Why does anyone knowingly and willingly reject God?

[Amandil]

I’m not saying that your word isn’t enough, Amandil. I can honestly say that for awhile in my lifetime, I had believed that I had K&WRG, but I later found that to be a misperception. It can happen to anyone.

To me, it is highly unlikely that when a person initially sees someone “turn atheist” that he not construe a rejection of God had occurred.

Well there’s two ways of rejecting God; you either reject Him explicitly by rejecting His rule, or you reject Him by rejecting the world which He created.

Every act of sin is a rejection of God’s rule. Those in habitual sin “prefer darkness to light because their works are evil.”

The latter rejection, the rejection of God’s world, is the harder and deeper atheism. All of the major arguments by atheists are not arguments against God specifically but are arguments against His world (especially the problem of evil).

Archbishop Sheen was not unclear when he said that, “atheism is indeed a disease of the will, not the intellect, even though it manifests itself through intellectual symptoms.”

Any act of sin, whether it be atheism itself, or simple gossip, is an act of the will. Thus it is done willingly.

 

[Amandil]

I see what you mean about defining terms! So, to me, if I decided that God never existed, I would be rejecting the idea that there is a God, I would not be rejecting God, because I had no relationship with God anyway.

However, if you are saying you rejected belief in God, we are working with the same definitions, I think.

And, why do people reject belief in God? Well, they do so unknowingly, they do so without knowing what they are rejecting. That is my observation.

Why did you reject belief in God?

Is belief knowledge or not?

According to the Catechism belief is more certain than simple knowledge because of the authority from Whom it’s based.

So to say that I rejected belief in God is no different than saying that I rejected knowledge in God or of God.

Thus I knowingly and willfully rejected God.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

Freud said religion is a neurosis. Einstein said pretty much the same thing about the belief in a personal God. But the opinion often attributed to Plato is that atheism is a disease of the soul before it is an error of understanding. So if the soul gets healed, the error goes away.

I believe Plato. When I was an atheist, as I recall, I was angry. I won’t talk about the roots of my anger, but looking back I can see how that anger produced my atheism. Over the years, as the anger softened and I learned better how to love, the atheism began ever so slowly to dissolve, until one day I woke up to find that I had become a Christian.

Of course, all that I just said is a great oversimplification of what really happened.

Atheism is a conscious choice, freely made. It is the closing of the heart as well as the head to the possibility of a relationship with the Creator. No amount of reasoning can persuade the atheist in his head until he has opened up his heart. As always, it is love that heals, not anger.

 

[Achilles6129]

I think the reason why most people knowingly and willingly reject God is simple: they think God is evil.

 

[fred_conty]

I think the reason why most people knowingly and willingly reject God is simple: they think God is evil.

Couldn’t agree more.

 

[Achilles6129]

Couldn’t agree more.

Thanks

So how do we convince them that God is just?

In my opinion, it’s very difficult to convince someone that God is good because “good” and “evil” are points of view. In other words, it is a choice as to exactly how you look at things.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

I think the reason why most people knowingly and willingly reject God is simple: they think God is evil.

If it’s that simple, wouldn’t you think they would not reject God for fear of his evil being turned on them?

 

[Amandil]

If it’s that simple, wouldn’t you think they would not reject God for fear of his evil being turned on them?

Not necessarily. One could reasonably conclude that non-existence is preferable than to serving an evil deity.

 

[fred_conty]

Not necessarily. One could reasonably conclude that non-existence is preferable than to serving an evil deity.

Or chose to believe in some other kind of god…deism, or what Oprah W(name removed by moderator)hry believes in.

 

[Achilles6129]

If it’s that simple, wouldn’t you think they would not reject God for fear of his evil being turned on them?

Not necessarily. One could reasonably conclude that non-existence is preferable than to serving an evil deity.

Right. Since they believe that God is evil they simply conclude that he doesn’t exist. Or possibly they think that even if he does exist he isn’t worth serving because he’s evil. I think that people will actually willingly suffer/die rather than serve a Being that they think is monstrously evil. To support this conclusion, consider the fact that in the book of Revelation the human race clearly knows that the two witnesses are from God but they think they’re so evil that they just don’t care. Also consider other statements made in the book of Revelation that while they’re suffering they’re blaspheming the name of God (so clearly they know the plagues are from him). Interesting stuff.

 

[Amandil]

Thanks

So how do we convince theused at God is just?

In my opinion, it’s very difficult to convince someone that God is good because “good” and “evil” are points of view. In other words, it is a choice as to exactly how you look at things.

Its a matter of divine grace. Pray for them and leave the rest to God.

I didn’t come back to God by arguing with someone. Although God used a few of them to plant seeds that He watered and nurtured, it came down me being emptied of everything that I was. Which again was His work, not mine.

 

[fred_conty]

Its a matter of divine grace. Pray for them and leave the rest to God.

I didn’t come back to God by arguing with someone. Although God used a few of them to plant seeds that He watered and nurtured, it came down me being emptied of everything that I was. Which again was His work, not mine.

A person needs to either hate or love. If not, there is no point in life. And when hate stops, then that leaves room for love again.

 

[Amandil]

A person needs to either hate or love. If not, there is no point in life. And when hate stops, then that leaves room for love again.

At times when I think about it it’s difficult to discern if I hated God before I has reasons or if afterwards I simply sought reasons so as to hate God.

In this case though I think that even hate works in God’s favor because it naturally devours itself and the person who hates. Once emptied there still is the possibility for love because of the weariness that results from hate.

The real danger is not hate but indifference. Combine cold indifference with an attitude of flippancy towards all things of virtue, that is a veritably impenetrable suit of armor, or a prison. Take your pick.

 

[Aloysium]

Do they think He is evil or are they angry and frustrated at the horor of existence?
They delude themselves that He does not exist, to avoid thinking of the possibility of an evil God.
All is resolved in Jesus.
View attachment 20557

 

[Amandil]

Do they think He is evil or are they angry and frustrated at the horor of existence?

It’s really not an either or. Sonetimes it may that they think God is evil because of the horror of existence.

Or its as simple as the pain of being the child of divorced parents who feels abandoned and projects that onto God.

Sometimes its a choice of convenience; someone likes sex with a lot of woman, and knowledge of God draws up guilt in regards to using women as a means to an end. So instead better to deny that there is a God and squash those annoying p romptings of guilt associated with the conscience.

The psychological motivations are manifold.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

Its a matter of divine grace. Pray for them and leave the rest to God.

I didn’t come back to God by arguing with someone. Although God used a few of them to plant seeds that He watered and nurtured, it came down me being emptied of everything that I was. Which again was His work, not mine.

Well of course, by grace. But we are not puppets.

 

[Amandil]

Well of course, by grace. But we are not puppets.

Of course not. Grace is not a puppet master.

 

[OneSheep]

I think the reason why most people knowingly and willingly reject God is simple: they think God is evil.

But see, if they are doing so are they actually rejecting God, or are they rejecting a false image?

It would be better to reject the false image.

 

[rinnie]

“Goodness is that which all things desire.” - St. Thomas Aquinas

If it is our nature to seek goodness and God is the supreme good, then why does anyone knowingly and willing reject God (the supreme good)? Why does anyone knowingly and willingly reject that which is ultimately in his or her own best interest?

They reject God because there cannot be 2 gods. You will accept God and obey him. Or you reject God and as Adam and Eve, want to be a god, so you disobey him and try to be a god yourself.

There can only be One God. The one true God Creator of Heaven and Earth. Or false gods, which are many, Human can follow Human, or Human can follow himself. All false gods.

The reason they knowingly and willingly reject him is their lust for evil. Just like a married person can have a beautiful and loving spouse, but they want more. So their lust for more drives them to evil. As in a relationship, you cheat, lie, whatever it takes to get what YOU want, not what is good for others, you don’t care about who you hurt in the process.

Its all amount ME ME ME, that is what the false god is, ME, The false god gives you what you want, not what you need.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

Right. Since they believe that God is evil they simply conclude that he doesn’t exist.

Wait a second, if someone thinks that “God is” then is that not already an indication that someone thinks that God exists?

Perhaps you mean to say that if some one thinks that a god-concept is evil then it doesn’t exists (which is a bit less of a contradiction). But would that be an implicit statement that something that is evil in concept cannot be real/concrete?

Or possibly they think that even if he does exist he isn’t worth serving because he’s evil.

That disposition I’ve seen before. I’ve seen it labeled as “misotheism” and most strongly associate the cases I’ve seen with a strong emotional pain sometimes from a tragic experience.