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Genesis315
Guest
I voted for every single one except “married a believer” 
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m134e5
Guest
I did not believe in God in high school. I knew only the protestant fundamentalist version of Christianity, which I was raised in- they came across to me as hateful and angry. In High School, I renounced my faith. The day before I moved to college, I had to go to church with my family. I told God “that’s the last time I ever go to church!”. I considered myself athiest at the time- although I was really agnostic- I just didn’t know the term.
I came to believe in God because I knew that things couldn’t just come into existance out of nothing, and that humanity was too complex, and too amazing for it to be just an accident of nature. Through Catholicism, I learned there is more to God than a vengeful judge. God is an all-loving father. God is all-knowing, all-loving, all-merciful, but is also all-just. I read about people and got to know some people who were the most peaceful people I had ever heard of- and when I learned about the Sacraments, I knew why.
I had some issues at the time, and when they really broke me down, I admitted I couldn’t handle it alone, and asked if God was there, to answer me- and to save my life (I was dealing with a medical problem, among many things)- which is the miraculous part, because I shouldn’t be here now.
I came to believe in God because I knew that things couldn’t just come into existance out of nothing, and that humanity was too complex, and too amazing for it to be just an accident of nature. Through Catholicism, I learned there is more to God than a vengeful judge. God is an all-loving father. God is all-knowing, all-loving, all-merciful, but is also all-just. I read about people and got to know some people who were the most peaceful people I had ever heard of- and when I learned about the Sacraments, I knew why.
I had some issues at the time, and when they really broke me down, I admitted I couldn’t handle it alone, and asked if God was there, to answer me- and to save my life (I was dealing with a medical problem, among many things)- which is the miraculous part, because I shouldn’t be here now.
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HistoPhiloChick
Guest
Wow, great questions!
I haven’t always believed in God. My entire life, I’ve struggled with faith. I was born and then raised Catholic, but in highschool I started to disagree with many of the ideas within the faith. I still believed in God, but took a more generalized, non-denominational approach to God. When I hit University, I gave up my faith and for several months called myself an agnostic atheist. Occasionally God would still tap me on the shoulder and remind me He was there (I WAS at a Catholic university college…) and I’d go to Mass with a friend just to see what was said and done. But as of a few days ago, God really called me back from the edge. He revealed Himself to me. It wasn’t so much a “feeling” as it was my looking at the evidence, the probability, the acts of Jesus and his apostles… weighing it all out… and coming to the conclusion that Jesus was Lord and that God existed. I’m still looking at the Christian faith and I KNOW I’m a part of it, but I’m really wondering what church I fit into.
NanS, I’d like to encourage you in one thing: your daughter’s 18, and I’m 19. I’ve been where she is now, to a tee, and I want to let you know that she loves you as much as she always has, and is probably feeling very alone, lost, and needs some extra love right now, and compassion. Also please know that God can turn someone’s life around in a matter of moments. I’ll be praying for you and your family.
I just re-posted that so I had a reference in front of me.
I haven’t always believed in God. My entire life, I’ve struggled with faith. I was born and then raised Catholic, but in highschool I started to disagree with many of the ideas within the faith. I still believed in God, but took a more generalized, non-denominational approach to God. When I hit University, I gave up my faith and for several months called myself an agnostic atheist. Occasionally God would still tap me on the shoulder and remind me He was there (I WAS at a Catholic university college…) and I’d go to Mass with a friend just to see what was said and done. But as of a few days ago, God really called me back from the edge. He revealed Himself to me. It wasn’t so much a “feeling” as it was my looking at the evidence, the probability, the acts of Jesus and his apostles… weighing it all out… and coming to the conclusion that Jesus was Lord and that God existed. I’m still looking at the Christian faith and I KNOW I’m a part of it, but I’m really wondering what church I fit into.
NanS, I’d like to encourage you in one thing: your daughter’s 18, and I’m 19. I’ve been where she is now, to a tee, and I want to let you know that she loves you as much as she always has, and is probably feeling very alone, lost, and needs some extra love right now, and compassion. Also please know that God can turn someone’s life around in a matter of moments. I’ll be praying for you and your family.
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Big_Easy_Big
Guest
Pascal’s Wager
In the seventeenth century the mathematician Blaise Pascal formulated his infamous pragmatic argument for belief in God in Pensees. The argument runs as follows:
If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain nothing (death ends all), whereas if you erroneously disbelieve in God, you lose everything (eternal damnation).
How should you bet? Regardless of any evidence for or against the existence of God, Pascal argued that failure to accept God’s existence risks losing everything with no payoff on any count. The best bet, then, is to accept the existence of God. There have been several objections to the wager: that a person cannot simply will himself to believe something that is evidently false to him; that the wager would apply as much to belief in the wrong God as it would to disbelief in all gods, leaving the the believer in any particular god in the same situation as the atheist or agnostic; that God would not reward belief in him based solely on hedging one’s bets; and so on.
In the seventeenth century the mathematician Blaise Pascal formulated his infamous pragmatic argument for belief in God in Pensees. The argument runs as follows:
If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain nothing (death ends all), whereas if you erroneously disbelieve in God, you lose everything (eternal damnation).
How should you bet? Regardless of any evidence for or against the existence of God, Pascal argued that failure to accept God’s existence risks losing everything with no payoff on any count. The best bet, then, is to accept the existence of God. There have been several objections to the wager: that a person cannot simply will himself to believe something that is evidently false to him; that the wager would apply as much to belief in the wrong God as it would to disbelief in all gods, leaving the the believer in any particular god in the same situation as the atheist or agnostic; that God would not reward belief in him based solely on hedging one’s bets; and so on.
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kayla
Guest
Feeling absolut joy in the Lords presence…Weeping with joy in his Mercy
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Genesis315
Guest
The mercy of God is beautiful in the time of affliction, as a cloud of rain in the time of drought. (Ecclesiasticus 35:26)Feeling absolut joy in the Lords presence…Weeping with joy in his Mercy
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Nan_S
Guest
I was badly shaken in high school by an author named Erich von Danaken, who proclaimed that he had evidence of ancient astronauts visiting earth and that he could prove the miracles of the bible were just simple shepherds trying to understand space-age technology. Von Danaken was later proven to be a fraud, but the damage to my faith was done. Finally I reasoned that although scientists could explain many things with the “ancient astronauts” theory, and go beyond that to explain how one thing led or evolved into another, the scientists could never give a satisfactory answer to the origin of the origin. Where did the universe come from, and why? And that’s when I re-discovered God.
From there I moved on to Pascal’s Wager. I didn’t know someone had a name for it - I worked it out on my own. If I choose to believe, and God does not exist after all, I’ve lost nothing. And I’ve probably made a few other people’s lives nicer along the way, because the life rules given in the bible lead to mutual harmony and social good. If, on the other hand, I choose to NOT believe and take a “me first” attitude, I’ll step on other people along the way I’m sure; then after I die if I wake up again and find out God does exist after all… oops…
So I chose to believe in God. But if I was going to do that, I had better make sure I was following the RIGHT God and the RIGHT church. And that was the beginning of a long and interesting exploration that ultimately led me right back Home to Rome.
In the end, the reason I’m back here in the Catholic Church is because I asked the same hard questions of religions and churches everywhere, and the only one which could stand up to the questioning was the Catholic Church: *What do you teach? Why? Who established those doctrines and when? Do you have a comprehensive statement of faith and belief that all churches with this name MUST follow? If I walk into a church with this name in another town or state, am I going to hear the same teachings that I hear in this one? Or does your teaching change from one side of town to the other because of a minister’s “inspiration”? Has your basic doctrine changed because of social pressure or popular vote? Are you ignoring or whitewashing parts of scripture that are awkward for you? Can you prove from history that you have remained consistent? Can you back up your extra-biblical teachings with both history and scripture? When other churches challenge your teachings do you answer them head on from scripture and history? Or do you do a rapid tapdance, point to some out-of-context scriptures that don’t really answer the question, and quickly go off on a tangent? Once I remove all the icing, will I find that your church is about loving MYSELF or will I find that it is about worshipping HIM? *
HistoPhiloChick, you’re on a great website to ask those questions yourself of Catholics, and to hear solid answers given without hesitation. I encourage you to explore the Catholic Answers tracts on the Catholic Answers Home Page. Since you’re exploring, you might be interested to look HERE to find out how other Christian denominations attack Catholics and how the Catholic Church answers them.
You are much loved and appreciated. I am sure that God will eventually lead her back home. Catholic worship can be so dry for a teenager who receives constant stimulation from TV, movies, music.NanS, I’d like to encourage you in one thing: your daughter’s 18, and I’m 19. I’ve been where she is now, to a tee, and I want to let you know that she loves you as much as she always has, and is probably feeling very alone, lost, and needs some extra love right now, and compassion. Also please know that God can turn someone’s life around in a matter of moments. I’ll be praying for you and your family.
The best thing we’ve got going for us is Jesus’ sacred heart and the Holy Eucharist. The Real Thing is waiting for you here. Eventually I found that the entertainment offered elsewhere made me feel good about myself, but it was shallow. They told me I should change, and that I was changed, but they didn’t demand that my behaviour and worship prove, every day, that I had changed.
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Nan_S
Guest
The objections to Pascal’s Wager are simply attempts to blur the issue, and to avoid the basic question.
A person cannot simply will himself to believe something that is evidently false to him. Incorrect. Having realized that there is no way to disprove the basic premise, a person must accept that it CAN be true, no matter how false it initially feels to him.
The wager would apply as much to belief in the wrong God as it would to disbelief in all gods, leaving the the believer in any particular god in the same situation as the atheist or agnostic. Side issue/attempt to confuse. Pascals’ wager simply asks whether “God” could exist. It doesn’t attempt to define God. That responsibility is left to the person who honestly accepts the wager - to seek God with a sincere heart and try in his actions to do God’s will as he knows it. (By the way, The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 847, definitively states that salvation can indeed be achieved by such seekers.)
God would not reward belief in him based solely on hedging one’s bets. Partially correct only. If you truly accept Pascal’s Wager, you must follow through by seeking to find out what God wants and then do it. The reward comes not from the statement of belief; it comes from the follow-through. Saying you accept the bet and then doing nothing is essentially the same as believing you are “once saved-always saved” based on stumbling into a church one time, answering an altar call, and stumbling back out again forever.
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Strider
Guest
This is going to be quick. My wife & I are cradle Catholics, were away from the Church for 25 years because we didn’t understand the abuses of Vatican II. Mother Angelica brought us back and now we’re here big time & to stay.(Never went to any other church)
A miracle:
I use a wheelchair. I wear a 3" St., Benedict pectoral crucifix on the outside of my shirt.
I was going to a dinner where I would be smoking (when I still did) and drinking (but not to excess). I didn’t think it would look good to wear the crucifix with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth, so I left it home.
I dropped the fire from my cigarette, felt my leg burning and thought this is going to be a bad one.
When I looked at home, I had a .32 calibre-size hole in my leg, burned all the way down to the meat at the back of my thigh by that cigarette. It hurt lkike crazy.
Next morning, I loked for the burned hole in my ruined pants. Guess what? NOT A MARK! I got a third+ degree burn through a pair of pants and there wasn’t a mark of hole in them.
I haven’t left the house without that crucifix prominently showing since.
A miracle:
I use a wheelchair. I wear a 3" St., Benedict pectoral crucifix on the outside of my shirt.
I was going to a dinner where I would be smoking (when I still did) and drinking (but not to excess). I didn’t think it would look good to wear the crucifix with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth, so I left it home.
I dropped the fire from my cigarette, felt my leg burning and thought this is going to be a bad one.
When I looked at home, I had a .32 calibre-size hole in my leg, burned all the way down to the meat at the back of my thigh by that cigarette. It hurt lkike crazy.
Next morning, I loked for the burned hole in my ruined pants. Guess what? NOT A MARK! I got a third+ degree burn through a pair of pants and there wasn’t a mark of hole in them.
I haven’t left the house without that crucifix prominently showing since.
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hilde_the_dog
Guest
I like many of you are the prodigal son (daughter) who left a church in my case calvinist, I stopped going to church for 17 years. I knew it was death spiral I was in when you wake up with vomit in your hair and on you and it doesn’t matter - 18 hours of drinking and five packs of cigs. That’s no life. I slowly crawled back. My wife’s father was such a strong loving Catholic example (Legion of Mary). He allowed us to live in his house in seperate rooms (at the time not married) while we looked for a house to buy due a very strange twist of events that lead use there. OOOH WEEE OOOH. We bought a puppy ( he thought it was good) and then a house (which he got to see before dieing of a rare kidney disease). Then my church I grew up in MI decided to say I was not a member - which I was not, however my family was distraught. My wife and I went to an infrequent mass only to find out about RCIA. The rest is history and (now if you saw the thread on CCD) my life has totally changed — ( I don’t drink as musch ((intended))and quit smoking (true))). God does love the idiots and drunks - hey I will be doubly blessed. God save us
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huskerfan
Guest
I am a cradle Catholic who also never gave it much thought until so many things happened in my life that told me there had to be a God that loved me and was protecting me. In my life I have always *thought *I knew what was best for me but God always set me on the right track. My life has happened despite my choices and I realize the incredible gifts that I have been given.
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Gilbert_Keith
Guest
The reason I believe in God is Hope, a virtue practiced constantly by all of us but hardly ever talked about.
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coyote
Guest
I don’t *believe *in God. I know God is.
I don’t come by this knowledge by logic or reason. It is simply a certainty, an advocational “voice” that murmurs within my spirit. A vibrational energy which I struggle to keep tuned to. Adjusting to remain in harmony with.
As for miracles: yes, I have been privileged. One incident occurred during a time of extreme suicidal despair. I heard an audible, physical voice say to me, “I love you.” Emphasis on the “I”.
I was alone in the house in a room with the door closed. Unless I entertain paranoid delusions that some unknown person, for some unknown reason had surveillance equipment and a hidden intercom in there the voice could not have been human.
Also, at that moment a tiny sparkle of light in a great darkness appeared in my minds eye. This was my validation of hope, the so called “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Thank you.
I don’t come by this knowledge by logic or reason. It is simply a certainty, an advocational “voice” that murmurs within my spirit. A vibrational energy which I struggle to keep tuned to. Adjusting to remain in harmony with.
As for miracles: yes, I have been privileged. One incident occurred during a time of extreme suicidal despair. I heard an audible, physical voice say to me, “I love you.” Emphasis on the “I”.
I was alone in the house in a room with the door closed. Unless I entertain paranoid delusions that some unknown person, for some unknown reason had surveillance equipment and a hidden intercom in there the voice could not have been human.
Also, at that moment a tiny sparkle of light in a great darkness appeared in my minds eye. This was my validation of hope, the so called “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Thank you.
J
johnnycatholic
Guest
I wish I could say I came to believe in God because of Thomas Aquinas’ theory of First Cause with the Kalam argument against the usual objection that the universe is infinitely old, but that’s not how it happened. My mother converted when I was twelve. She converted because of Medjugorje. Before she converted she was a non-religious person, totally secular. This was all in the early 90’s.
The next year she heard about aan aparition in Conyers, Georgia. We took several trips to Conyers. On one of these visits I had gold writing miraculously appear on my hand. It had the word DEI and a winding arrow. My sister had a gold cross appear on her hand simultaneously. They both lasted about forty-five minutes. This was only one of several (mind blowing) miraculous things that happend on our trips to Conyers, but it has had a huge effect on my life and I was only thirteen. These events have held me firm in the faith and kept me from ever truly losing belief in God.
“The mind like the mouth was not always meant to be open, as the mouth closes on food the mind closes on truth.” G.K. Chesterton
The next year she heard about aan aparition in Conyers, Georgia. We took several trips to Conyers. On one of these visits I had gold writing miraculously appear on my hand. It had the word DEI and a winding arrow. My sister had a gold cross appear on her hand simultaneously. They both lasted about forty-five minutes. This was only one of several (mind blowing) miraculous things that happend on our trips to Conyers, but it has had a huge effect on my life and I was only thirteen. These events have held me firm in the faith and kept me from ever truly losing belief in God.
“The mind like the mouth was not always meant to be open, as the mouth closes on food the mind closes on truth.” G.K. Chesterton
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