I just can't believe in god

  • Thread starter Thread starter curtishouse29
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Also, if you would be comfortable with it, go talk to a priest. That is one of your greatest resources. He would be more than willing to listen and help you. Be straight-forward. If you disagree with him, tell him. Just have an open mind.
 
Why should we ??

Salute & Cheers from a NON BELIEVER:
– Laurent LUG (.@…), september 17, 2008
 
I just feel so blessed that so many people have responded to this thread and have reached others out there that were having the same doubts that I had at one time. I never envisioned this thread to explode like it did. God bless you all and I will pray for all of you to stay strong in the faith!

-Curtis
 
Laurent_LUG said:
Why should we ??

Salute & Cheers from a NON BELIEVER:
– Laurent LUG (.@…), september 17, 2008
Click to expand...
Wow, there’s a wide open question. Those of us who have examined the question and the evidence from every angle for years, who have, in effect, done the heavy lifting and have concluded that there is a God could simply say that you should believe because it is true, and even though you don’ t believe, you will meet Him someday.

But that answer would not be very helpful. There are too many aspects that enter into a belief in God and what leads one person to believe will not be the same thing that leads another person to believe.

For me to discuss this with you, I need to know where you are exactly in your disbelief. If you have studied very litle, then C.S. Lewis’ Mee Christianity and God in the Dock are excellent starting places. Once you have encontered the ideas there, you can then ask questions and make statements about the ideas that you find there, and a dialogue can ensue. The dialogue will lead to other sources and other ideas and discussions until you have a solid basis on which to conclude that there is a God – or, that you have not seen enough to convince you that God exists.

If you conclude that there is a God, then doors are open for more exploration and study as we determine what this God is like, how do I fit into the world he created, how does He want me to live my life and why. Learning is a lifelong experience, and each step is fed by those that came before.

Even if you don’t believe, study and pray for understanding.
 
Methodi said:
You & I are Kindred spirits man, I am so lonely & feel so broken too,Yrs ago I did have friends, but yrs passed & I lost touch some because I wanted to, My self esteem was so Low & still pretty much is I didnt want to be around people, I do manage to get to church weekly sometimes twice a week, its my little bit of heaven here on earth. Life is tough at times & we just have to figure out how to deal with it, which can be very hard for us.sometime we have to seek help, which I have struggled against for yrs. I never wanted to give in & have someone tell me how I should live my life.
You wanna know something guy, there are so many people like us who are hurting & their heart is ripped apart too, but to look at them U would never know it.So we are not alone.Yes Life can be very tough even for tough guys, I do Hope U find a Happy Medium!
Your to young to quit man to young, I am sure U have a lot to offer others, gotta find out where U fit! I understand perfectly.
Click to expand...
methodi,
I want to extend my symphathy for the condition you have gotten yourself into. You do need someone to help you. I hope you reach out to someone.
God is the first person you should ask. God the Father looks on the heart of man, so don’t think he doesn’t know your problem, he does.
The Bible tells us, “A fool has said in his heart there is no God.” Ps.14:1 Don’t go there.
1Pet.5;7 tells us to “Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you.” 🙂 Have you done this?

I’ll pray for you also,
jean8
 
so do you believe in love? If so, how do you verify its existence with your senses?
 
For all of us who are confused,
who need peace,
who need to feel
the love of Jesus,
spending time on our knees
before Him in the Eucharist
will restore us
will refresh us
wlll strengthen us
will mend our broken hearts
will heal us.
 
jean8 said:
methodi,
I want to extend my symphathy for the condition you have gotten yourself into. You do need someone to help you. I hope you reach out to someone.
God is the first person you should ask. God the Father looks on the heart of man, so don’t think he doesn’t know your problem, he does.
The Bible tells us, “A fool has said in his heart there is no God.” Ps.14:1 Don’t go there.
1Pet.5;7 tells us to “Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you.” 🙂 Have you done this?

I’ll pray for you also,
jean8
Click to expand...
Thank You Jean, I am trying to hold on tight to jesus, even tho I slip up sometimes, But God knows man is weak
 
Blessings to all who have written their thoughts. I’m reading your responses. Trying to open this hardened heart. Your words have given me much to think about and your personal witness means the most to me.
 
The existence God is not something that can be proved or disproved by logic. The Thomist view is that God is Being itself. The only place to encounter Being is in life, in the world. The only way to know Being and recognize it for what it is, is to also encounter and recognize the absence of privation of Being. Of course that recognition always implies a choice.

So my advice? Don’t think too much. Live a little. (Kind of like a Chinese curse, isn’t it?)
 
Listen attentively for the voice calling you The Beloved.
from *The Beloved * by Henri Nouwen

In Christ
 
curtishouse29 said:
I have tried so hard over the past ten years to believe in god; specifically the christian god but I just can’t. To believe in something, I need to be able to verify it with at least one of the five senses that god supposedly blessed us with and/or indisputable archeological/historical evidence.

I can’t just believe in something because everybody around me does; I am just not wired that way. I would love to believe and have faith in god but no evidence points in that direction.

I have looked at previous answers here on the boards so please don’t use the “how do you know that you exist?” argument. I guess if blind faith is what it takes to be saved and the christian god exists, I’ll just be outta luck. There, however, is no proof that I have ever seen for the existance of god, satan, heaven, hell, or anything else of that nature.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence and that is completely lacking in my opinion. I hope not too many people jump all over at once for this post. Take care.

-Curtis
Click to expand...
I haven’t read all the posts, but in answer to the original question, I know that God exsists…
  1. b/c something had to have sparked the creation of the universe. Evidence for God is everywhere in nature. Yes, science has revealed many “laws” which keep the universe in order and complexity, but where did they come from?
  2. And love is the greatest evidence I know of for the exsistence of God, and is quite tangible. Maybe some people experience it more than others, but it is there, rare though it may be. I mean real love; love that is sacrificial.
  3. Lastly, in my own experience, I know that there is more to life than this present state of being. My family has witnessed believable (or should I say unbelievablel?) evidence that life does not end with physical death. There is more the us than we perceive with our 5 senses.
God Bless~
 
curtishouse29 said:
I have tried so hard over the past ten years to believe in god; specifically the christian god but I just can’t. To believe in something, I need to be able to verify it with at least one of the five senses that god supposedly blessed us with and/or indisputable archeological/historical evidence.

I can’t just believe in something because everybody around me does; I am just not wired that way. I would love to believe and have faith in god but no evidence points in that direction.

I have looked at previous answers here on the boards so please don’t use the “how do you know that you exist?” argument. I guess if blind faith is what it takes to be saved and the christian god exists, I’ll just be outta luck. There, however, is no proof that I have ever seen for the existance of god, satan, heaven, hell, or anything else of that nature.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence and that is completely lacking in my opinion. I hope not too many people jump all over at once for this post. Take care.

-Curtis
Click to expand...
Congratulations!

I’m glad you’ve made this step on the way to free thought. Welcome to sanity. 👍

EDIT: I just read the rest of your posts. It looks like you’re back to belief again… Even though I don’t see a single post of yours that actually showed you that you found what brought you out of faith to begin with: the lack of evidence. As you said, “Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence,” right? Have you really found that your statement, “and that [evidence] is completely lacking in my opinion,” to be any less true now than it was before? O_o

Meh. Seems kinda shallow to me.
 
curtishouse29 said:
I have tried so hard over the past ten years to believe in god; specifically the christian god but I just can’t. To believe in something, I need to be able to verify it with at least one of the five senses that god supposedly blessed us with and/or indisputable archeological/historical evidence.

I can’t just believe in something because everybody around me does; I am just not wired that way. I would love to believe and have faith in god but no evidence points in that direction.

I have looked at previous answers here on the boards so please don’t use the “how do you know that you exist?” argument. I guess if blind faith is what it takes to be saved and the christian god exists, I’ll just be outta luck. There, however, is no proof that I have ever seen for the existance of god, satan, heaven, hell, or anything else of that nature.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence and that is completely lacking in my opinion. I hope not too many people jump all over at once for this post. Take care.

-Curtis
Click to expand...
Hi Curtis … first up - I like your honesty and your refusal to just follow the crowd blindly. Combine that with the fact that you’re in a Catholic Forum trying to get answers and I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that you WILL probably believe in God one day … and because you sound logical, you’re probably gonna be Catholic!

That’s quite a prediction eh? Stay the course, and I’m sure you will find God.

I have often pondered why I believe in God too. I guess for me it was indoctrinated since childhood. But I still question it. My answer made sense to me, see if it makes sense to you.

I’m not sure where I read this, (maybe right here at catholic Answers!).

Every living thing came from another living thing. Right? A rabbit came from a female rabbit that was its mother and she from her mother backwards … it must have started from something. It couldn’t have just happened by chance. Something or someone MUST have started it all.

If you believe that it all started with the big bang, then someone or something must have created the matter that resulted in the big bang.

That would be God.

Once you get over that step … look to see if He continued to intervene in human History. That’s part 2.
 
Oakleaf said:
The existence God is not something that can be proved or disproved by logic. The Thomist view is that God is Being itself. The only place to encounter Being is in life, in the world. The only way to know Being and recognize it for what it is, is to also encounter and recognize the absence of privation of Being. Of course that recognition always implies a choice.
Click to expand...
:hmmm: That seems to be contrary to Church teaching:
The Knowledge of God According to the Church (CCC #36)
36 "Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason."11 Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God’s revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created “in the image of God”.12
 
curtishouse29 said:
I have tried so hard over the past ten years to believe in god; specifically the christian god but I just can’t. To believe in something, I need to be able to verify it with at least one of the five senses that god supposedly blessed us with and/or indisputable archeological/historical evidence.

I can’t just believe in something because everybody around me does; I am just not wired that way. I would love to believe and have faith in god but no evidence points in that direction.

I have looked at previous answers here on the boards so please don’t use the “how do you know that you exist?” argument. I guess if blind faith is what it takes to be saved and the christian god exists, I’ll just be outta luck. There, however, is no proof that I have ever seen for the existance of god, satan, heaven, hell, or anything else of that nature.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence and that is completely lacking in my opinion. I hope not too many people jump all over at once for this post. Take care.

-Curtis
Click to expand...
:

Ten years you say! Oh please.

“God supposedly blessed us with (the 5 senses)” - I dont know, did he? Do you have senses? How can you even mock the fact that you are a feeling, sensing, thinking being?

“Wired that way”. Interesting analogy. Who “wired” you by the way?

The “sense” that you will require, that God gave you, is your brain and your ability to reason.

“no evidence points in that direction” - then you are not using your reason. It has nothing to do with blind faith. The fact that you say ‘blind faith’ informs me that you have no idea what faith is.
Faith comes directly from our ability to think and reason.

You “just can’t believe in something because everyone around you does?” No? Gosh, thats what I do, I just follow the herd. (groan).

No proof for the existence of God you say?

Listen dear, I don’t think you have tried very hard. There is proof all around you in this very minute. I’m not trying to be harsh, just pointing out that its not for a lack of evidence, but for a lack of sincere trying. You are not fooling me, I know your search has been rather superficial because of what you say and the superficial judgements you are making about believers.

I’ll give you some advise if you really want it, somehow I doubt you do.

Read the Gospels, the Pslams or the entire bible. Or, observe nature. Most scientists believe in a creator of some sort, (ie: Einstien) its really not a stretch if you are methodical in your examination of life.

The search for God begins with a contrite heart.
Or to use another well known analogy, the tea cup.
If your cup is full, how can anything get into it?
 
I wish people would read past the first page…That intial post is FAR from where I am now…Take care and hopefully all of you will read most of the replies…This thread is full of wonderful stories of others reaching out to find God as well. I think it would be worth the read.
 
I wish people would read past the first page…That intial post is FAR from where I am now…
Click to expand...
Geesh, yeah, how rude that people actually answered your question.
 
Nowhere did I say it was rude for answering my initial question…I just brought up the fact that there are a lot of great replies in the thread and it would behoove you to go through and check them all out…No need for sarcasm.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top