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interesting questions & I suppose all fair ones. I wound up here because I’m on a business trip (long duration, and in a town I’ve never been too before). I’m a former Catholic so when I ran into CAF (through a google search) I was intrigued and decided to register & check it out.
Well, fair enough too. You have nothing better to do, and Catholic site still present ‘soft spot’ for you. So you come in and see what these guys are doing. Kind of to see how they are getting on or did I miss something after I left?
I noted you use the word ‘intrigue’. At least Catholicism still makes an impact on you and you are not indifferent to it.
I’m also not a normal atheist. I used to be quite a strong believer (or at least I had a high level of interest in theology, and I have a fairly extensive background in it). Perhaps all I ever had was intellectual assent (and religion gave me some semblance of belonging to something bigger than myself). Who knows (and I won’t bother with unproductive speculation).
You are in conflict; if you admit this you may find yourself in another interesting journey, by the grace of God. You are empty inside but don’t know what it is. Consider this as a time of grace; somehow, somewhere God is calling. Remember that he is a good shepherd. He would look for the lost sheep and if he finds one, he will leave the rest to get the one that is lost. You could be that ‘one’; it is a possibility. But if your spurn this invitation it may be a long time before you find one and it may be too late. Time is like a thief; it comes at an hour which we do not know.
At anyrate, I won’t get into why I don’t believe anymore, but suffice it to say it’s not out of anger with god, the existence of evil in the world, or anything like that. My reasoning is purely logical & I firmly believe god as described by all contemporary world religions simply doesn’t exist. Still, theology is somewhat entertaining to discuss (a doctor doesn’t have to have cancer to cure it does he? Well, neither does one have to believe what you believe to understand theology).
Such an intelligent person would surely admit that any interesting topic eventually will capture your interest too, rightly or wrongly.
So what is it? Are you sure you understand Catholicism and left after understanding it or you still have that doubt and maybe there is certain aspect of it that you had missed out? And that’s why you sort of testing the water here, in case, just in case, someone comes out with something that may convince you.
In other word you are seeking. Ah, the mind of an atheist, too mysterious to understand but nevertheless, he is just human, an ordinary human too.
Also I’m not here to prove religion wrong (you can’t prove anything to a biased audience). As far as happiness … I think I’m very happy (much more now than when I was Christian).
It’s good to hear that. I agree that happiness is relative. If you are better off today in happiness that you were yesterday, who are we to tell you otherwise?
I only like to share with you that I talked just like you before I knew God in a special way. And yes, I was a Catholic then. Could it be possible that you may miss something that you do not know today? Believe me; too many times we hear people thought they were alright, happy until they found out that there were more within them that might not be alright after all. You just need someone to p(name removed by moderator)oint that out.
I am not evangelizing you, you are too smart to have a mind of your own, but think for a second, could it be that you may miss out on something. There are just too many people went through your experience and once the shepherd finds them, they just have to eat their words when after all; they need a God because without Him they were nothing. We are only as much as we make ourselves to be without God, and that is, we are only lumps of human cells to be expired and deceased when the time comes.
God promise us eternal life and there is more to just being expired and deceased.
