Questioning Faith

[cobaltblue]

I’m a Roman Catholic (not really practicing, how many RC’s are nowadays?..however I do feel…i dunno the faith? once and a while). I’ve got a degree in criminology (minor in sociology), and working towards bachelor degrees in sociology and psychology.

I used to go to a private baptist school and thought of being a theologian, maybe even become a RC priest. However, in my experiences in life I’ve gradually lost the faith.

I don’t attend church regularly…in fact I haven’t been in to church in a year or so…I’m not sure what calls unto me anymore…I want to protect and help people, but with what I’ve seen in the past few years, I’m not sure I understand what the ol’ omnipotent one has planned.

I don’t really believe in the whole universal clockwork that ‘God’ has planned with each of us being a cog in said clock, but I do believe that something greater than what we can understand has helped nudge us into existence.

AI like to think I am a man of some science, and I believe in something bigger and better than us, but there are certain things that turn me off to the faith (which i find annoyances), such as a local christian that says, ‘oh do you have a headache let me lay hands on you and pray!’ (which can be explained by their food intake, you migraine prone people know what I’m talking about: chocolates, citrus and the like) or when i see a pregnant woman who has developed a recent vision problem (which science can explain towards water retention, hormones, and/or a higher blood pressure) and they lay hands on them, or even when said local has a bad day and prays to themselves ‘lord please help me not strangle someone today’)

Those are all things that a normal christian/catholic shouldn’t have problems addressing. (even then, there are things that most address such as crops, disease, bad luck (which you shouldn’t believe in that because you’re christian and god takes care of that) which science can cure).

Now I believe as a (so called) man of science I want to keep my faith, so I merged both science and religion. Religion says (according to the bible) that the earth is around 6-7K years old. I believe it to be 4 billion years old.

My conclusion: God is omnipotent, why should we base his time-line against ours? A fruit fly lives for about 6 months…humans about 80-90 years…(and in some instances 120 yrs)
the human/fly ratio is about 80 yrs/ 6months = 80*12= 960 months/6 months = 160x as much as common fruit fly. We are less than a common fruit fly to God.

I’m just throwing this out there for a some answers. Please do not refrain from depositing your thoughts unto this post, anything and everything is welcome.

Thanks.

 

[Flavius_Aetius]

Cite your source where the Bible states the world is only 6,000 years old; Catholics aren’t obliged to follow that fundamentalist thinking that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Mentioning it in such a black and white way only puts you and science in the white while allowing you to look down upon religion and give you an excuse to say “Religion is a backward ideal”

Also when saying this, I’m not attacking you personally. I’m guilty of a similar problem you share, any time I believe something isn’t logical it’s enough to cause me to question my own faith as well.

 

[kildare]

Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote an Encyclical some years back called Fides et Ratio where he spoke of the dangers and heresies of “blind faith” which leads to superstition and “only reason” which leads to nihilism.

Catholicism entails that you take on board both faith and reason.
You must be a man of Science and a man of God! You must believe “what is before your eyes”, for example the evidence that the Earth is 4billion years old, but also you must believe that the source of all Creation is the Love of God. In a scientific or mathematical or philosophical way, through Gödels theorem or Aquinas’s un-caused cause, we see that our human intellect reaches a limit. Also not all events are repeatable, subject to experiment or peer-review approval. Some things, like the creation of the Universe(or multi-verse) were simply unique. The belief in the unique circumstances of Christs birth and incarnation gives us a head above the nihilistic and pointless underpinning of the atheist worldview as much as it does above the fantastical mythological worldviews which make no rational sense at all.

Roman Catholic Christianity is, and always has been about reality, not fantasy.
Its not about Science, but it supports science and its coincidence that the modern scientific world grew up in medieval Europe and renaissance Italy right under the noses of the Popes.

 

[praxising]

. Religion says (according to the bible) that the earth is around 6-7K years old.

No, it doesn’t. Neither does the Church. Maybe you need some catechesis.

I believe it to be 4 billion years old.

You’re off by a couple billion years, maybe you need more science.

I don’t know if you’ll welcome my comments as you seem awfully lazy to me, it’s not like you seem to have researched anything and all your concerns have been dealt with in many places by many erudite persons of science and faith.

God is so much bigger than any of your concerns. Go to confession, return to Mass, and develop a regular prayer habit. Then try auditing the RCIA when it begins. For homework, discover the name of the scientist nun without whose work on DNA the Human Genome Project would *still *be limping along.

 

[PennyinCanada]

I have to agree with praxising.
God is indeed bigger than all your concerns.

You have been feeding your mind with your studies very well with your time and effort and have starved your faith until it’s shriveled up and dry. So easily done in this day when everything wrestles for our time where prayer life and sacraments can be put on the shelf.

Pray. Ask God to increase your faith. Come back to the sacraments and put in a bit of effort.

Have you ever heard of the miracle of Lanciano?
This is a wonderful place to start to freshen your spirit…

therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/lanciano.html

God bless you and strengthen your faith in this Easter season.
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!