fall into place.
  1. Atheism growing, and there are lots of other religions. If they are all convinced they are right, how do I know I’m right by picking Catholicism? And are we more convinced then they are that we are right? If they, a false religion, are just as convinced, and we have actual contact with God and such…do they also have contact with their “Gods”? If so, religion is all just made up by humans. Us interpreting feelings and thoughts and attributing it to God.
Click to expand...
Atheism is a faith of despair, though most atheists will undoubtedly deny this…that is how I see it. Atheism closes off, that is rejects, the possibility of God. To me this just seems a foolish and prideful position to take.
As for other faiths…We believe that there are elements of truth in each. In so far as each touches on Love there is truth. That said, Christianity, and Catholicism, contains the fullness of that truth, proclaiming as it does that God IS Love and so - all else necessarily stems from that.
I’ve been researching a lot. Many questions I’ve had have been answered successively. But the it’s too good to be true thing really puts doubts in my brain. I’m sorry for the long post. But I need guidance. I’ve been praying a rosary novena for faith, been praying to God, and it…just hasn’t been working. I’m putting my trust in him, and continuing along the path, but I don’t know. It’s so hard. Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you. I’m seeking. I’m knocking. But sometimes I feel like I’m just kidding myself. Please help. And a prayer or two wouldn’t be unappreciated either. 🙂
Click to expand...
I’m not sure if my comments above will be of much help…I hope maybe they will…
Others will no doubt offer many better insights and links to further reading.
For myself, I am drawn more to the “mystical” aspects of the faith…I’m less about “reasoning things out” and instead, just accepting and believing simply and then acting on that belief in Love.
This is not to say that I don’t have doubts too…They come unbidden and can occasionally be bothersome. Yet, when I think of the alternative to belief and faith…I shudder…Why should I embrace something so negative as disbelief???
So - I pray, ask for guidance, try to keep things simple and move forward in Love…

Peace
James
 
Sonorus:
Code: 
I feel that you are being too hard on yourself, you are seeking, time to be trusting in Him, religion is part of it, and I am a new convert with a widely varied religious background.
The closer you get to the truth the more you will have doubts,
I believe in the Trinity, and I also believe that Satan. Lucifer, put doubts upon us,
and I had doubts too, many times! Satan is real and he is given free reign over the Earth to also confuse and confound us all. At least until Jeusu returns.
Code: 
I haven't had a problem ever "feeling" God, I knew from a tyke that he was real, and learned about Jesus while growing up. And how can one not "see him"in nature, or a newborn baby and not believe?
Is it really so hard to believe in the resurrection if you believe that God created the world and everything in it? Resurrection is but another act of the FATHER.
Code: 
You also mentioned the suffering of people worldwide, that is part of life, I don't believe God causes these things to happen, many times bad things just happen, and many times we cause bad things to happen, we all have free will, it is our choice that makes a difference here on the Earthly plane. And we all have to walk our own Spiritual path, but it is easier to walk it with others, I believe the Catholic faith to be true and genuine in it's approach to the laws of the bible, and it's own laws or canons, which are sometimes hard to understand. I too had MUCH research to do even AFTER my conversion, and had to come to terms with it all on my own and finally I did, I prayed and asked the Lord for an answer in a dream, and he let me know that I must accept the WHOLE.
Parable example:

Like a pie, our faith is made up of many pieces, if you take away one or two pieces saying they don’t “taste right” to you but you keep the rest,what sense does that make?
Aren’t they ALL from the same pie? The Lord let me know that I must accept the whole “pie” as one, or I am not in union with my beliefs or my chosen church home.
So I choose to accept it all as a whole in good faith because I need a faith BASE, or church home, I love our beautiful faith. I have been going to adoration where I kneel and pray before the blessed Eucharist, then I ask the Lord if there is anything he wants me to know, twice I have received bible verses that helped me greatly, it was like a thought in my own mind or from my own mind, but then HE made my brain right? 🙂

About homosexuality and gay rights issues, they are so strongly felt by many who love those who are asking for these “rights.” We are taught to hate the sin but love the sinner. I know you’ve heard this before.
But as Christians we have to stand for what the bible teaches, and we cannot bow down to movements that go against our beliefs, I have friends who are gay, but they know I do not judge them, that is not my place, but they also know I won’t be carrying a picket sign campaigning for gay rights issues. And if they love and respect me back they know not to ask me, or else I will have to walk away from them, shake the dust off my feet, and pray for them.

I hope you come to terms with all your doubts, have a happy faith filled life, trust in the Lord and lean not unto thine own understanding. That in the end, is all we can do, right?

Prayers:hug3: Mary
 
“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)

"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
 
And I invite you to follow Pope Benedict XVI Catechesis on Faith during this Year of Faith:

Thus far:

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20121017_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20121024_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20121031_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20121107_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20121114_en.html

–Every week you can come back to this site: vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/index_en.htm

And read the new one (note it takes up to a week for the text to be translated --at first there is only a short text in English --make sure to come back the next week and read the full text when it is there.

Here is another doorway:
vatican.va/special/annus_fidei/index_catechesi_annus-fidei_en.htm
 
I wanted to respond because some of the responses you got were not exactly thorough and in regards to the homosexual civil union questions, pretty problematic in light of Church teaching.
Sonorus said:
Ok so here’s a brief story of where I’m at. I started out agnostic-athiest, then met this Catholic girl, and have been dating her for 9 months. 6 months in I started to become curious about her faith, and am now going to RCIA. I’ve fully believed with my heart and soul for like…a day at a time. Then doubts creep in.
Doubts, according to the Pope Benedict XVI in his Introduction to Christianity, are an intrinsic part of the life of faith and search for truth that will never go away. Faith is believing something based on the authority of the person who told it to you. My belief in Australia is in this category, as I have never been there or seen it with my own eyes, but have only spoken or heard of people who went. But I can reasonable believe them due to their authority and history of truthfulness. This is the Catholic perception of truth which applies to our faith as well. It is not a blind faith.
  1. I read the Case for Christ, and was…mostly convinced that the gospels are historically accurate. But still think the “unlikely” secular objections like Jesus was a legend and such are still quite a bit more likely then somebody getting raised from the dead.
  2. During one of my faithful periods (and I am baptized) , I received the sacrament of Reconciliation, and felt happy and light. But, I soon had doubts that that feeling of happines was just because I thought I was forgiven by God. If there wasn’t a God, but I thought there was, I still would’ve felt the same way.
    I would encourage you to always keep in mind that your feelings have nothing to do with whether God exists or not, or whether God cares about you or not. The feeling associated with reconciliation is a recognition of the truth of continuing a life in the path for truth, instead of persisting in sin, a rejection of truth and goodness. Seeking a life of truth instead of lies of sin would be the right thing even if it did not feel good, and it doesn’t always feel good. We do these things out of obligation, because that is the path to true happiness, not just good feelings, but true satisfaction out of a relationship with the Truth, God himself.
  3. Likewise, during adoration on a retreat after being prayed over, I realized for the first time how much God, the creator of the universe, loved me, personally. I was crying. But within a day, the same though creeped up in my head that even if God didn’t exist, I would’ve felt that strongly. And now I doubt that experience.
    Mother Teresa did not feel anything in prayer and adoration for 30+ years, and yet continued to pray faithfully. It is not about your feelings, but about the pursuit of God in his goodness and Truth. It is true that it is amazing that God not just cares about you, but pursues your own good for your sake, the definition of Love. The amazing part about this is that this is a defining part of God, that he IS love, not just “does” love. Which is why we adore him for his sake, just as we pursue truth, and knowledge and any other good thing, because they resemble in some small and limited way the Goodness and Truth of God. God loves you whether or not you recognize his existence and always has. Do not let a doubt about whether he exists stop your pursuit of the source of truth and love. There is no real reason for the existence and truth of love, real unselfish love without God. Instead of asking open ended questions about why you should doubt, ask answerable questions like: "Does what the Church say about the God purport with what truth seems to be? What is the meaning of love, and what purpose does it serve? Why does love exist? Because if you conclude that love exists (not just affection and good feelings, but unselfish desire for the good of another), it becomes very difficult to argue that there is not a source and single definition and the Church says that God is that person.
  4. This is again similar to 2 and 3, but I can’t help but think that prayer is just psychological. I know that you aren’t really supposed to feel anything during prayer, and it’s a battle, and so forth, but it still seems like a cop-out answer. I feel a lot of the time I’m just throwing thoughts into the wind. And it doesn’t seem like petitioning for stuff in prayer does much. Otherwise wouldn’t Christians be objectively better off as far as disease, famine, ect go? They don’t seem to be.
    The church has never claimed that God has guaranteed material well being for those who pray. Ever. The purpose of this life is to come to know, love, and serve, God, and to be with him in the next. The goodness that we experience in this world, which is abundant, is an incredibly small part of the goodness of God, and is designed for us to learn how to recognize goodness and learn to pursue and love goodness. Food is good because we learn that goodness of food sustains us, which reflects the sustaining power of God. Family is among the greatest earthly good because it reflects the loving and supporting character of God, as well as the nature of God in the Trinity - multiple parts of the single whole.
Christians tend to be happier, less depressed, and more thankful because they recognize how good we actually have it with all our blessings: just being alive is one of the greatest miracles that exists, and is granted to us freely through no work on our part. Christianity is more about responding appropriately to the good things we receive through pursuing God, than it is about trying to get God to give us more good stuff.
Click to expand...
 
  1. The Catholic Churches stance on homosexuality makes sense, I suppose. But I was a firm advocate of gay rights before I began to investigate Catholicism. Every time I see a post or news article on the Catholic Church actively fighting gay marriage it seems like a bullet hits my heart, and also my poor little candle of faith that’s threatening to be burnt out before it can grow. My family is also firmly gay rights so this makes it even more difficult. When you are outside the church, it does really feel like horrible discrimination. If God exists, why would he create a class of people he then bans from romantically loving another? If I were gay, that would be horrible!
Homosexuality is one of the most distorted phenomena in our society today. The fact that a temptation to sin, which if you choose to engage in it comes with over a dozen deadly and disfiguring diseases, depression, high rates of drug use, family dissolution, physical assault and an unhealthy community life is presented as a good is frankly amazing.

The Church is, like with any other sin, trying to make people aware of something that harms them - homosexual behavior is a sin, and damaging to the body, soul, mind, and community. Just as if I was left alone with my anger problem or my pride problem (I have both!) it would have done me no good, the Church can NEVER be silent when a sin becomes prominent and widespread, and society can never endorse it.

The family is the basic unit of society. It is vital that we protect it and elevate it, because God made it the way we procreate, teach and rear children, and it is supposed to be the first place we learn of the goodness of God through the love of our parents (even more than through their teaching our children).

God did not “create” homosexuality, he created men and women to be together. Like every other sin, it comes from the damage done to our souls from original sin and separation from God. Just like my temptations to pride and anger, which are very serious temptations and sins, they could destroy me and those around me if I did not pursue God in their place, go to confession, and try to avoid them. They are not “who I am”, they are a flaw in who I am and we should not treat those with homosexual inclinations and temptations as if they are completely incapable of avoiding sins. If the church were to abandon them in their sin, they would be abandoning them to a life rejecting God. As an un-married man or a priest, or a sister/brother religious, one can not romantically engage whomever one pleases but romantic love does not totally define us but is a small part of love, and a small part of who we are as human beings.

Consider: if one had a romantic attraction to children, is it wrong that God, society, and most certainly the Church all state you have no right to act out that attraction and demand that you avoid that sin at all costs? It is not wrong, they are trying to help you by discouraging you from a flaw in your own nature, one that only God can heal, if not in this life, than in the next. (BTW, it is church teaching that there is no marriage in heaven, as the person you are there to be in union with is God. EVERYONE is included in that, showing that the passing nature of romantic love and sexuality in this life is often exaggerated.
  1. Christianity just seems…too good to be true. Afterlife? All powerful God who loves us unconditionally? If it’s so true, why isn’t it…more prominent? I mean I know it’s prominent but in my every day life I sure don’t’ feel like it’s true unless I’m trying to force it in. There are very little, if any, modern miracles. Only the gospels to go on.
Mother Teresa was from a well off family and chose to go live in one of the poorest areas of the earth to serve the poor, sick, and dying. This might be too good to be true. Children are, short of God, practically the sweetest most innocent things we will ever see with our eyes. They are very literally a glimpse of heaven. This might be too good to be true. The love of parents for their children often knows no bounds, and parents regularly have given up their lives to save their children, with not a hesitation. This might be too good to be true.

All these things are a glimpse of the goodness of God. Things that God puts on this earth to gently offer us the choice to be in union with him if we choose. God is the source of this selfless awesome goodness, and Christianity teaches the fullness of who God is. The world, with all its flaws, is FAR too good to not be true. The very existence of our beautiful world and existence of human beings proves this.
 
  1. Atheism growing, and there are lots of other religions. If they are all convinced they are right, how do I know I’m right by picking Catholicism? And are we more convinced then they are that we are right? If they, a false religion, are just as convinced, and we have actual contact with God and such…do they also have contact with their “Gods”? If so, religion is all just made up by humans. Us interpreting feelings and thoughts and attributing it to God.
No faith makes the claims that the Church does, because no faith has the authority to do so. The Catholic faith teaches among others that it : 1. is the one true faith, 2. can never be destroyed, 3. That the real history that can be verified, supports their faith claims and 4. that all truth is supportive or compatible with the Catholic faith.

Atheism is growing because people think it’s cool. They can not prove a negative claim (that God does not exist) and frankly can not explain why if a person does not have a basis for objective morality, why we can not just murder people. (This is why btw, atheistic regimes like the Nazi Germany and the USSR, and Communist China have killed tens of millions of people, because they have no objective moral basis NOT to.) Buddhism is not a religion, but a philosophy, and there is NO historical evidence supporting Hinduism and its Gods like Ganesh and Krishna.

The church openly and forcefully opposed chattel slavery before anyone else (in the 1300s - teaching always opposed it, just not as forcefully), they desegregated by force, under threat of excommunication before anyone else in the United States, the INVENTED health care despite your ability to pay (invented by groups like the Knights of St John, aka the Hospitallers, one of the groups fighting in the Crusades) and the Church brought Europe from a wild bunch of tribes to the most merciful, advanced, and prosperous place to live in human history, and never stopped working to improve human morality.

The Church’s teachings on other faiths is this: that many faiths have some, if not many things that they teach that are true. But there is only one God, the God of Abraham, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the definition of Love and Truth. This truth is known in some ways by people both religious and irreligious, but whether pursued in the classroom, the lab, or in faith, God as Truth ought to be loved and has always loved us. Where other religions disagree with the Catholic faith, they are wrong, but most teach many true things (don’t kill, stealing is immoral, truth should be pursued). But not everything they teach is true, so in total, they are false faiths.

There is only one God, and we ALL have contact with him whenever we contact goodness and truth, whether in science or in other activities of life (heck, we contact him just by existing, since he is responsible for that gift). But that does not mean we all have the same fullness of understanding of that truth. The Catholic Church teaches the fullness of the understanding of who God is, the truth of faith and love of God in life, and that fullness of faith is only present in the Catholic Church.
 
I think that whether we are baptized at birth and raised with the religion or we convert to it later on I think that these questions are things we all face and have to make decisions on.
I know personally I’m unbaptized and that when I complete the RCIA I’ll be baptized, make my first communion and receive conformation at the same time. Honestly the whole process is confusing and scary sometimes but I think that helps more than it hurts.
But that doesn’t change those thoughts in my head that say I might be wrong but I’ve come to terms with the maybe I’m wrong by deciding on this so what if I’m wrong how can being kind, and generous to people be so wrong that another god out there would say well you didn’t believe in me so you go to hell even though you were kind and nice to everyone you met. Or that it turns out there is no God well guess what I still lived my life in a manner my children can be proud of me for and I set an example and maybe changed the life of someone who knew me.
I’ve also got the doubt in my head that what if this is just like last time what if I go to the pastor (this time priest) and ask to begin the process to be baptized and it comes out that I work in naturopathics and alternative healing methods and the church throws me out and condemns what I do. This little doubt I’ve already discussed with the one who brought me to Catholicism and they’ve basically assured me that I’m not going to face the same thing this time.
The point of me sharing that basically stems from my earlier comment we all have doubts and we all have pasts and that can help make converting really hard and I hope the best for everyone here and I’ll keep you in my thoughts and hopefully all of us converting this year or next and until the world ends that we can all find some kind of peace from our doubts.
 
Falco said:
Gay rights and gay marriage are two different issues. Gays have a right to be provided with a legal ceremony, by the Govt, that will give them the same legal rights as a heterosexual married couple. As long as they keep the church out of the equation, I am all for those rights.

But the moment gays start wanting to be married, I am against it. A marriage always has been, and always will be, between a man and a woman.

Gays should invent a new word for this new legal state they want, and a new word for the gay spouse, and present that to the govt, and I think they would have a better chance of getting what they want. After all, what they want is totally NEW.

So, if you support gay rights, you will not be out of line with your family, but if you protest the calling of this legal state ‘marriage’, you are supporting the church.
Click to expand...
👍👍 My thoughts to the tee!!!
 
Doubt and Faith. We all face doubts that we need to work through. Faith is hope in that which remains unseen. The peace that we experience in Christ remains indescribable. Who can adequately express the unconditional love of a God would allow himself to be incarnate, to take our sins upon Himself that God and man might be reconciled? This love can indeed feel incredible, even fantastical. It is real. It is unearned, a gift for the taking. This gift does require a response. That response is our faith. This faith can be costly. It asks us to set aside preconceived notions. Letting go of these ideas can take a lifetime. Conversion, turning to God, does not necessarily happen in an instant. The good news is that we need not rely on our own power, but can trust God to give us the necessary grace, to lead us, to change us, and to heal us.

One of the counter-cultural issues that Catholics today face is the issue of homosexuality. This sin is described in both the Old and New Testament. A sin is not a person. It is an action. The inclination toward a particular sin is a temptation. The Catholic Church teaches that we are to treat those who struggle with the inclination toward homosexuality with compassion. The sexual sins (homosexuality, fornication, and adultery) are sins against the self. The person who struggles against these sins is called to self-mastery. Self-mastery implies discipline.
Homosexuality closes a relationship to the creation of life. It is also a denial of the complimentary physical natures of male and female. There is only one marital relationship that recognizes not only this complimentary nature between the sexes, but also recognizes their equality. That relationship is monogamous, one man and one woman.
 
Thank you for all the replies everybody. I appreciate especially those that took time to respond at length to each of my worries. The thing I most needed to hear I think was to just trust God, even when doubting. And that’s what I’m going to do. Even if I’m not all sure he’s there, I’m going to keep praying, going to mass, keep up my novena and go through with RCIA.

I understand the homosexuality thing. I do. I get why the Church does not marry homosexuals. They are at least being consistent. They do not marry heterosexuals who aren’t planning on having kids either. Just from outside the Church, their extreme fighting of the issue turns people who would otherwise be open to Christianity away. If you don’t understand, it does seem hateful. And my liberal mom’s only experience with the catholic church is when she went to mass once and they had Who to Vote For booklets. Guess what, it wasn’t liberal. She was turned away even more.

As for the material prayer thing, I understand that prayer isn’t supposed to give material goods, which we aren’t supposed to care about anyway. But that contradicts Jesus’s insistence of you get what you pray for in the bible. He mentions that a few times.

But in the end, I’ve done atheism. It sucks. I find I’m a usually decent person, but Christianity makes me a better boyfriend, better son, and gives me hope. And if any religion has truth in it, I’m pretty sure it’s Catholicism. And despite my personal reservations, if God says so, who am I to argue?

Again, thank you all, and have a good weekend.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top