I find it rather sad many folk choose not to believe in God

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englands123 said:
No judgment just a twinge of sadness.
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I have a sister and brother in this category but I never worry about it. They are connected to God whether they know it or not. The exemplary lives they lead, the generosity and love they have for family and neighbor, tell me they are filled with the Spirit. What they are rejecting is not God, but what they have been told about God. I don’t blame them.

Many years ago Billy Graham told a story of meeting a beggar on a street in China. Through an interpreter Dr. Graham gave the man some coins and a brief rundown of the gospel. The beggars eyes filled with tears and he said, “I have loved this Jesus all my life but until today I had never known his name”.

God works in mysterious ways. We are all immersed in Him, like fish are in water, as the late Marcus Borg put it. The fish can’t explain the water, but they’re there all the same.
 
For most, it isn’t a choice.

Imagine this: What if today someone came up to you and told you they felt bad that you didn’t believe in the Easter Bunny. They laid out a bunch of reasons why they believe in the Easter Bunny. They all sound like good reasons, if they are true. They laid out a bunch of reasons why you should believe in the Easter Bunny. Do you CHOOSE to believe in the Easter Bunny? Let it infiltrate every part of your life. Let your belief guide you in the other choices you make in life?

You can say you believe, but most likely you wouldn’t. Not because you chose not to, but because you couldn’t.

Now replace “easter bunny” with some other god you presently don’t believe in.

Don’t feel sad for people who don’t believe in God. You don’t want them feeling sad for you because you do believe in God, I am sure.
 
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This is a very dim view of your fellow human beings. I will counter that it is not usually the case. Most don’t believe because they cant. I refer you to my post #3, above.
 
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Wow! So we’re all nihilists, is that it?

Is it not enough that you have faith? Does faith also involve inventing venomous narratives for those that don’t?
 
You see what you choose to see, I guess. I don’t see it at all. I see mostly good people who don’t all believe the same things because they are different from one another.
 
I don’t see it as a choice for most, either. What I tend to see is either they have never been exposed to religion, or they have tried to believe but not been able to.

I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who said they don’t want to believe in God because they don’t want to change anything in their lives. And if I did, I would think that not wanting to believe in God doesn’t mean that they don’t actually believe in God. They just disagree with certain teachings.
 
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It’s always good to be honest with one’s self and live with integrity. You have to follow your conscience, and at the same time form it continually.
I am sad your experience with Church was negative.
 
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QwertyGirl said:
You can say you believe, but most likely you wouldn’t.
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This is what keeps me from formally becoming a Catholic. There are certain doctrines that one is expected to believe and, as you said, I could SAY I do. But I just don’t. As has been mentioned, there are likely people who want to believe in God but just can’t. I’ll say again, they are not rejecting God, just certain ideas about God.

There’s a very good piece here by Bishop Barron;

 
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I understand what you are saying about lack of exposure to religious teachings.

That makes sense.
 
Don’t assume it’s always a choice.

Some people were never taught.

Some people never had enough of the love of human beings to be able to trust in the love of an unseen God.

Other people have been slammed across the net one too many times and are hurting.

Or what hey know if the claims of Christianity don’t add up.

And that’s why we are charged with being Christ for others and we aren’t to judge or look down on anybody because their life history was different then ours.
 
Knowing what the Church (or any religion, for that matter) teaches, and believing it are two very different things.

Sorry if my response was too strong, CajunJoy. I suspect I am a little sensitive on this matter and maybe should put it to bed and not address it every time it comes up.

No hard feelings, I hope.
 
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As someone that believed very strongly in God and over time completely lost my faith while trying everything I possibly could to keep that faith, my perspective is that most atheists would believe in God if there was real evidence available for it. They, like me, just seem to be those type of people that need evidence. Call it a strong skeptical gene. Some have had a bad experience but many, many just aren’t convinced by the arguments for God and they just can’t make themselves believe. Many of them have tried. It isn’t a want factor, it’s a can’t factor.

Of the many atheists I know, most would have no problem with the requirements of a faith. They live very normal, moral lives. They have thought deeply about religion, often knowing more than the faithful do. To accuse them of rejecting God just so they can live a sinful life is…well, ridiculous and not true. Are their exceptions? Of course. Most of those that lead sinful lives ARE Christians going by percentages of people that claim religious affiliation. They just don’t take the tenets of the faith seriously.
 
Pattylt and others, can I ask, is it because you don’t believe what the Evangelists (St Mark etc) write?

All the words in the Gospels interpret Jesus Christ as being God. I mean all his words and actions cannot add up to any other interpretation. He could be nobody else.
 
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I have many issues and problems with the Gospels but that isn’t what led to my agnosticism… I lost faith in God. Without a belief in God, the Bible, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, all reduce down to other people’s beliefs and assumptions about God. God is assumed first. Without that assumption, they are just stories.
 
Frankie65 said:
Pattylt and others, can I ask, is it because you don’t believe what the Evangelists (St Mark etc) write?

All the words in the Gospels interpret Jesus Christ as being God. I mean all his words and actions cannot add up to any other interpretation. He could be nobody else.
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Sooooo…we should believe it just because somebody wrote it down? You could apply that logic to literally every other holy book.
 
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Ah, the diversity and the many paths argument. Very 21st century of you.
I wonder what (should humanity exist at that point) the mid 21st century or the early 22nd century excuses will be?

For all that people are supposed to be so different, it is pretty remarkable that all these different people, when they are given adequate and accurate Christian doctrinal teaching, all jibe at the same thing: Obedience.

Because IF the Christian God is who He is, and if His teachings are what the Church proclaims, then all of these people who pride (there’s the BIG roadblock) themselves on their individuality and diversity and their accomplishments are no more–but also no LESS-than other individuals who are (to their point of view) utterly and completely ignorant, worthless, and also hypocritical and hateful.

And that just sticks in the craw, doesn’t it?
Being a Christian means you will be equated with the people who 'exterminated millions of innocent pagans. . Muslims. . .Jews. . .indigenous peoples. . . whose crusades and inquisitions are a byword for genocide, bigotry, and hate. . .whose proponents are smug racists, sexists, former slave owners, former wife beaters, former greedy, science-hating, money-grubbing, downtrodden, oppressed women, etc. People who never had ‘real lives’ because of “The Church”.

That’s what you’ll hear. It comes down to pride, to lack of obedience, lack of humility, and a wish that’s near obsession to ‘do as one pleases’ with the hope that God (since He was the one who stuck us here anyway and never gave any real help) will give us what we deserve–heaven forever, no worries, or else just annihilation so we don’t suffer because it wouldn’t be fair.

That is not having a ‘dim view’ of people in the world. It’s having a clear view. This is how people who currently reject God feel–it is not a view which says they will never change. Hopefully they will.
 
But would you disbelieve other historical documents written about someone else at about the same time?
 
Frankie65 said:
But would you disbelieve other historical documents written about someone else at about the same time?
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I’d look at different contemporary accounts of the same person/event, and see how they compare with one another. Fact is, there’s no contemporary documentation of Jesus that we can compare and contrast with the Gospels, which were written decades after his death.
 
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