Why does God make it so hard?

[randybako]

A friend of mine who lost his faith told me that one of the major obstacles for losing his faith was that there were so many different beliefs. He brought up the different Christian faiths, Budism, Islam etc. He said how come there are so many different held belifs about God? So i pose my friends question to my freinds here?

 

[vera_dicere]

The biggest difference between Christainity and those other faiths [baring the strange cults et al], is that only one makes the claim Christ makes.

Get him to watch some of Fr. Barron’s stuff on youtube. Christ didn’t say “Oh look, I found this interesting way to live your life”, and St. Peter didn’t say “hey, yeah, sure I’m happy to be nailed to a cross upside down because some guy, now dead, and completely unremarkable found a different way to live your life”.

C.S Lewis points out the concept of Christ as liar, lunatic or Lord. He can only be one. And if he’s Lord, can you really deny him? And a good study into his teachings and life start to poitn very firmly to him being Lord. Then there’s the fact his life was written about very shortly after his death. Buddha wasn’t really written about until about 300 years after his demise.

Other faiths have some truth about God, but only Catholicism has the whole truth [that as humans we can possess].

Catholicism stands up to scrunity in the theological and religious realm. The atheist would demand more scientific proof, but this isn’t a scientitfic process is it, it starts on the foundation of faith.

 

[300WhiteKnights]

I think your friend had a common misconception about multiple religions. He/she probably thought,

“wait a second, am I supposed to believe that only 1 religion is 100% correct while the hundreds of other religions out there are completely false?”

This is an incorrect way of looking at the situation. It is not that one religion is correct and all the others are false. It is that Christianity has more elements of truth than others do.

This can be seen in science as well. For example: a good scientific theory is not one that completely displaces prior theories, but one that incorporates what truth can be found in them.

After all, the Bible has two halves, and the first is longer than the last. Jesus said, “Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have come to fulfill.” That makes at least two religions. So truth can be found in both Judaism AND Christianity.

This principle can be extended, to some extent, to the deepest truths in other religions as well. For example, Islam= existence of 1 God, demons, objective morality, ect.

But is in Christianity, (particularly Catholicism) that we find the fullness of the truth. This is because Christianity is one of the most through and intellectually satisfying religions out there. In addition, one of the fruits of New Testament scholarship today is the argument for the historicity of the Resurrection. Dr. Anthony Flew who was an atheist professor of Oxford even said:

"Christianity is the one to beat, in fact, it may be the only one."

youtube.com/watch?v=ACljoLzPQ14

 

[timotheos]

A friend of mine who lost his faith told me that one of the major obstacles for losing his faith was that there were so many different beliefs. He brought up the different Christian faiths, Budism, Islam etc. He said how come there are so many different held belifs about God? So i pose my friends question to my freinds here?

One sees the search for truth in any cultural substrate leading to different faiths, but in what faith are there sources of revealed truth throughout history, accompanied by extraordinary signs to support its veracity?

There is no easy way to convince someone. One prerequisite is for them to have a burning desire to know, as opposed to a lukewarm disinterested skepticism which is all too commonly found. And if they really have a burning desire to know, they gotta put some work into it.

So, my first question to your friend would be paraphrased, “What does it matter to you, really? Are you really interested in finding the truth about God?”

 

[NonServiam]

The biggest difference between Christainity and those other faiths [baring the strange cults et al], is that only one makes the claim Christ makes.

So what? The biggest difference between Buddhism and all the other religions [baring the strange cults et al] is that only one makes the claim Buddha made [to be able to end suffering]

The biggest difference between Norse Paganism and all the other religions [baring the strange cults et al] is that only makes the claim that the Norse Gods do [that dying in battle will send you to the paradise of Valhalla]

Et cetera.

Every religion makes at least one claim that is different from all other religions – if that weren’t the case, we couldn’t identify them as separate religions. You can’t just arbitrarily select the defining feature of the religion you happen to like and say, “See, it’s different? That means it must be true!”

C.S Lewis points out the concept of Christ as liar, lunatic or Lord.

Or legend.

Other faiths have some truth about God, but only Catholicism has the whole truth [that as humans we can possess].

Bald assertion.

Anyway, you didn’t really answer the OP’s question, which was a question about why there are so many religions that make such vastly different claims.

It’s a really good question: I don’t believe in any gods, but let’s for a second imagine that there’s a God who is all-powerful and who wants all people to believe that he exists and to accept the message of his one true religion.

How, if this scenario were true, would other religions even have a chance? Come to think of it, why wouldn’t this God just appear to everybody and tell them that he’s real? It obviously wouldn’t rob anybody of “free will” because, according to Christian mythology, Satan knew that God existed, and he chose to rebel of his own free will.

So the fact that there are so many religions is a serious problem for anybody who thinks that there is an all-powerful God who actually wants people to believe that his message is true.

The atheist would demand more scientific proof

Forget “scientific proof.” How about, for starters, any credible evidence that isn’t anecdotal.

but this isn’t a scientitfic process is it, it starts on the foundation of faith.

I don’t think “faith” is a good foundation for accepting any factual claims about the universe as proposed by an area of human study. Every other area of study relies on evidence and reason, so why is theology alone exempt?

 

[300WhiteKnights]

Forget “scientific proof.” How about, for starters, any credible evidence that isn’t anecdotal.

Did you not watch the link I posted? How does the historicity argument not count as credible evidence?

But something tells me here that perhaps you don’t really care about the evidence, be it strong or weak. You seem to be really angry, and as long as Christianity angers you, nothing will change your mind. I will pray my rosary for you tonight. May God bless.

 

[Biblepoe]

Did you not watch the link I posted? How does the historicity argument not count as credible evidence?

If you think that the evidence in the video is compelling, you could summarize it here in your own words.

Many non-believers have witnessed many attempts to use historical data to demonstrate that their supernatural beliefs are true, but for some reason or another weren’t convinced. Therefore, they probably aren’t going to consider it a good investment of their time to go off and watch an entire video that someone else linked to rather than summarizing in their own words.

 

[Jcnava15]

The Atheists on this thread are pretty ignorant.

George Washington, Leader, Liar, Lunatic …or Legend! (cue dramatic music) [George Washington didn’t exist you know]

Kudos to the poster who pretty much said “if God wanted us to believe, why wouldn’t he just reveal himself” while completely ignoring that this is what Christ did during his time on earth, and continues to do to this day for those that sincerely seek him through the holy spirit.

If your friend lost his faith over that question, which is a pretty silly question, then he really didn’t care about his faith that much. Else he would have read all the great responses that have shattered that question for centuries now.

 

[Sonic]

A friend of mine who lost his faith told me that one of the major obstacles for losing his faith was that there were so many different beliefs. He brought up the different Christian faiths, Budism, Islam etc. He said how come there are so many different held belifs about God? So i pose my friends question to my freinds here?

Remember, that faith like everything else is a gift from God, and we must ask God for the grace to have faith. Pray for your friend that the Holy Spirit might rekindle the flame of faith within your friend.

 

[User124]

I think that we are both disbelievers on a level, I only don’t believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other religions, you will understand why I dismiss Christianity as well.

 

[missmorgan389]

Honestly, probably one of the hardest topics a Catholic has to defend. Why, indeed? I really don’t know the answer to that question.

I guess my only little statement would be that you have to lose your faith in order to find it again. I agree with Sonic. Pray for the grace of faith.

I can tell you that the reason I believe is because, by this grace, I’m able to believe in Catholicism. Have I not had doubts? Have I not heard your claims and think, “Yeah… maybe God doesn’t exist after all?”

I’d be lying if I said these thoughts didn’t spring up from time to time. But I refuse to not believe in anything and even though there are many different options to choose from for a religion, I took a leap of faith in one direction and I’m happy I did.

I think taking the leap is the best thing I ever did for myself.

So I guess I can’t really give a total answer to your question, I would say that people took their own leaps, but in different directions.

When you understand why you dismiss all the other religions, you will understand why I dismiss Christianity as well.

I really don’t think this necessarily true No one said that the other religions should be dismissed; I actually think one can learn a lot from other religions. But I don’t think it’s entirely correct to group all Christians into a lump category of dismissing other people’s spirituality.

 

[CrimsonThorn]

OP,

Catholicism, unlike all those other religions, is rooted not only in tradition, scripture, but also in history. All those other religions are pure mythology. Our God on the other hand, was real and performed real miracles, resurrected on the third day, interacted with real human historical figures of that time. Thor, Krishna, etc, cannot say the same.

 

[Julian0404]

A friend of mine who lost his faith told me that one of the major obstacles for losing his faith was that there were so many different beliefs. He brought up the different Christian faiths, Budism, Islam etc. He said how come there are so many different held belifs about God? So i pose my friends question to my freinds here?

And so which religion of the “many” has your friend decided to investigate? If the answer is none, than your friend is being disingenuous about his feelings and using the “many” as an excuse to chose “none” - and as such is currently comfortable being an atheist and blaming GOD for his condition because - you see - there are just to “many” to chose from.

If on the other hand he is investigating another than just wait, as JESUS taught us, “knock and it will be opened, ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find” - paraphrase. If your friend is truly sincere, he will pursue “a god”, until he finds the True GOD.

 

[ejp123]

So what? The biggest difference between Buddhism and all the other religions [baring the strange cults et al] is that only one makes the claim Buddha made [to be able to end suffering]

The biggest difference between Norse Paganism and all the other religions [baring the strange cults et al] is that only makes the claim that the Norse Gods do [that dying in battle will send you to the paradise of Valhalla]

Et cetera.

Every religion makes at least one claim that is different from all other religions – if that weren’t the case, we couldn’t identify them as separate religions. You can’t just arbitrarily select the defining feature of the religion you happen to like and say, “See, it’s different? That means it must be true!”

Or legend.

Bald assertion.

Anyway, you didn’t really answer the OP’s question, which was a question about why there are so many religions that make such vastly different claims.

It’s a really good question: I don’t believe in any gods, but let’s for a second imagine that there’s a God who is all-powerful and who wants all people to believe that he exists and to accept the message of his one true religion.

How, if this scenario were true, would other religions even have a chance? Come to think of it, why wouldn’t this God just appear to everybody and tell them that he’s real? It obviously wouldn’t rob anybody of “free will” because, according to Christian mythology, Satan knew that God existed, and he chose to rebel of his own free will.

So the fact that there are so many religions is a serious problem for anybody who thinks that there is an all-powerful God who actually wants people to believe that his message is true.

Forget “scientific proof.” How about, for starters, any credible evidence that isn’t anecdotal.

I don’t think “faith” is a good foundation for accepting any factual claims about the universe as proposed by an area of human study. Every other area of study relies on evidence and reason, so why is theology alone exempt?

Your logic sounds great!! How you ever questioned where logic itself came from? Have you ever had an experience with Christ? a time when you could say, “hmm that was different”, something beyond logic? Questioned creation and your own existence?

 

[fred_conty]

A friend of mine who lost his faith told me that one of the major obstacles for losing his faith was that there were so many different beliefs. He brought up the different Christian faiths, Budism, Islam etc. He said how come there are so many different held belifs about God? So i pose my friends question to my freinds here?

Many people have been atheists and eventually become some of the most avid Christians once they know what it is really about, and hear the real story.

Here is a testimony of one that found out the real story thru study.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=12932

“I began drifting from my faith in my late teens and early adulthood. By the time I was in my late 30’s, I had become a full-fledged agnostic and was teetering close to atheism.
I had a gnawing urgency (the Holy Spirit again) to determine one way or another whether God really existed. I spent a significant amount of time studying, reading and asking questions and eventually came to the conclusion that God really did exist.”

And here is a story of one that prayed.

“God answered my prayer. I was an atheist who disbelieved in prayers and prayed for the first time in years and God answered. Of course I was crying at the time.”
“I believe God is near to the broken-hearted.”

And here is a good way to pray for your friend.

Mary promised to those who carry or wear her green scapular:
Reconciliation to the Church for those who have lost/strayed from the faith.

Although wonderful graces are obtained, they are proportionate to the confidence with which
it is given. It may be placed in the clothing, on the bed, or simply in the
room. The prayer “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death,” should be prayed each day either by the giver or the receiver. The giver’s trust in Mary is important.

And here is a testimony of an atheist who benefited from the green scapular.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=620449
(From an atheist)
How did you come to embrace Catholicism?
Strangely enough, it was the Blessed Virgin Mary. That friend of mine had sneakily
snuck in a scapular under my mattress. I didn’t know until about 1 year into my
conversion. I imagine that she had something to do with it. I think it was the
green scapular.

 

[NonServiam]

Did you not watch the link I posted? How does the historicity argument not count as credible evidence?

There’s no evidence that the Jesus depicted in the Gospels – i.e. the one who did magic – actually existed.

There may have been a guy named Jesus who was a popular teacher, but there’s absolutely nothing to suggest that he really did the miraculous things that were attributed to him by a handful of texts written by followers of followers of followers of his sometime within the century after he died.

You seem to be really angry

I’m not.

will pray my rosary for you tonight.

You pray for me, and I’ll think for you.

 

[NonServiam]

The Atheists on this thread are pretty ignorant.

Strong words. Let’s see where you’re going with this…

George Washington, Leader, Liar, Lunatic …or Legend! (cue dramatic music) [George Washington didn’t exist you know]

Well, like a lot of historical figures, what we know of George Washington is a mix of fact (“He was the first president of the United States”) and dubious stories that are probably legend (chopping down the cherry tree).

Similarly, I think it’s likely that this “Jesus” character may have been inspired by a real person but that his story has been embellished by improbable legend added to the story by the cultish followers of followers of followers who wrote down the oral tales about him sometime between 40-100 years after he died.

 

[NonServiam]

Your logic sounds great!!

Thanks.

How [sic] you ever questioned where logic itself came from?

Sure. It’s a mental system of producing judgments, and it ultimately derives from “logical absolutes,” which are, essentially, the nature of things.

Have you ever had an experience with Christ?

No. Bye.