WHY should we assume/suspect that the Christian doctrine is true?

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I took a general university course in the history of biology. Until now I’ve already heard that a man’s spirituality is a function of his brain’s biology, that scientism is the correct way of thinking, also something about “mystical nonsense” and statements that are “not even false”, and even some more of this kind of stuff. I kind of feel like in the “God is not dead” movie, except that until now we haven’t had to sign anything.

I have to admit that all of this shakes my already weak faith. I am not convinced to scientism, but still such propaganda brings up my doubts I’ve long been unable to respond to. And my chief doubt is:

WHY should we assume or even suspect that the Christian or Catholic doctrine is true?

Because, while it is a matter of faith, if there are no good reasons to believe this may be true, then simply… we should’t believe this is true, should we?

Now I know many people try to outline such reasons. To be honest I don’t find many of them convincing. I wanted to summarize here why, but the 3200 character limit didn’t allow me to do so. Granted, I was trying to give responses to 6 possible arguments, which could’ve been too much.

To make myself clear: My precise idea for a topic is to ask You to outline me the reasons why it should be believed that the Catholic doctrine is, simply, true. I’m sorry but I will play the Devil’s advocate in this topic. But my intention is not to attack the faith. Honestly, this topic is, rather, more of a plea for help.
 
Marcgal said:
WHY should we assume or even suspect that the Christian or Catholic doctrine is true?
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because science had a beginning: the big bang. what was before it? who/what started it? the creation story tells us.

atheists want to make matter having the property of always is and always was but that takes more faith then believing in God. things just started? if so they believe in magic because something can’t come from nothing. Lawrence Krauss tries to prove it but his nothing is a something.
 
I don’t assume anything, I have studied and found it to be the only faith with eyewitness accounts, Christ Himself at the help, and thousands of years of testimony and scholarship.
That 's very compelling.
 
Marcgal said:
You to outline me the reasons why it should be believed that the Catholic doctrine is, simply, true. I’m sorry but I will play the Devil’s advocate in this topic. But my intention is not to attack the faith. Honestly, this topic is, rather, more of a plea for help.
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Is this Apologetics or non catholic religion topic?

What help do you want? To find faith? To discuss science vs religion? What is your plea my friend?
 
The argument that Christ has risen from the dead seems to be a strong one, however, all of this happened 2 000 years ago. All testimonies, documents, etc., have had ample time to be falsified, exaggerated, “propagandified”, “Chinese wshispersified”, etc. Now I understand that dismissing historical evidence only on the basis of this being 2k years old seems odd, however “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” and such claim is definitely extraordinary. This, in conjunction with the fact that supposedly Jesus, having risen from the dead, only showed himself to His disciples, makes it seem more likely that the Apostles did indeed steal His body from His tomb. I’m not sure which alternative would be more likely to pass the Ockham’s razor…

Miracles, demonic possessions, exorcisms, etc., is a tricky argument. Again, this does seem to be a strong argument… There are events that seem to show there may indeed be some supernatural forces acting in this world from time to time. However, this argumentation needs to pass two obstacles: and the first one is, are such events real? Many were already shown to be BS; but the second obstacle is even more difficult: Can we drive any conclustions from such events? They also seem to happen in non-Christian and non-Abrahamic religions, and even in occultism. I’ve heard some neopagan argumenting that, why can’t we say there are many gods, the Christian God among them, warring in Heavens over the reign of Earth. Obviously each god who has hopes to win this war tells Earthlings that he is the One and Only God. Please don’t misread this argument: it is actually less of a support for neopaganism, but more of a warning against driving premature conclusions. The argument is: There are supernatural forces and/or beings that/who act in this world, sometimes help those who worship them, sometimes harm even those who worship them, sometimes fight and expel each other from a particular human’s body, sometimes claim different things or demand faith in them. Why should we believe some particular supernatural beings, for example Jesus Christ and His “subordinate supernatural beings”, like Virgin Mary in private apparitions?
 
For my intuition this is one of the strongest arguments against hard-core scientism I know. The problem is that my intuition has already be wrong enough times, and I don’t feel strong enough in the field of philosophy to support or deny this argument. I’ve read some scientists claiming that since the times of Galileo science has been “mercilessly showing” that the world exists only by chance and has no external rationale of existence. I can’t see how this can be the case; but again, I don’t feel I can judge.

However, this simple statement is still far from reaching the whole Catholic doctrine. In the best case this statement disproves scientism and atheism. However, it doesn’t necessarily lead to Christianity. From this statement alone we can reach numerous religious / philosophical doctrines like deism or pantheism; also why couldn’t there have been something of the kind of Primordial Chaos or Life Force or something like that? We’re still pretty far from reaching Christianity.
 
In addition to my reply to Brittany:

People claim to have personal relationship with God? Little children tend to have their imaginary friends. Little children believe their imaginary friends are real. Little children have personal relationship with their imaginary friends. Little children and pagans alike notoriously mistake non-living things for living things, for example thinking that a shadow is a ghost or that a tree is a pagan god. This faultiness of human brain makes it likely that all those people, Christians included, are simply honestly mistaken. In an extreme case this reasoning could even explain why Christians were willing to die for their faith.

The argument that Christianity has lasted for thousands years already is not very convincing for me. Judaism has an even longer tradition and scholarship, so does Buddhism. 2k years is actually pretty short for a religion tbh… Not to mention that if the human brain is evolutionarily inclined to believe in Something or Someone, then some religions can very well last thousands of years even if no one is true.

PS. Sorry for replying in many posts: the character limit gives me little choice 😦
 
If I have put my topic in a wrong categoryr then I’m sorry. I wanted to talk to apologists, so I posted my thread in Apologetics.

I’m not sure if I ask for your help to find faith or maybe rather to not loose faith completely? Something in between I guess.
 
I kind of like the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And I like the lighter edition which is the Baltiimore Catechism from a hundred years ago.

But there is a book store catalog, which I think is Stella Maris. If you buy everything, including the writings of the Early Church Fathers, you will need to build an additional large room onto your house.
 
@Marcgal Do you believe in Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? How about Julius Caesar?
 
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At the end of the day, it’s is your personal choice to believe. Not everyone in the world recognizes the miraculous in their own lives.
I can’t explain belief to you.
If you think that you will continue to be skeptical or disappointed.
Anyone who says they can convert you is wrong.
We go through our own conversions. But first, we have to ask God to open our eyes.
When you seek God, who all good and pure love, He will be there for you.
Peace.
 
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Yesterday, I started reading “Searching for Jesus” by Robert J. Hutchinson.

Subtitle: “New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth — And How They Confirm the Gospel Accounts”.

It is extremely illuminating in terms of how the latest biblical and archeological discoveries confirm our original doctrinal beliefs.

Worth checking out.
 
This guy has or had a television program that visited biblical sites in Israel and the Holy Land and the region.


I used to watch it all the time and then I moved and was unable to “retrieve” it.
 
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Hi,

Thanks for the question.
Marcgal said:
WHY should we assume or even suspect that the Christian or Catholic doctrine is true?
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Well, why do you assume that scientism is true and Catholic doctrine is not?

The reason I ask is because true faith and true reason don’t contradict.
 
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Here is the excerpt from Wikipedia:

Over the past decades, Jacobovici has engaged in what he calls “investigative archaeology.” His most controversial claim is the identification of a tomb in Jerusalem as that of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. The tomb was discovered in the Talpiot neighborhood.[20] In 2012, he investigated a Second Temple-era burial cave in Armon Hanatziv by means of a robotic arm with a camera. He believes the cave may be the burial site of disciples of Jesus.[21]

Jacobovici hosted three seasons of The Naked Archaeologist on VisionTV in Canada[22][23] and The History Channel in the United States. In 2013, the series began to be broadcast on the Israel Broadcast Authority (IBA) Channel 1.

Jacobovici has written for The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. He blogs on SimchaJTV,[24] The Times of Israel[25] and The Huffington Post.[26] He occasionally writes for the Jerusalem Post.

He has been interviewed on numerous television shows, among them Anderson Cooper 360, Larry King Live,The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC Today Show, and ABC Nightline.

His new book with Professor Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text That Reveals Jesus’ Marriage to Mary the Magdalene, was published in November 2014 (Pegasus in the US & HarperCollins in Canada).

Jacobovici is also the co-author of two eBooks; “Michelangelo’s Angels and Demons"[27] and “The James Revelation",[28] published by Zoomerbooks, as a companion to his television series “Biblical Conspiracies”.
 
Oh sheesh. That old canard. Jesus was never married to Mary Magdelene.
I’m out
 
In one episode, Jacobvici went up one street and down the other and then stopped and said something like “this might be the house where Jesus lived”. And “these fingerprints in the wall plaster might be he handprints of Jesus”.

I know it’s television.

But nevertheless …
 
Well, he is not Christian.

And I noted that the various archeologists and professors he interviewed, frequently appear on many other television programs.
 
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