Why Can't You Do Anything Without God?

[PonderingJak]

I’ve heard that people can’t do anything without God’s grace, but why then are there rich, successful atheists that misuse more money than any charitable organization ever sees? If I behave good or bad, apparently it’s “God’s graces,” how come?

 

[TarkanAttila]

I’ve heard that people can’t do anything without God’s grace, but why then are there rich, successful atheists that misuse more money than any charitable organization ever sees? If I behave good or bad, apparently it’s “God’s graces,” how come?

Who created you? Who created everything you have? And who keeps you alive every second you are alive, and takes your life away when He sees fit?

We don’t understand why “the rain falls on the good and the bad alike”. And frankly, we’re not in a position to. Our only job is to play the hand we’re dealt, and to play it for God. And He wins in the end, anyway.

 

[unstoppable_II]

I’ve heard that people can’t do anything without God’s grace, but why then are there rich, successful atheists that misuse more money than any charitable organization ever sees? If I behave good or bad, apparently it’s “God’s graces,” how come?

I believe St. Thomas Aquinas developed a proof of God using the existence of motion. IOW, without God, there would be no motion.

 

[Evania]

I’ve heard that people can’t do anything without God’s grace, but why then are there rich, successful atheists that misuse more money than any charitable organization ever sees? If I behave good or bad, apparently it’s “God’s graces,” how come?

The mere fact that they are alive is due to God’s grace. Whether they choose to know, love and serve Him is an exercise of their own free will. God doesn’t condone their sinfulness; however He gives them every opportunity to come to Him until the end of their earthly lives. So if your behavior is bad it is due to your freedom to choose evil, which goes back to the garden of Eden, (Gen 3:5), “Ye shall be like gods.” However your sinfulness isn’t because of God’s grace, but it is in spite of it.
When the original sin happened, Adam also blamed God. God’s response was to send a Savior. That is Grace.

 

[mikekle]

I think a similar question would be, how are these successful, rich, atheist people happy and content in their lives, without God in it? Arent people who deny God supposed to have ‘empty’ feelings, always searching to fill the void in their lives?

Yeah, I know quite a few people like this, and some of them, I can honestly say they are VERY content and happy in their lives, their relationships…and God never enters into their thoughts, this makes no sense to me.

Not that these people are out worshiping satan or revel in acts of evil, no, they are good people, give to charities, help others as much as they can, remain faithful to their spouses, etc…How is any of this possible, if they are denying God?

 

[unstoppable_II]

I think a similar question would be, how are these successful, rich, atheist people happy and content in their lives, without God in it? …

I had an uncle from the old country who told me, “To know what goes on in a family, you have to eat a ton of pepper with them.”

 

[TarkanAttila]

Yup.

Many Atheists are happy, wonderful people living very purposeful, rich-in-love lives with successful careers and big hearts.

And…you forgot the flip side…there are many Theists out there who feel unhappy, empty, desperate and lonely…as per a lot of posts on this forum that I’ve seen.

.

As someone who likes Aristotelian philosophy, and knows a little, I think happiness can be understood in a different way from pleasure or elation.

Happiness, or blessedness, is being as one ought to be. In a sense, no one’s ever fully “happy” until we see the Beatific Vision. But I think it’s quite possible to be “happy” - blessed - without feeling any positive feelings.

 

[fred_conty]

Some insight.

Psalm 73

How good God is to Israel,
to those who are pure of heart.
Yet my feet came close to stumbling,
my steps had almost slipped
for I was filled with envy of the proud
when I saw how the wicked prosper.

For them there are no pains;
their bodies are sound and sleek.
They have no share in men’s sorrows;
they are not stricken like others.

So they wear their pride like a necklace,
they clothe themselves with violence.
Their hearts overflow with malice,
their minds seethe with plots.

They scoff; they speak with malice;
from on high they plan oppression.
They have set their mouths in the heavens
and their tongues dictate to the earth.

So the people turn to follow them
and drink in all their words.
They say: “How can God know?
Does the Most High take any notice?”
Look at them, such are the wicked,
but untroubled, they grow in wealth.

How useless to keep my heart pure
and wash my hands in innocence,
when I was stricken all day long,
suffered punishment day after day.

Then I said: “If I should speak like that,
I should abandon the faith of your people.”

I strove to fathom this problem,
too hard for my mind to understand,
until I pierced the mysteries of God
and understood what becomes of the wicked.

How slippery the paths on which you set them;
you make them slide to destruction.
How suddenly they come to their ruin,
wiped out, destroyed by terrors.
Like a dream one wakes from, O Lord,
when you wake you dismiss them as phantoms.

And so when my heart grew embittered
and when I was cut to the quick,
I was stupid and did not understand,
no better than a beast in your sight.

Yet I was always in your presence;
you were holding me by my right hand.
You will guide me by your counsel
and so you will lead me to glory.

What else have I in heaven but you?
Apart from you I want nothing on earth.
My body and my heart faint for joy;
God is my possession for ever.

All those who abandon you shall perish;
you will destroy all those who are faithless.
To be near God is my happiness.
I have made the Lord God my refuge.
I will tell of all your works
at the gates of the city of Zion.

 

[nuntym]

+JMJ+

Personally, if ever the Catholic faith fails to keep me joyful, I would leave it in a heartbeat. Fortunately for me, this seems to be impossible, because Christian joy seems to be invincible, even in this life. It makes me happy not only in spite of hardship, sorrow, and suffering, but even because of the bad things in life. And honestly, I cannot see how this can work without the help of God. Humanly speaking, it seems it is just outright impossible to be happy because of sorrow!

I think that is why I do not bother much on why non believers seem to be happy. I doubt they would have the impossibly invincible joy of Christians: I mean, can they still remain happy if they lose everything that makes them happy? But even if they do find the invincible joy of Christians while not being Christian, well and good: Christian joy is so good that it would be downright evil to not wish it onto others!

What bothers me, though, is when Christians do not even know this joy that is theirs to have, their birthright as Christians when they were born again from the waters of Holy Baptism, even while on this earth. “Man cannot live without joy,” as St. Thomas Aquinas said. And having this joy is just as easy and as hard to get as doing and accepting God’s will on earth.

No one who ever said to God, “Thy will be done” and meant it with his heart, ever failed to find joy—not just in heaven, or even down the road in the future in this world, but in this world at that very moment, here and now.

peterkreeft.com/topics/joy.htm

 

[InNomineDomini]

How is any of this possible, if they are denying God?

I don’t think it’s correct to state that happiness can never be achieved in any natural way, and that only in a supernatural sense can one be happy.

But all of their happiness comes from God, even though they deny Him. This is because God makes His sun shine on the wicked as well as the just; He gives graces to those who ask for them, and even to those who insist He’s not there. The very fact that anyone can even begin to do any of the things that you mention is evidence that God has given them grace, and that, to some extent, and through various degrees of ignorance, they cooperate with it. God, after all, desires all men to be saved; and He gives sufficient grace to all to embrace Him.

But that is not to say that someone who denies God will **always **be given such graces, and that their happiness is proof positive that their philosophical perception of the universe is correct. We don’t judge the validity of arguments based on the emotions of people who make them.

… and the happiness of the non-believer is just as consistent with Christian theism as would be their lack of happiness. It is true that a person can be happy in all kinds of different senses, and for all kinds of different reasons; but it’s also true that to deny God is delusional, and that it’s a terrible offense to insist that we attribute to ourselves and to our education and to our talents the very gifts that God gives us. That, indeed, is the height of delusion.

catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/how-to-be-truly-happy.html

 

[InNomineDomini]

By the way: those of you who look at the outside appearances of happy atheists, and who thereby think you’ve understood their hearts and what is inside of them, are doing precisely what many on your side might fault Christians for doing—you’re being judgmental in the precise way which is condemned in our faith.

Objectively speaking, someone may commit grave sins, but we may not presume to know what their culpability is for them. Likewise, objectively speaking, someone may appear to be happy, but we should not presume to understand therefrom the state of their soul. It doesn’t matter if they’re an atheist or the Holy Father himself.

This is yet another reason why a seemingly happy atheist, who is satisfied with their life, is in no way a contradiction with the Christian faith. If we’re being consistent Christians, we cannot draw eternal conclusions from their happiness. That would be judging; and many of you might know what Christ told us about that.

You are sick of hypocritical Christians, aren’t you? Then why do you want us to be hypocrites here, on this issue?

 

[tomarin]

I’ve heard that people can’t do anything without God’s grace, but why then are there rich, successful atheists that misuse more money than any charitable organization ever sees? If I behave good or bad, apparently it’s “God’s graces,” how come?

May I suggest that the point of life isn’t to become rich and/or successful and that those who put those urges front and center have become slaves to their desires?