Someone Help Me! Guess I'm Losing my Faith

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lylebr

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I really don’t know what to do anymore

I ask myself everytime. Because, I think i will lose my faith.

The main problem is, when I ask myself about my faith, is that i have no proper motives for it.
I live in a secular/atheist neighborhood, and guys are atheists. I have to give the hope inside of me everytime (1 Peter 3,15) and I am not being able to give proper reasons to the hope inside me!

And sometimes, I think I end up like a fool. They say that my faith is poisoning my reason. But how I conciliate my faith with my reason? Someone has something of the Church to show me?

And now, this days I was thinking about my faith.
It is like, that I think i am not being able to conciliate my reason with my faith, what the church has to say about it? I think my reason is weakening my faith.

Please, someone help me, Because I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m really desperate, I think I’m gonna be an atheist in a few days! And I know that an atheist life is such a horrible thing! It is terrible this nihilism! And i’ll have no escape!

They say that there are many evil churches and the Islam, and the jihadists, they say that Faith is such a horrible, horrible thing, even if there is a true one. And I shouldn’t believe in something that would comfort me, rather than it’s true, because as a catholic i allow all of them.
 
You have to realize that in a slightly different way, these people are just more anti-Catholics and treat them and their arguments accordingly.

Why are you “losing your faith”? Who cares what these people think? Your faith isn’t poisoning your intellect, they are.

Stop listening to them and hanging out with them and spend more time studying our most holy faith and reading the Bible at least a half hour a day because there’s a plenary indulgence attached to it.

I suggest that you invest in a couple of very good sources that will help answer your own questions and then others as well. You don’t have to be Superman, you just have to do your homework and then cowboy up.

shop.catholic.com/images/T/B0279t.gif
Beginning Apologetics Vol. 1
SKU: B0279

Volume I deals with defending Catholicism. Prepare yourself to answer challenges to the Catholic faith.

Our price: US$5.95
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Beginning Apologetics Vol. 4: How To Answer Atheists And New Agers
SKU: B0109

Learn the basis of the atheistic and new age belief systems, as well as how to give a Catholic response when faced with the questions that will inevitably come up while in conversation with atheists and new agers.

Our price: US$5.95

You might also want to get into the following FREE Catholic resources.
The Bible Christian Society
The Catholic Home Study Service
 
Have courage friend .
Faith and reason go side by side maybe in certain matters you require a different prospective
Human heart and mind have always rebelled against God.So the people that do evil in the world are either not really following their religion or are following a false religion.
It is very clear that in our Christian faith if we do such evil we are doing it against our religion
and GOD our source of faith and grace . Pray that we would understand this and get the
grace to act upon it . I will share with you a secret none of my friends speak anything like that
because i do act in a good way towards them and always try to help them,i am not boasting
but this works your attitude changes the way they look upon you and upon the religion you
follow. MAY GOD BLESS YOU
 
I have no view on what you should believe, but the life of an atheist is not horrible.
 
Hokomai said:
I have no view on what you should believe, but the life of an atheist is not horrible.
Click to expand...
:hug1:

For the OP:

When a child figures out that there is no Santa, at first this child would experience emotional loss and pain, then by time he’ll get used to it and live his life normally, he would even try to enlighten other children by telling them that there is no Santa.
 
Hi, I suggest you try to read this book :
amazon.com/The-Question-Box-Bertrand-Conway/dp/B00085B8O4

Try to read also the books from our Pope, you will find in his writings the clear water you need to drink.

It is not east to live in this world being Catholic in several aspects, and being surrounded by atheists is even worst.

Be Strong my dear Friend! :knight1:

All the best from Portugal
 
I think the Holy Spirit just spoke through you. Im a pretty deep thinker, and it nearly drove me to atheism & potentially nihilism. Ive felt persecuted by atheists, I still here them ridiculing me every time I search for some sign that God is there. But I have a deep desire to believe in Jesus and thats what keeps me going. Heres some qouets that are very (name removed by moderator)irational to me -

You know, the interesting thing about sceptics, atheists, is that we’re always looking for proof… certainty. The question is, what on earth would we do if we found it?
There have been times when i experience a total loss of faith, days, months when i dont know what the hell i believe in, God or the devil, santa clause or tinkerbell. Yet theres something that keeps digging & scraping away inside me, it feels like God’s fingernail, & finally i can take no more of the pain and i get shoved out from the darkness back into the light.

And in the end, I think it must be about faith, and if faith is a choice, then it can be lost - for a man, an angel, or the devil himself. And if faith means never completely understanding God’s plan, then maybe understanding just a part of it - our part - is what it is to have a soul. And maybe in the end, that’s what being human is, after all.

In the end, there’s still the word. Everywhere. In heaven with it’s angels, the Earth and stars; even in the darkest part of the human soul. It was there the word burned brightest, and for a moment… I was blinded.
 
It sounds like (1) more education and faith formation and (2) prayer could be useful.

Even if you have already been baptized and have received the sacraments of initiation, you could still attend RCIA classes, as a “refresher.” (My previous pastor used to recommend this to us.) Or find a Catholic Bible study or some other adult formation program through your parish or diocese. It sounds like you could benefit by being around other adults who are serious about their faith formation–spending time with people who are not serious about any faith is probably not helpful. You could even look into faith communities for lay people, like Third Order Franciscans, the Knights of Columbus, Lay Carmelites, Lay Dominicans, etc. etc.

Pray for faith, pray and actively look for the opportunity to meet well-formed adults who will be a support in your spiritual growth.

~Act of Faith~
O my God, I firmly believe that You
are one God in Three Divine Persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;
I believe that Your Divine Son
became man and died for our sins,
and that He will come to judge
the living and the dead.
I believe these and all truths
which the Holy Catholic Church teaches,
because You revealed them,
who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Amen.
 
Buy and read “The Last Superstition” to help open your eyes that it is atheism that is “deeply irrational and immoral”.

What you need to understand is that without a universal standard (God), it is nonsense to talk about good and evil, wonderful and horrible. There is no other rational standard once God is ruled out. Because bad things “hurt” people? So what, they’re just sacks of chemical reactions. Who cares if chemical reactions are “hurt”? Because evolution has given us “moral” instincts? So what, evolution has no value, it just is. The universe doesn’t give one hoot whether the human race exists or not.

When your atheist “friends” argue, learn to listen for them sneaking in unsupportable moral claims and judgements, and force them to justify those claims and judgements if there is no God, no universal standard. They can’t, and they’ve probably never been challenged to try.

Without God, if one is intellectually honest, there is no morality, only manipulation and power.
 
User124 said:
:hug1:

For the OP:

When a child figures out that there is no Santa, at first this child would experience emotional loss and pain, then by time he’ll get used to it and live his life normally, he would even try to enlighten other children by telling them that there is no Santa.
Click to expand...
What, no Flying Spaghetti Monster references? :rolleyes:
 
snarflemike said:
What, no Flying Spaghetti Monster references? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Can you disprove him physically? I guess no, then don’t laugh on my beliefs could you? :rolleyes:

Many use examples to make their points clearer, including the Biblical Jesus.
 
User124 said:
Can you disprove him physically? I guess no, then don’t laugh on my beliefs could you? :rolleyes:

Many use examples to make their points clearer, including the Biblical Jesus.
Click to expand...
A fake religion is no more likely to convince genuinely religious people to become atheist than a fake atheism will convince genuine atheists to become religious. Santa and the Flying Spaghetti Monster as proxies for religious faith are the Chick Tracts of atheism: only convincing to those who already agree with them.
 
lylebr said:
I really don’t know what to do anymore

I ask myself everytime. Because, I think i will lose my faith.

The main problem is, when I ask myself about my faith, is that i have no proper motives for it.
I live in a secular/atheist neighborhood, and guys are atheists. I have to give the hope inside of me everytime (1 Peter 3,15) and I am not being able to give proper reasons to the hope inside me!

And sometimes, I think I end up like a fool. They say that my faith is poisoning my reason. But how I conciliate my faith with my reason? Someone has something of the Church to show me?

And now, this days I was thinking about my faith.
It is like, that I think i am not being able to conciliate my reason with my faith, what the church has to say about it? I think my reason is weakening my faith.

Please, someone help me, Because I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m really desperate, I think I’m gonna be an atheist in a few days! And I know that an atheist life is such a horrible thing! It is terrible this nihilism! And i’ll have no escape!

They say that there are many evil churches and the Islam, and the jihadists, they say that Faith is such a horrible, horrible thing, even if there is a true one. And I shouldn’t believe in something that would comfort me, rather than it’s true, because as a catholic i allow all of them.
Click to expand...
You haven’t yet said how your faith is contradictory to your reason, so I don’t know how to be too specific with my suggestions. In short, there is no reason for thinking that faith contradicts reason; Thomas Aquinas for example, always insisted that faith and reason are not in conflict.

You also haven’t actually given any reasons that are causing you to doubt your belief except the stress that you find yourself in being surrounded by atheists who challenge your position. But this is not a good reason to doubt Christianity at all.

In short, what it sounds like you need to do is simply learn to give reasons for the hope within. Since it sounds like this is new to you, I will give a few suggestions.

This website, under the popular articles section is quite good. The writer is a prominent Christian philosopher, who regularly debates atheists.

As a useful book to get, I would suggest:
WL Craig, On Guard, available cheaply from Amazon.

Finally, you should understand that nothing you cite here is a reason to abandon faith. So what if Islam or other religions are bad, you are not defending them, just orthodox Christianity. Are they really claiming that since Islam is bad, you should reject Christianity? What sort of absurd argument is that. As to believing something because it is true, well, yes, you should, but what does that have to do with this. You could easily tell them the same thing. We don’t believe Christianity because it makes us feel good, but because it is true. They disagree, fine, but they need to show that not simply claim it and rant about how bad religion and faith is.
 
+JMJ+
lylebr said:
I really don’t know what to do anymore

I ask myself everytime. Because, I think i will lose my faith.

The main problem is, when I ask myself about my faith, is that i have no proper motives for it.
I live in a secular/atheist neighborhood, and guys are atheists. I have to give the hope inside of me everytime (1 Peter 3,15) and I am not being able to give proper reasons to the hope inside me!

And sometimes, I think I end up like a fool. They say that my faith is poisoning my reason. But how I conciliate my faith with my reason? Someone has something of the Church to show me?

And now, this days I was thinking about my faith.
It is like, that I think i am not being able to conciliate my reason with my faith, what the church has to say about it? I think my reason is weakening my faith.

Please, someone help me, Because I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m really desperate, I think I’m gonna be an atheist in a few days! And I know that an atheist life is such a horrible thing! It is terrible this nihilism! And i’ll have no escape!

They say that there are many evil churches and the Islam, and the jihadists, they say that Faith is such a horrible, horrible thing, even if there is a true one. And I shouldn’t believe in something that would comfort me, rather than it’s true, because as a catholic i allow all of them.
Click to expand...
Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian.
G.K. Chesterton

Is that a big enough reason to remain faithful? 😃
 
lylebr said:
I really don’t know what to do anymore

I ask myself everytime. Because, I think i will lose my faith.

The main problem is, when I ask myself about my faith, is that i have no proper motives for it.
I live in a secular/atheist neighborhood, and guys are atheists. I have to give the hope inside of me everytime (1 Peter 3,15) and I am not being able to give proper reasons to the hope inside me!

And sometimes, I think I end up like a fool. They say that my faith is poisoning my reason. But how I conciliate my faith with my reason? Someone has something of the Church to show me?

And now, this days I was thinking about my faith.
It is like, that I think i am not being able to conciliate my reason with my faith, what the church has to say about it? I think my reason is weakening my faith.

Please, someone help me, Because I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m really desperate, I think I’m gonna be an atheist in a few days! And I know that an atheist life is such a horrible thing! It is terrible this nihilism! And i’ll have no escape!

They say that there are many evil churches and the Islam, and the jihadists, they say that Faith is such a horrible, horrible thing, even if there is a true one. And I shouldn’t believe in something that would comfort me, rather than it’s true, because as a catholic i allow all of them.
Click to expand...
Well, first of all look at their arguments and see how they are based on emotions and (unsurprisingly) inconsistent.

For example, “They say that there are many evil churches and the Islam, and the jihadists”. Well, are you a Muslim? Try the same approach with them: tell them that Stalin was an atheist and did a lot of evil (to put it mildly). They will easily spot the flaw in this argument and say that essentially, they are not Stalinists and do not have to defend Stalin. And yet they do not see that their own argument has the same flaw?

Also, you can use their assertion that Islam is evil against them in some more ways. For if they say that Islam is so evil, how will they avoid saying that use of military force and internal security agencies against Islam might be good…? And if they do so, they will end up praising crusades and inquisition - and perhaps even harsher versions of them. I don’t think they will like the conclusion they are going to reach that way… 🙂

Of course, a Muslim apologist would find some explanations why Islam is not evil, but I don’t think that is the highest priority for you at the moment. 🙂

And who knows… Maybe, after you will see how unreasonable and self-contradicting their position is, each discussion will strengthen your faith instead of weakening it…?

And, as it has been advised, prayer and study would also help. For example, read “Summa Theologica” and “Summa contra Gentiles” by St. Thomas Aquinas. That way you will see that there are arguments that support the Catholic position.

Oh, and if you will run into some argument you won’t be able to answer, ask here, in this forum. 🙂
 
lylebr said:
I really don’t know what to do anymore

I ask myself everytime. Because, I think i will lose my faith.

The main problem is, when I ask myself about my faith, is that i have no proper motives for it.
I live in a secular/atheist neighborhood, and guys are atheists. I have to give the hope inside of me everytime (1 Peter 3,15) and I am not being able to give proper reasons to the hope inside me!

And sometimes, I think I end up like a fool. They say that my faith is poisoning my reason. But how I conciliate my faith with my reason? Someone has something of the Church to show me?

And now, this days I was thinking about my faith.
It is like, that I think i am not being able to conciliate my reason with my faith, what the church has to say about it? I think my reason is weakening my faith.

Please, someone help me, Because I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m really desperate, I think I’m gonna be an atheist in a few days! And I know that an atheist life is such a horrible thing! It is terrible this nihilism! And i’ll have no escape!

They say that there are many evil churches and the Islam, and the jihadists, they say that Faith is such a horrible, horrible thing, even if there is a true one. And I shouldn’t believe in something that would comfort me, rather than it’s true, because as a catholic i allow all of them.
Click to expand...
A couple of videos by Fr. Barron might be helpful.

youtube.com/watch?v=xstlgzrXvLg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

youtube.com/watch?v=Xe5kVw9JsYI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
lylebr said:
I really don’t know what to do anymore

I ask myself everytime. Because, I think i will lose my faith.

The main problem is, when I ask myself about my faith, is that i have no proper motives for it.
I live in a secular/atheist neighborhood, and guys are atheists. I have to give the hope inside of me everytime (1 Peter 3,15) and I am not being able to give proper reasons to the hope inside me!

And sometimes, I think I end up like a fool. They say that my faith is poisoning my reason. But how I conciliate my faith with my reason? Someone has something of the Church to show me?

And now, this days I was thinking about my faith.
It is like, that I think i am not being able to conciliate my reason with my faith, what the church has to say about it? I think my reason is weakening my faith.

Please, someone help me, Because I don’t know what to do anymore, I’m really desperate, I think I’m gonna be an atheist in a few days! And I know that an atheist life is such a horrible thing! It is terrible this nihilism! And i’ll have no escape!

They say that there are many evil churches and the Islam, and the jihadists, they say that Faith is such a horrible, horrible thing, even if there is a true one. And I shouldn’t believe in something that would comfort me, rather than it’s true, because as a catholic i allow all of them.
Click to expand...
Being a Roman Catholic, you have a faith that has been using reason for 2k years. Far longer, and given their failure rate, far more effectively than atheistic philosophies. I’m sure someone on here can link some works that explain and dicuss the use of reason within the Roman Catholic faith.

As to the “don’t believe in something that comforts you if it’s not true,” I’m sure your friends take comfort in their faith in this unprovable statement.
 
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