Is Christianity true

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rosejmj

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I went to Mass today and I couldn’t help but think that everything was just a lie. In the homily the priest was talking about Jesus and his suffering and death and I just couldn’t stop thinking that it(Christianity) is all a lie and that everything that was being said was only helping to convince me of that. I can’t believe I ever truly believed it…

I know I should do research so that I have more of an intellectual basis for dismissing Christianity. I don’t know what to think. I was raised in a super Catholic family and have been kind of sheltered and the Faith has always been important to me - like the center of my life. Even if it is not true it will always affect how I see things.
 
It is real. Don’t let Satan tempt you with doubtful thoughts. Jesus loves you!
 
rosejmj said:
I went to Mass today and I couldn’t help but think that everything was just a lie.
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Such thoughts come from the Devil, so your first reaction to them should be to ask Jesus to please drive the Devil away when you get such a thought. You can also ask Mother Mary, St. Joseph (the Terror of Demons), St. Michael and St. Benedict to help.

Do not let such thoughts take root.
 
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It’s okay to have doubts. It’s part of being human.

Won’t try to tell you you’re wrong or anything, but I will pray for you, if you’d like.
 
heavenjoans71 said:
I’m even afraid to pray to Jesus now.
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Never be afraid to pray. Either you believe prayer is good or you don’t believe in prayer. Prayer can’t do you any harm. Jesus believes in you even as your faith wavers.
God bless and keep you both.
 
I’m Jewish. Even though I don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, I don’t believe that Christianity is a lie.

As the Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity stated:
Both Jews and Christians have a common covenantal mission to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty…We Jews and Christians have more in common than what divides us: the ethical monotheism of Abraham; the relationship with the One Creator of Heaven and Earth, Who loves and cares for all of us; Jewish Sacred Scriptures; a belief in a binding tradition; and the values of life, family, compassionate righteousness, justice, inalienable freedom, universal love and ultimate world peace.
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The things we share in common that I as a Jew love dearly are not worthless nor empty like the lies of the world. Thus you cannot say that the Christianity you practice “is all a lie.” It is not. We both share in a most marvelous, priceless heritage, one of truth and enlightenment.

Christians are not alone in the world. The beautiful, sacred truths found in the Roman Catholic Church are an inheritance from the Jewish Patriarchs still shared with among the Children of Israel. We are together in drinking truths from the richness that flows down from Zion.

You may wish to speak with your parish priest about your feelings or another cherished spiritual counselor that you can trust. You should also consider joining a basics class in your faith as a review or refresher (or perhaps find some people to go over the adult catechism in a discussion circle with you). These steps might help you to see the validity of what you have been taught and bring new light to the faith which you belong to.
 
What sort of doubts in specific that you have in regard to Jesus’ suffering and death? For me personally I believe in Christianity not only because of faith that was given to me by the works of the Holy Spirit, but there are good intellectual reasons to believe in Christianity.

Do you believe in the historicity of the gospel? If so, then you need to believe that these things are historical event : 1) Jesus was dead on the cross; 2)Jesus’ tomb was empty; 3)Jesus was seen by multiple people at the same time, from the apostles all the way to 500 witness; 4) These witness were truly convinced of the risen Jesus that they were willing to die for it

Besides resurrection, what do you think might explain these phenomenon? If you believe in resurrection that is enough basis to believe in Christianity because like Paul said in 1 Corinthian 15 the entire faith of Christianity stand or fall with the resurrection
 
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I believe Jesus existed. I have heard the argument that if Jesus Rose from the dead then he must be Good and therefore Christianity would be true. But I don’t think that explanation is good enough for me. I would have to do some research on it. Also if it was that simple than why do so many intelligent people reject Christianity?
 
Read up on the historical validity of the Resurrection.

The main reason I’m Catholic is because there is overwhelming evidence that the Resurrection took place.

If you have any doubts about Christianity, you shouldn’t brush them off. You should confront them. If Christianity is true, then it’ll withstand whatever questions you have.

In fact, some of the questions you’ve mentioned in your post aren’t uncommon; they’ve been asked many times in the past too. It’s normal to have doubts like this. I and a few other friends of mine did too.
 
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rosejmj said:
why do so many intelligent people reject Christianity?
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Why do so many intelligent people believe in Christianity? It’s definitely a matter of faith, not intelligence. I have a fairly high I.Q., so does converting to Catholicism make me gullible or less intelligent? I’ve been enlightened, I’ve had the truth revealed to me and scales have fallen from my eyes. It’s not an intellectual exercise for me.
 
There are books that you could read on that, such as the case for Christ. I don’t think that because many intelligent people does not believe we could say that therefore Christianity is false, that’s a logical fallacy there is also a lot of intelligent people that believed in Christianity even those in the field of science, many of the Church Fathers were intelligent modern apologist such as Peter Kreeft and William Lane Craig are intelligent, you could try reading their works and I think it would hard to say that they are objectively unintelligent. Even if you are true that there are more intelligent people not believing in Christianity, it does not follow that therefore Christianity is false. Not a lot of people believed that the earth is round at first, it does not follow that therefore the earth is not round.

But if you are searching for the Christian answer, as a protestant I believe that it’s because creation has fallen and therefore truth that should be obvious to men (this is what usually called general revelation) and even direct revelation from God is obscured, because men are fallen creatures.

Here are some scientists in history that believed in Christianity contrary to what atheist may claim :
 
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rosejmj said:
I went to Mass today and I couldn’t help but think that everything was just a lie. In the homily the priest was talking about Jesus and his suffering and death and I just couldn’t stop thinking that it(Christianity) is all a lie and that everything that was being said was only helping to convince me of that. I can’t believe I ever truly believed it…

I know I should do research so that I have more of an intellectual basis for dismissing Christianity. I don’t know what to think. I was raised in a super Catholic family and have been kind of sheltered and the Faith has always been important to me - like the center of my life. Even if it is not true it will always affect how I see things.
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There is only one truth & that truth is God. God is love. If you’ve ever experienced love, you’ve known God. Spoke with him. You’ve known Jesus.

Humble yourself, listen to the prayers, readings, hymns of the Mass. Understand it is all God communicating to you how much He loves you.

That’s the truth.
 
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rosejmj said:
Also if it was that simple than why do so many intelligent people reject Christianity?
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Having worldly “intelligence” such as reasoning skills and high IQ is not necessarily helpful to understanding God, because much of one’s understanding from God comes from faith, not from logical reasoning skills. In the Gospels, St. Peter shows that he has a grasp of Jesus being God’s Son even though he’s a poor, relatively uneducated fisherman, whereas the highly educated scribes and Pharisees often don’t understand Jesus’ teachings and don’t comprehend that he is the Son of God because they don’t have faith.

You need to pray for the gift of faith. If you’re plagued by doubts that Jesus existed or is God, then it’s highly unlikely that just reading the right apologetics book is going to somehow convince you.
 
This is very common. At some point we should all confront “what if I’m wrong” about my beliefs?

For different people it’s different. For secular friends of mine it often takes the form of doubting if people are actually good. Others might ask “how do I know that human rights are real?”

Is Catholicism true? My best advice for discerning this is to read people’s works who are respected experts in their own field. So, hit the books. Buy or barrow what they give graduate students on the history of Jesus. That will give you a good basis on what is normal in scholarly opinion.

Harvard also publishes summary works on philosophical topics. That’s a good place to start.

I’d also recommend William t Cavanaugh’s work “the myth of religious violence” which is about what a coherent definition of religion is. Ignore the title of the book, editors choose those not the author.

I was raised secular and converted to Catholicism at the age of 20 four years ago. It was a big choice, and I think I was correct to do so. It simply is more internally coherent than the secular belief system I was raised with.

Good luck and god bless!
 
As has been said above, doubt is natural and many believers experience it. But BenJosef is right. Whether or not you find your faith in Christianity, it is not true to say that it is a lie.
 
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I’m sorry you lost your faith in the Resurrection. There are some great replies in this thread for advice that might help clear some of your doubts. Faith is greater than, but similar to something like trust. As you know, when trust is lost, there is no certainty that it will be regained, although in time and by clearing some misconceptions away, it can return, if you really want it to. God bless you.
 
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