What Makes You Believe?

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PonderingJak

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The title is pretty self-explanatory, but I’m wondering what makes some of you believe in God/the Catholic Church/Christianity in general
 
Because I was taught to pray to God, since a child, and I have talked to Him my whole life and He has answered my prayers and talked back to me through His word in the Bible. Sometimes I have been silent, and He has, too. But I know He is still there. I see, feel, smell, taste and hear the evidence all around me.

The truth is out there.
Seek and you will find it.
The truth is Jesus.
He is God’s love sent down to us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Those who believe in him are not condemned;
but those who do not believe are condemned already,
because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world,
and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light,
so that their deeds may not be exposed.
But those who do what is true come to the light,
so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

Read the Gospel of John
 
When I think about the universe around me, the beauty of the sky, the complexity of living systems, of the human body, how everything operates in an orderly fashion, right down to the microscopic organelles within a cell, I cannot bring myself to believe that this all just happened and was thrown together by chance. That all men have some concept of morality, but no greater purpose that placed it there. I feel that there must have been some guiding hand, a divine Artist and Creator.

That’s not my only reason for believing in God, but that’s what I think of whenever I consider the arguments against His existence.
 
When I think about the universe around me, the beauty of the sky, the complexity of living systems, of the human body, how everything operates in an orderly fashion, right down to the microscopic organelles within a cell, I cannot bring myself to believe that this all just happened and was thrown together by chance. That all men have some concept of morality, but no greater purpose that placed it there. I feel that there must have been some guiding hand, a divine Artist and Creator.

That’s not my only reason for believing in God, but that’s what I think of whenever I consider the arguments against His existence.
My thoughts too. All one has to do is take a look outside, the sheer complexity and beauty (although things have gone wrong with it, which fits perfectly with the fall of man), it was definitely created.

http://s15.postimg.org/qql2cia6j/user87190_pic16532_1393062235.jpg

I hope this has helped

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
I believe because that belief gives me comfort and help in this world, that there is a higher power than what I see here and I want to get to heaven. There is only one name to call upon for the forgiveness of our sins and that is Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, our intercessor before Almighty God.
 
I simply feel compelled to echo M…Rue. Happy New Year to all.
 
I have an intimate relationship with him. I know him as well as married people know their spouses. Better.
 
Baptism is why I believe, where we receive faith, hope, charity, from God. And then it grows from there.

Why does an adult believe before baptism? Because he receives graces to prepare for baptism in the good ground the person has cultivated with good will and openness.

Why doesn’t a person believe? Explained by Jesus in the parable about seed falling on hard ground, birds stealing it, and thorns choking it out.
 
What makes me believe is the Grace that allows me to have enough humility to see that I could never have achieved anything alone without His help.
 
The title is pretty self-explanatory, but I’m wondering what makes some of you believe in God/the Catholic Church/Christianity in general
The Catholic Church makes me feel more at home; a place of spiritual repose and renewal. I had a hard time dealing with Christians in college and high school who believed the best way to make people convert is through cherry picking verses and only saying “Believe in Jesus as the savior who died for your sins or you’re going to rot in Hell for all eternity.” These kinds of statements are bold, but it’s an ultimatum. That scares people away from God or convert not out of love, but out of total wicked fear. Where’s God? Where are the things Jesus did aside from his crucifixion? Catholic Church takes a more mature and true belief in Scripture.I feel the Catholic Church for many years has studied the bible so well that really what they say, goes. Communion of saints is a nice tradition that is supported from biblical text. Knowing that there are people in Heaven who can intercede for us can be a nice feeling. I suppose for God, he did create us and hasn’t left the side of good. Even for the non-believers, what risk and cost is there to become Christian? (Well there are a large sum, almost all of them immoral) I look at Jesus Christ as someone who fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament.
 
Belief in God comes from the holy spirit.
That really is the key here.

Technically speaking, anyone who believes only believes because they are cooperating with grace.

Having said that, there’s nothing about Catholicism which contradicts reason. I’m sorry, but anyone who thinks our faith is somehow anti-intellectual needs to spend some time with St. Thomas Aquinas.

But having said that, it’s a bit of a mistake to think that such-and-such amount of intellectualizing will get you to where you need to be. The intellect can understand and grasp Catholicism, but *only supernatural faith allows a person to assent to it. *

I think that, for most people, they just need to see enough academic, scholarly stuff to trust a little bit, to dispose themselves to faith.
 
The title is pretty self-explanatory, but I’m wondering what makes some of you believe in God/the Catholic Church/Christianity in general
Because God exists, Jesus exists, Christianity is true, and the Catholic Church is true. Because God has changed my life and continues to change me.
 
This was explained to me some time ago, and it makes much sense:

The Catholic Church is like a three-legged stool. We have 1. Sacred Scripture, 2.God-given authority (Magisterium), and 3. Tradition (with a capital “T”).

Take away just one of those legs and it doesn’t stand up.
 
You are on the “outside”, looking in to the “inside” of Catholicism, the Church, the Kingdom of God (the People established by God when Jesus was anointed as its King).

We were all, at some point, looking in at Jesus and his People from the “outside”, like you. And even now, when we “sin” (when we position ourselves away from this People) we are again looking in at them from a relatively external viewpoint.

The fact is, in seeing them, in seeing that People, in seeing Jesus, his “apostles” (today, the Pope, Bishops, Priests, and all the Citizens of that Kingdom of Christ), we find it to be a very desirable situation. We imagine what it would be like to be united with them, to be one of them. They are told, and believe, that they have new life, and they actually seem to be doing their activities in the world virtuously. They enact rituals of interaction with God, with an understanding that God is interacting in the material rituals also, because Jesus, their King, instructed them that it is true.

So, looking in from the outside, it was like falling in love with someone - you desire to be united. What do you do? You ask the other person to join to you. That is all you can do. And that is what we do. We asked the Church to join us to Christ, to take us into the inside. Initially we were granted Citizenship in this People when they anointed us as new Creatures, new Citizens of Christ, in Baptism. And we also seek to return inside when we sin, when we falsely position ourselves away from this People, but return in repentance with contrition.

That is what joins us to Christ, to the Church, to the People. Christ appeared as a “desirable suitor” to be appealing to our rational and communal nature. And he has his divine nature to give to us in our union, his Holy Spirit, which he gives us when he joins us into himself, into his People. When baptized, it was pronounced, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

As to why we believe on the inside - everything actually makes sense that we believe, but what you are asking about is the “basis of knowing it is true”. You are asking, “How do you know that God is Trinity?” or “What makes you believe that?”

The descriptions of the Trinity all make sense, but whether it is true - that is our Faith - we know it is true. Why do we believe it? Simply because from the beginning we found Jesus, and union with Him, to be appealing, desirable. We find it is Good to be on the inside with Him. From the outside it looked like he and his people were special and good. And we find it is delightful on the inside. Union with this People, with Him is very Good, and keeps getting better.
 
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