Why is the belief in god so important

[rice]

hello new here,
i’ve been told that hyperthetically if i were reborn as Christ or someone who never sined, but did not believe in God i would still go to hell.

im sorrie if im a little offensive but it kinda makes god seem like some arrgoant *** who just wants worshippers.

plz explain

 

[LilyM]

hello new here,
i’ve been told that hyperthetically if i were reborn as Christ or someone who never sined, but did not believe in God i would still go to hell.

im sorrie if im a little offensive but it kinda makes god seem like some arrgoant *** who just wants worshippers.

plz explain

Well God gave us life and continues to give us every other good thing that we have, however much we may want to think we’ve given it all to ourselves without His help.

Even if you’re sinless, that isn’t possible without His help either. Literally nothing good that we do or that happens to us is possible without Him.

Is there anything arrogant in wanting or expecting at least a little bit of recognition, thanks or gratitude when you do a heck of a lot for someone?

 

[xplo1t]

You quoted, “Even if you’re sinless, that isn’t possible without His help either.”
What if a non christian/catholic baby is borned and the next 5 seconds it dies, would it be hell or heaven for the baby?

 

[rice]

i thought God was selfless. yes he did give us the opportunity of life, but your saying he dose so not out of his own will but expecting somthing in return.

not exactly a saint but a business man i see

 

[puzzleannie]

hello new here,
i’ve been told that hyperthetically if i were reborn as Christ or someone who never sined, but did not believe in God i would still go to hell.

im sorrie if im a little offensive but it kinda makes god seem like some arrgoant *** who just wants worshippers.

plz explain

who told you, what was their source for what they told you, by what authority did they speak? also, what exactly was said?
No way to respond to such a statement because it is an error to ascribe to God what was said by a person you talked to.

If you are asking about Catholic teaching, go back to the CA homepage and click the link to the article on Salvation. If you still have questions, come on back.

 

[rice]

i cant remeber, im not asking if this is fact. im asking what your religion teaches on this, as much as id love looking through your teachings and atempting to interpret them. id rather you told me your perspective or that of your religions on people such as buddiests who dont belive in god yes in many respects dont sin. do they get damned to hell jus because of their belief.

 

[LilyM]

Rubbish. God is not a business man.He IS a parent, and behaves like one. Just like your parents or mine.

Can’t speak for your parents, but I know my mother and father busted their butts to make sure I was fed, housed, educated and clothed while I was growing up, and that they still support and help me in countless ways.

Of course they did all this out of love, after all I don’t have a hope in heck of actually repaying them for most of what they’ve done for me. The most I can do is pay it forward, either to my own children if/when I have them, or to other people if/when I can help them.

So I have reason to be thankful for all their love for me, and all they have done for me, the things I know about and the things I don’t. And my parents in turn have the right to expect at least the occasional thankyou or the occasional acknowledgement of their help. It’s the least I can do for them. They would be extremely upset, and rightly so, if instead I turned around and said that I don’t even believe they exist! :bigyikes: And of course God feels the same, I’m sure.

Naturally none of this applies to a child who’s too young to understand, or someone who for whatever other reason (perhaps just plain ignorance) had never had a chance to learn about God, or never been taught that there was a God.

That doesn’t apply to 99% of the school-age and older people on this planet. Most everyone by then has heard of the concept of God and the reasons why we should acknowledge and believe in Him.

So … we don’t believe that God automatically assigns people who don’t believe in him, but who nonetheless live good lives, to Hell. Only he knows the reasons for their non-belief, and he judges them on their hearts.

But we do believe it’s much harder for someone who doesn’t believe in God to live a sinless life in the first place. Just as it’s harder for someone in a dark room to find the doorway out. Belief in Him is the light that guides us.

 

[st_lucy]

i thought God was selfless. yes he did give us the opportunity of life, but your saying he dose so not out of his own will but expecting somthing in return.

not exactly a saint but a business man i see

God doesn’t damn anyone to hell. We do that all ourselves. Also Catholics never assume who is and who isn’t in hell. This is Gods descion and not ours. God is, as Lily stated, the most perfect parent. As any good parent He only does what is right for us. He never demands that we love Him that is our free will to do. If in the end, by our actions during life, have choosen to not be with Him that is altimalty our own choice. And like a good parent He we will saddly grant it to us. But we must always remember that His first choice is always having us with Him.

 

[ricko]

The Catholic Church was established by Christ 2,000 years ago to teach all men the way to salvation. Normally there is no salvation outside of the Church. I say “normally” so that you may better understand. Members of other religions have a “possibility” of salvation but it would be rare. There is more in depth to this teaching but that is it in a nutshell.

It is God’s desire that ALL men be saved. However if you reject God then there is no chance of salvation, since you reject him, you also reject all that he is and stands for. You reject heaven and eternal happiness. Your choice.

 

[Jennifer123]

hello new here,
i’ve been told that hyperthetically if i were reborn as Christ or someone who never sined, but did not believe in God i would still go to hell.

im sorrie if im a little offensive but it kinda makes god seem like some arrgoant *** who just wants worshippers.

plz explain

The Church teaches that non-Christians can still know the love of Christ and possibly get to heaven. We honestly can’t say whether anyone is definitively going to Hell even if we know they’ve committed the most vile crimes. It’s likely Hitler went to Hell but we won’t know for sure until we get to Heaven ourselves.

But to address the title of your thread, belief in God is important because we can’t be fulfilled and truly happy until we see ourselves as God made us. We can’t possibly know that unless we submit to Him.

 

[Mr.Ex_Nihilo]

hello new here,
i’ve been told that hyperthetically if i were reborn as Christ or someone who never sined, but did not believe in God i would still go to hell.

im sorrie if im a little offensive but it kinda makes god seem like some arrgoant *** who just wants worshippers.

plz explain

To some extent, you’ve apparently been told wrong.

We worhip God by our actions-- by the Holy Spirit empowering us to do so. The faith God gives enables us to understand that God is at work in us.

Therefore, if you truly never sinned, then you would believe in God by your actions even if you didn’t understand that it was God you were believing when you acted the way you did.

Yes. People can worship that which they do not know.

For example, in John 4:22, Jesus said, “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.”

The parable of the good Samaritan, by the way, is an excellent example of someone who did not know God nonetheless worshipping God by the things he did.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: " ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said:

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.

The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

As Acts 17:23 points out, people can worship God without actually knowing the God who enabled them to act in accordance with his will.

For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

As Acts 15:8 says, “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.”

God isn’t demanding that we worship him because he’s some selfish idiot who is so insecure in his own divinity that he needs to create human beings to prove to himself that he is the Almighty.

This is like making the claim that people who put ‘poison lables’ on chemical bottles are doing this because they ‘get off’ on the power they have to save other peoples lives-- which is nonsense.

God is demanding that we worship him precisely because when we do not worship him we end up killing, lying, etc.-- ie., sinning. Therefore, God demanding that we woship him is a warning that if we fail to worship him we will sin. So, in order to avoid hurting other and themselves, God says do not do just as warning lables on chemical bottles say do not drink for example.

 

[xplo1t]

You quoted, “Even if you’re sinless, that isn’t possible without His help either.”
What if a non christian/catholic baby is borned and the next 5 seconds it dies, would it be hell or heaven for the baby?

Can someone answer my post or is it ‘unanswerable’?

 

[Mr.Ex_Nihilo]

Can someone answer my post or is it ‘unanswerable’?

To hope that babies who die without being baptized will go to heaven makes more sense than the idea that they go to limbo.

We have good grounds to hope that God in his mercy and love looks after these children and brings them to salvation.

If you’re serious about this question, you might want to check out this link.

 

[rice]

that is interesting, dispite the different versions of what people have posted, im taking that belief in god is important for the teachings it provides. As people would sin with out knowing such teachings.

Perhaps your religion should teach this abit more as its the first time i’ve been given such an answer which allows me to gain respect for this religion. most of the people ive encountered seem to think that they will all be damned in the next Apocalypse if they dont go to church. And then there are many things that seem to reach out to us none christians as threats rather than opportunities when we are told about Christianity.

I guess this is going of topic but then again its about the belief in god. I was wondering if the above is true, than is not attending church a sin?

 

[st_lucy]

that is interesting, dispite the different versions of what people have posted, im taking that belief in god is important for the teachings it provides. As people would sin with out knowing such teachings.

Perhaps your religion should teach this abit more as its the first time i’ve been given such an answer which allows me to gain respect for this religion. most of the people ive encountered seem to think that they will all be damned in the next Apocalypse if they dont go to church. And then there are many things that seem to reach out to us none christians as threats rather than opportunities when we are told about Christianity.

I guess this is going of topic but then again its about the belief in god. I was wondering if the above is true, than is not attending church a sin?

Your question had two answers. Yes it is a sin to miss church. Why? Well, as Catholics we believe that Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist. There for as a Catholic we should always attend mass to be with our Lord. Also Christ has asked us to do this for Him. He asked us to do a lot of things for others (love our neighbor, feed to the poor etc) But he only asked us to do this one thing for Him.

But the second part of your question in sense has been answered. As a practicing Catholic who know and believes that Jesus is truly present in the Holy Eucharist he or she should not miss mass simply because he knows. To those who have more (knowledge in this case) more well be expected. So for those who don’t know this will not be judge as harshly. But in the same since we are not to sit around not trying to seek the truth, that is lazy and laziness is also a sin.

I hope I helped you on this. I am sure that someone else more knowledgeable will be of more service.

 

[mercygate]

i cant remeber, im not asking if this is fact. im asking what your religion teaches on this, as much as id love looking through your teachings and atempting to interpret them. id rather you told me your perspective or that of your religions on people such as buddiests who dont belive in god yes in many respects dont sin. do they get damned to hell jus because of their belief.

You will find that the articles on the CA home page library are well written and will probably answer your questions. I say this in affirmation of puzzleannie’s suggestion because you seem to have a problem with framing questions. So you might get answers to things you haven’t asked. If you really want to know what the Church teaches, that would be the best way to start. Poorly framed questions usually get screwy answers. I’m sure you don’t want that.

 

[Jennifer123]

I guess this is going of topic but then again its about the belief in god. I was wondering if the above is true, than is not attending church a sin?

Depends on the reason. There are legitimate reasons to miss Church - illness, etc.

If we consider ourselves Christian, but miss Mass for nothing more than “selfish” reasons - would rather sleep in, would rather go shopping, then yes, we are being sinful. We are made to love and serve the Lord. In return, He grants us eternal life. The greatest gift of all. One hour per week is the least we can do to love, serve Him, and be grateful. To do otherwise is to act selfishly and to not treat His sabbath as holy.



BTW - please don’t judge the Church by some of the actions of its members, we are not perfect and many don’t live as they should. We are all a work in progress, regardless of what we believe. Christians are working toward perfection. None of us have acheived it!

 

[unworthy]

Why is the belief in god so important

Hi there rice,
The simple answer is: when you lose sight of God, you lose sight of the the picture; you lose sight of why you are, who you are and why any of us exists.

Try to figure out what that means. God bless,

-unworthy

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

hello new here,
i’ve been told that hyperthetically if i were reborn as Christ or someone who never sined, but did not believe in God i would still go to hell.

im sorrie if im a little offensive but it kinda makes god seem like some arrgoant *** who just wants worshippers.

plz explain

**You seem to be asking more than one question - so here goes **​

**1. God is not being arrogant in wanting worshippers. **

**2. It would be unbearably self-centred for human beings to do that - they are not important enough, nor good enough, nor attractive enough, to be worthy of that kind of attention. **

**3. That is why “personality-cults” are, fundamentally, silly; because there are these silly people with gigantic egos who insist in a hundred different ways on being treated as the centre of attention - people who are so insecure (because they cannot entirely suppress the nagging awareness that they are not the marvellous people they say they are) that they have to threaten & bully others to admire them. **

**4. By contrast with these egomaniacs, really good people don’t bully people into loving them - they shut their mouth, “forget self” as Jesus taught them (& us); & as a result, their goodness speaks for itself. **
- IOW: Saints do not advertise their saintliness
**- & because they don’t, it is all the more evident. **

**5. So - doesn’t this make God into an Infinite Egomaniac ? No: because, unlike human beings, God is important enough, good enough, attractive enough, to be worthy of all attention. Egomania is silly, & wrong, because there is a huge gap between the attention wanted, & the attention deserved. With God, this is not so - He is infinitely Good, Infinitely Attractive, Infinitely Desirable, Infinitely Important: so it is impossible to want or to love or to serve or to obey Him too much. **

**6. We are, & live among, human beings; & we are familiar with human vanity & egotism. We have not seen God - so we have to think about God in ways drawn from human experience. So it is easy to think of God as a human being on an unimaginably big scale; as a “giant in the sky”. And if we think of Him like that, it is easy to think of Him as having the same qualities as men do: such as egotism. **

**7. This is why Christ is so important - He is God, living as a man among other men, showing us “what God is really like”. He is not distant, “in the sky”, but “God with us”. This is why the Cross is so crucially important to Christianity - it shows us the man-God dying for us, not in an easy & quick way, but by a slow, agonising, obscene & humiliating death. By seeing that, we see whether God is the sort of god who bullies & threatens His servants from the safety of Heaven: & He isn’t. We know this because our salvation is the work of the whole Blessed Trinity - only God the Word became man as Jesus, but the Baptism (for example) shows the Father & Spirit at work too. **

**And this Blessed Trinity, Who has done so much for us, wants our response. If we love our friends - does not God, Who does more for us than any friend ever could, deserve our love ? **

 

[rice]

hmm true my questions are abit blured. perhaps because i have so many. so i will only ask one now.

Dose your religion condem those with different beliefs even though those religions may have similar teachings eg. buddists who give up eveything they want and meditate all day.