Lost Faith

[nairdadrian]

Hi,

I’ve been a strong believer of the Catholic faith ever since I was born. And really strong, I felt incredibly close to God. But then I read “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pulman. Actually, I only read the first two books, and half of the last one, at which point I couldn’t read any further. I don’t find myself as a gullible person, but all the questions that came to my mind after reading the books; they can’t get out of my head. I know there is a God out there, I know for a fact. But I’m doubting everything I’ve ever believed in. I’ve lost all closeness to Him and I need help finding Him.

 

[Mini_gerbel]

what are those books about?

 

[beckycmarie]

Sadly, those books are accomplishing what they set out to do - indoctrinate the young with atheistic ideas. The author is a militant atheist who made it his goal to create the atheist version of *The Chronicles of Narnia. *

Are you going to let that foolish author convince you to turn your back on the God who sent his Son to die on a cross for you? Maybe watching the Passion of the Christ, or just reflecting on his Passion, will remind you of the love that came down from heaven for you.

Throw those books away! Pick up the Bible and pray for God to sustain your faith. You’ll be in my prayers.

 

[FCEGM]

Did you know the nature of Pulman’s books before you read them? I ask this because we often forget that even though we have been baptized we still struggle with a fallen nature which includes intellects that are weakened and thus often unable to separate the wheat from the chaff. When we presume that we are strong enough to endure reading such materials, we may quickly find that we have presumed on our own strength and not on God’s wisdom that would have guided us away from reading them in the first place.

That said, now is the time to be humbly place yourself before God, trusting in his tender and personal love for you. Also, do not give up your daily prayer and include in your prayers each day the Act of Faith; in this you will be submitting your intellect and your will to Him.

 

[Thomas63116]

I haven’t read the books, but I know a number of people are concerned about them. Remember that it is a work of fiction.

Doubt is not always a bad thing. It can lead to prayerful study and ultimately a deeper understanding of one’s faith.

Are there specific questions the book has raised that you would like help with?

 

[joeybaggz]

Hi!
I notice that you are a new member like myself and I emphasize with your dilemma. I have spend a good time “lurking” on the religion forum on Amazon and have read a good many of the atheists’ and agnostics’ posts. A couple of thoughts:

You say you are doubting everything you’ve come to believe. Well, a guy named Thomas did too. Doubt is a good thing, and it’s natural for us when we come across ideas contrary to our own. Thomas’ doubt wasn’t either a sin or a denial of Jesus. It was a normal human reaction to a dilemma. Thomas had trouble believing something to be true that his own eyes told him was not. Eventually, his doubt was resolved. But notice from the story that Thomas’s doubt wasn’t resolved immediately. Don’t be disturbed that the answers aren’t immediate. Your answers, so long as you seek them in a spirit of faith and trust in God, will come in time.

A second thought, being exposed to contrary ideas isn’t a bad thing. In fact, they just may be the vehicle for you to strengthen your faith. Realize that all strength come through resistance. We build physical muscles by lifting weighs not potato chips. Seeking answers to disturbing questions will help strengthen your faith. This forum, and especially terrific apologists like Karl Keating and others will help provide those answers.

And third, while there is truth in some of the objections that non believers offer, you will find that their ‘truth’ is slanted to support their positions. And often, when the positions of those who doubt or deny God, Jesus, and the Church, are shown to be biased or or devious, they shift their tactics to belittle or ridicule. After all, the atheist who truly believes that their is no God, bases his argument and proof on demonstrable/scientific proof, is arguing that the mathematical/scientific equation, 0 + 0 = 0 is not true. They twist science and logic to proove that all existence comes from nothing and nowhere. And, try as any person might, you cannot prove love. It is a dimension of the human experience that is outside scientific logic and proof.

Your question have to be many and difficult. Ask them, especially on a forum like this one. After all, the eternal truth that is Jesus (I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life) will stand the scrutiny of those who mock it.

 

[John_Hiner]

Hi,

I’ve been a strong believer of the Catholic faith ever since I was born. And really strong, I felt incredibly close to God. But then I read “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pulman. Actually, I only read the first two books, and half of the last one, at which point I couldn’t read any further. I don’t find myself as a gullible person, but all the questions that came to my mind after reading the books; they can’t get out of my head. I know there is a God out there, I know for a fact. But I’m doubting everything I’ve ever believed in. I’ve lost all closeness to Him and I need help finding Him.

Laudatur Iesus Christus.

Dear Nairdadrian:

Faith is based on truth. Reason and not feeling is the faculty with which one engages truth. Faith based on “feeling” close to God is topsy-turvy, or to use the Latin term, preposterous.

I have only read the first of the books in the series you named, however, it is clear from that alone that the people depicted in the book are evil. From the first to the last the little girl who is the main character is vile in her selfish indifference to others. (An indifference mirrored by the author’s choices in telling the story as he does.) Considering her parents and the fallen “church,” (dedicated to physical science) which is depicted in the book, one can hardly be surprised that she is vile.

Sustained exposure to evil, with a vile person depicted as the “heroine,” is a deadening experience. The first book of the series you mention is a sustained attack on innocence, chastity, the humanity of children, family, motherhood, fatherhood, knowledge, truth, and thus on God Himself. Experiencing this as an adventure story exposes one’s emotions to the damage unavoidably associated with such vampiric evil.

Reason looking into the eyes of a friend tells us that man’s soul is not an animal. Reason smiling at an excited child who has discovered a new delight in the world tells us that a child’s soul is not a fluxing and unformed animal. The daemons protruding from Pullman’s characters are exploitive reductions of humanity. They obscure rather than clarify truth. They do not even honestly question; they distract and lie.

This suggests that some of the “questions” which plague you might be chimera and not true questions. However, one need not fear such scorpions and dragons, so long as one is willing to face them and test whether they are fake, before one accepts them as true challenges to knowledge and pointers to the chinks in the veil that shrouds the truth.

Let us consider the purported questions, dismiss those that are fake, and explore what insights can be gleaned from pursuing the others.

Spiritus Sapientiae tecum.

John Hiner