i think im doomed

  • Thread starter Thread starter SLTS
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
40.png
SLTS:
i tired asking this in a the apolagists forum but it wouldnt let me, heres my situation…

im a 17 year old male and i was born in a religious believing family. everyone in my family beleives in god…

i dont believe it god. i tried when i was younger, i went to church and prayed every night. But as i got older i realized that deep in my heart i didnt REALLY believe. i quit going to church because i felt guilty and i quit praying for the same reason. i began to realize that everyone else was devoting their life to this god, and i was simply showing up to church and praying with no emotional attachment.

i am a great person, i really am and i know it. i sin. i drink, i smoke, i’m intimate with my girlfriend, and ive experimented with minor drugs. but aside from that i am honeslty as great of a person as one could be. i dont have a mean bone in my body. i am constantly helping out total strangers, helping animals and offering my time to the less fortunate.

but no matter how hard i try, and beleive me i HAVE tried i cant believe in god. i can say i do, i can act like i do. but deep down i REALLY DONT beleive. it all seems fake to me, and i honestly cant help it. obviously there is a thought in my mind that god may exist since i am here. but i can make myself believe. aside from the nornal person who beleives in god and has doubts of his existance. i DONT beleive in god but have doubts that maybe he does exist. but i just cant bring myself to believe that he does without proof. and even if god himself were to come before me i know i would try to come up with a logical explanation for it. so im in a tough situation. from what i know if hell DOES exist one is doomed to go there if he doesnt believe in god

so even though im a great person and i tried to believe but just can bring myself to, i am doomed to eternal damnation?
Click to expand...
how did you like not believe? I mean there must have been something that broke that connection with God. How can God’s wonderful work seem fake? Try and research, go to church you know, you might even come up with a logical explanation if you try hard enough. And if you believe in hell (which is eternal damnation) then there must be a good side to it all (Heaven/Eternal Life). The reason there must be a good side is that there must be a Loving God or else i wouldn’t be sitting typing on my computer right now lol. And only God can decide if your going to hell or not. I wouldn’t worry about it. Just try and stay a good person, try and find out about your faith and i’m sure God 'll show mercy because he is a loving God. I hope this helps 😉

God Bless :blessyou:
Podo the Hobbit
 
40.png
asquared:
Son, you are a great person, and no you are not doomed. You are loved, by a Father you have not even come to know yet. You would not be asking these questions if you did not in your heart expect an answer. He will answer in His good time. Just be sure you are not so busy with the sensual things you have been using to plug your ears that you miss the message. Maybe you’re not sure if you believe in Him, but He sure believes in you. He made you in His own image, imagine that. Pretty cool. Maybe you just don’t believe in the ideas of God other people have been trying to lay on you. You have been raised in a faith-filled home, ever think of claiming your heritage for your own. Why not just ask Him? Please God, I have trouble believing, but I want to believe. Here is what He usually says: Be still and know that I am God. Just listen.
Click to expand...
Amen Asquared:thumbsup: :amen:
Podo the hobbit
 
40.png
SLTS:
from what i know if hell DOES exist one is doomed to go there if he doesnt believe in god

so even though im a great person and i tried to believe but just can bring myself to, i am doomed to eternal damnation?
Click to expand...
If Hell does exist, what about Heaven?

If Heaven does exist, who lives there, besides the angels and holy souls?

If Hell does exist, who lives there, besides demons and damned souls?

If there’s a devil (you gotta believe due to all the evil) then where does the good come from?

I recommend reading the Five Proofs of the Existence of God. Warning: VERY PHILOSOPHICAL, take your time reading it, and let it sink in.

newadvent.org/summa/100203.htm
 
Your honesty is definitely appreciated, SLTS. I don’t think you’re doomed if you WANT to believe in God. IMO, what you need to do is possibly fine tune your life. Try reading the Bible more often. You said you were 17, right? Still in High School? If yes, then try as hard as you can to get into a good college to get a good job. Do some nice things for other people. In other words, do things that will both give you high self-esteem and high favor from your peers (unless you already have that). Good luck in your struggle with faith.
 
Step 1. First, you have to trust that someone is not lying to you. For example, believe me that I am not lying when I tell you that Jesus can change your life and you can experience His love in the Holy Spirit. You may not experience Him, understand Him, or believe in Him yet, but believe me! I am not lying! It is God’s gift that He uses others to teach the Good News.

Step 2. Believe me that you must stop sinning and follow Church teaching right away. You can be with Jesus in Heaven for all eternity. Even if you doubt this, believe me and especially believe Jesus. This will help you to see. Sinning destroys the life of God in you. Jesus wants to save us: “I have not come to condemn but to save”. Trust that Jesus wants to forgive you for all sins and you can start fresh - you have hope, you are not hopeless! We are all sinners. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” - St. Paul. Jesus wants to heal you.

Step 3. Start reading Scripture especially the Gospels right away. Learn from Jesus, question the faith and grow. Jesus has so much to teach us! You will be very happy! You can change! You can be a saint! It’s exciting!

Step 4. Go to a priest and he will lead you into full communion with Jesus. You will have a new life! God is life! God Himself is our life!

Steps 1, 2, 3 can be started in one day. You can do step 4 any day when your heart is ready. God will help you.

This is my help. The others here have also said important words.
 
To SLTS, just want you to know we are still praying for you. That’s my whole family, my parish, my youth group, several prayer groups, and three orders of religious sisters, plus everyone they reach on their prayer networks. God is Love. Jesus is the Divine Mercy. You are loved and forgiven, just reach out to HIM.
 
I worked at a mental hospital years ago. I worked with lots of children and adults who acted like children. I enjoyed attending the morning rounds because I learned so much from all the different specialists. We would meet around a large round table and discuss a different patient each day. Here is a lesson I learned from the psychiatrists that I would love to tell all young people.
Code: 
 Young people (people under the age of 21) actually are different than adults.  There is a reason that age 21 is the age of adulthood.  The brain has not fully developed until around age 21.  The hypothalamus is the area of the brain that controls our emotions and is the self-control center.  If a young person uses drugs...and that includes marijuana..they are retarding their growth in the area of the brain that affects "judgement".  They think they are great people and have a wonderful sense of self-esteem.  Unfortunately, if people continue to "experiment" (I hate that expression) with drugs they will continue to retard their maturity.  There is a difference between having a high IQ and having mature judgement.  They do not always go together.  We had a former president of the US  with a marvelous sense of self-esteem who still has not reached the age of maturity when it comes to self-control and good judgement.  Many of his followers are hippies of the 60's who also did not develop a sense of good judgement.  
 You are still young enough to let your brain develop into the mature man God intends for you to be. Give him a chance .     God love you!
 
I know the person hasn’t returned, and I assumming that the post is a troll. Still it brings up some interesting questions. If you think or fear that you are doomed, then you do believe in God. An Atheist would care or thinking about the issue at all. If there is no God, there is no one to doom you.

One of the first steps to salvation is fear. For one to even came by a site like this, and try to get us going isn’t a bad thing. A person who says he doesn’t care, cares. For if he didn’t care, he would say it to begin with.
 
Therese Martin said:
Notice:

One post had to be deleted. The two that quoted and rebutted it thus had to be deleted too. This action is not in any way a reflection upon those who took the time to rebut that post and the moderation staff thanks them for their efforts and for their understanding.
Click to expand...

Good. I thought I was losing my mind when I couldn’t find the post to which they were replying.
Thanks
God bless
 
My friend believe because we believe,
I’ve been exactly where you are.I wouldn’t tell you God existed unless I know he does.My advice.Believe in God’s love for you,ask as often as necessary for the gift of faith.My prayer is that you will come to know and experience the love God has for you.This should lead you to ask for forgivness of all the wrongs you have done in life,believing in Jesus, his Catholic Church, he founded and being Baptized in his Catholic Church.Once the eyes of your faith are open, you will want to do this and begin the joy of studying and living the faith.It’s a wonderful life and I would gladly submit to the most advanced lie detector to prove that I’m telling you the truth, that I and countless other Catholics have found.Jesus is the Way,the Truth and the Life.
God Bless You!!
" Pray,Hope and Don’t Worry" St.Padre Pio
 
St. Therese of Lisieux started to struggle with the existence of God, even on her death bed. I would reccomend reading her book: “The Story of a Soul”
If nothing else, try to identify with her approach to life. You may be surprised how such a simple, little flower can help you to understand God.
God Bless,

Justin
 
Faith is not about emotion. It’s about. . . well faith. There are many many many very convincing arguments (ie. St. Thomas Aquinas’ 5 proofs for God’s existence are a few of my favorites 👍 ) but when it all comes down to it, you have to take a leap of faith. It’s scarry but it’s even more scarry to think that He doesn’t exist and know that he MIGHT because then you are up against the Ultimate and face it, none of us can beat that. But def don’t give up. Don’t feel guilty about trying to believe (ie. praying and going to church). There is no shame it that. Besides you’d be surprised how many people in the pews are not far from you in that way. And Jesus came to heal the sick not the well. And learn about the faith. Listen to conversion stories. Read books (Theology for Beginners is a great place to start). God will bless you!
Your Sister in Christ,
Andrea
 
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it is also one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the beginning of your real adult relationship with God. You are certainly not doomed, any more than Frodo and the others were at the darkest most dangerous moments in their quest. You are taking the first footsteps on your journey. God will be with you every step of the way, and He has given you an angel to stay by your side.
 
Keep asking yourself lots of questions. Questions such as; “am I really being fulfilled”, with the worldly things you describe in your post. I do not mean immediate gratification, I mean fulfillment. Very different things.

Where / what is the origin of “good”? You speak of “good” in your post. What is “good”? Who or what defines it?

May I suggest reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Normally I’d say it is a bit of a tough read for a 17 year old, but you articulated yourself nicely and it appears you are mature and intelligent. Particularily read the first 3 chapters (I think, I don’t have book in front of me; heck read the whole thing!) particularily the chapter on pride. Try to understand what humility and pride truly mean. Dig deep into thier respective meanings. When you are convinced you understand what they mean, begin again to understand, because you have only scratched the surface. I’d venture to say that virtually anyone who has a deep understanding of true humility and pride also has a belief in God. I say this because they begin to learn that true humility and elimination of all pride in thier life is impossible (if they are honest with themselves) for them to attain on thier own. Yet, that is what we need to attain to live with God forever. I say this because pride is the precursor to all sin. From my understanding we can sin in Heaven because we maintain our free will. So what will prevent us from sinning? We will be so humbled by the grace and beauty of God we will lose our pride, thus lose our precursor to sin (this is my conjecture). So we are called to walk in that direction. Show Him this is the direction we chose.

Whether you believe or not, take the time to get down on your knees and pray to the God whom may or may not be there. He said, “seek and you shall find”. He didn’t say immediately. Pray and ask for Him to help you understand. Mean it when you pray; pray with intensity and openess to His Spirit.

Many people, maybe most, have a degree of doubt. I do. I ask for help and I receive it. I probably pray for help with my doubts more then I pray for anything else. My faith is growing day by day. Yours will to, because He said “knock and the door will be answered” (or something of that sort). keep KNOCKING! 🙂
 
I know almost exactly where you are coming from. I believed in a transcendental, deistic god, but I considered all religions to be basically mythology. What I needed was logical proof. Not some semantic game (that’s what I would tell myself), but proof. Rock solid proof.

I recommend the following books:

*The Case for Christ - *Lee Stroebl
*More than a Carpenter - *Jason MacDowell
*Evidence that Demands a Verdict - *Jason MacDowell

I know they are written by protestants, but they are excellent apologetics. The second book I listed, I opened it with a smirk on my face, thinking ‘Yeah, right’, but when I read it all the way through, I couldn’t think up a single reasonable refutation for the existence of God and the truth of Christianity. The doubts don’t go away, but they lost their intellectual firepower.

Hope this helps. I am :gopray: for you.
 
Pardon if this is redundant, but if you don’t believe in God, then why is this a question for you? 😉 You are closer to him than you know.
 
Just form a intelligent secular point of view, what harm could to do to believe?

Not many options:
Don’t believe and no God, nothing you rot.
Believe and no God, nothing you rot.
Don’t believe and ignore God, HELL!
Believe and turn form God, HELL!
Believe and follow God, HEAVEN!

Heck, doesn’t hurt to believe and follow, no negative repercussions and you have a chance to go to HEAVEN!
 
40.png
SLTS:
… so even though im a great person and i tried to believe but just can bring myself to, i am doomed to eternal damnation?
Click to expand...
Dear SLTS;

If you do not believe in God, why to you think you’re doomed? I think you do believe in God, because if you had no belief in God, you would be unconcerned with the possibility of damnation. (If there’s no God, there’s no one to send you to Hell, right?)

Ask yourself why you are concerned with damnation. If it’s because you recognize the *possibility * of God’s existence, then you have a starting point. Build on that.

Also, consider the fact that your bad acts may be preventing you from acknowledging God’s existence. If you did acknowledge God’s existence, then you would have to cease those bad acts that give you earthly pleasure - like sex outside of marriage and “recreational” drug use. I know those things are hard to give up, but the rewards for living a life in Christ are far more wonderful.

Peace be with you,
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top