Why?

[Atheism123]

Well, this is supposed to be a forum asking answers from catholics, so I come here to do so.

I want to know why you believe in Christianity/Judaism/Pastafarnarianism/Whatever. I’m not some random trolling atheist, I genuinely want to know why you believe the things you do.

 

[SirThomasMore]

Because I have seen evidence of God. I have felt God. I have received confirmation of God.

 

[Nine_Two]

Why not?

In all seriousness “Why” is going to vary enough between people that one persons answer is going to be meaningless to another. Personally while I accept that to an outsider the Abrahamic belief on existence sounds ridiculous, I also think every other system, including the idea that it is all one big accidental coincidence, are at least equally ridiculous.

I believe in the Christian God because careful study of the faith has led me to it, I don’t have an exigent experience which gives me a why… In the words of Kierkegaard, I took the leap of faith.

 

[Atheism123]

Well, I get the whole thing that secular explanations for our existence seem strange, they do have large amounts of evidence supporting them, such as static on the radio being left over big-bang radiation.

What I don’t get is the leap of faith thing. To me, it makes no sense to believe something because it simply feels right, I need to be able to observe it, prove it. I don’t understand why someone would believe something with less proof then the leading theory.

 

[SirThomasMore]

Well, I get the whole thing that secular explanations for our existence seem strange, they do have large amounts of evidence supporting them, such as static on the radio being left over big-bang radiation.

What I don’t get is the leap of faith thing. To me, it makes no sense to believe something because it simply feels right, I need to be able to observe it, prove it. I don’t understand why someone would believe something with less proof then the leading theory.

I guess it depends on your idea of proof. There will never be 100% evidence. But, I can walk where Jesus walked, so there is SOME evidence.

But it is more than that.

It is how everything works…it is feeling love…it is so much that I cannot explain, but that is evidence to me

 

[CHESTERTONRULES]

Well, this is supposed to be a forum asking answers from catholics, so I come here to do so.

I want to know why you believe in Christianity/Judaism/Pastafarnarianism/Whatever. I’m not some random trolling atheist, I genuinely want to know why you believe the things you do.

Christianity is a rational explanation of the relationship between God and man.

Christianity works for Christians much better than Islam and Hinduism work for each respectively.

I’m not sure how Judaism works for Jews, but that’s a unique case.

 

[CHESTERTONRULES]

Well, I get the whole thing that secular explanations for our existence seem strange, they do have large amounts of evidence supporting them, such as static on the radio being left over big-bang radiation.

What I don’t get is the leap of faith thing. To me, it makes no sense to believe something because it simply feels right, I need to be able to observe it, prove it. I don’t understand why someone would believe something with less proof then the leading theory.

The Big Bang fits perfectly with Christian theology.

God said “Let there be light”, then BANG!, there was light.

 

[Atheism123]

The Big Bang fits perfectly with Christian theology.

God said “Let there be light”, then BANG!, there was light.

True, but it also says he created the world in seven days, a few thousand years ago. The world (and universe) have been proved by many methods to be much, much older then this. For example, blue-shift and carbon dating, as well as the fact we can observe light that has taken more then those thousands of years to travel here.

 

[the_hazel_nut]

Well, this is supposed to be a forum asking answers from catholics, so I come here to do so.

I want to know why you believe in Christianity/Judaism/Pastafarnarianism/Whatever. I’m not some random trolling atheist, I genuinely want to know why you believe the things you do.

i am a “cradle catholic” you could say but i was never practicing , even as a child. i have pretty much always been one shade of agnostic or another.

one day i felt a yearning for god. I asked someone who he/ she / it was. they told me, and i prayed. i could tell something was out there, listening to me, loving me, but after a while i realized it was not the “life force” they told me it was. so i asked god, “who are you?” almost immediately my friend who always shared my very liberal agnostic views started to become a fervent, practicing catholic.i took that to be God’s answer: He is The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. but catholic? surely the early christians weren’t like catholics at all! so i went online to research christianity, and well, to me it was very obvious catholicism was actually right. the end.

i never have doubts that another religion is right. a lot of times i have doubts that atheism is right. but in my darkest of doubts, i do not honestly believe that a purposeless universe could produce beings that have such a longing for purpose that they would create the wonderful beauty and meaning of catholicism

 

[Nine_Two]

Well, I get the whole thing that secular explanations for our existence seem strange, they do have large amounts of evidence supporting them, such as static on the radio being left over big-bang radiation.

What I don’t get is the leap of faith thing. To me, it makes no sense to believe something because it simply feels right, I need to be able to observe it, prove it. I don’t understand why someone would believe something with less proof then the leading theory.

The big bang has nothing to do with theology and can fit in either an atheistic or theistic model. It is the belief that it is all random coincidences piled one on top of the other which makes it as ridiculous as any theistic belief.

As for the leap of faith, at some point it is required, no matter what you believe, simply taking a stand is making that leap.

As for the need for proof, reason will only get you so far no matter what. It can not prove or disprove the existence of God.

 

[Darian]

It takes far less faith to believe in God than it does to not believe.

 

[Marc_Anthony]

The big bang has nothing to do with theology and can fit in either an atheistic or theistic model. It is the belief that it is all random coincidences piled one on top of the other which makes it as ridiculous as any theistic belief.

As for the leap of faith, at some point it is required, no matter what you believe, simply taking a stand is making that leap.

As for the need for proof, reason will only get you so far no matter what. It can not prove or disprove the existence of God.

Excellent post-I agree.

So why am I not agnostic?

Because I believe that while God cannot be proven or disproven, His existence CAN be established as highly probable, if not definitely proven. But even the most vehement atheists, like Dawkins and Humes, merely call God’s existence highly improbable, not impossible. I agree that God’s existence cannot be ABSOLUTELY proven either way, but I also believe by looking at the evidence you can certainly establish a high probability for His existence.

 

[T_More]

The Big Bang fits perfectly with Christian theology.

God said “Let there be light”, then BANG!, there was light.

This reminds me of Peter Kreefts comment that if there was a Big Bang, there has to be a Big Banger.

Christianity makes the most sense to me, and I’ve seen God work in my life.

Kreeft also made another analogy that has stuck with me. He quotes a Chinese parable in his book, Catholic Christianity, about feelings. It goes like this:

Fact, Faith and Feelings are walking along a wall, with Faith following Fact and leading Feelings. As soon as Faith takes it’s eyes off Fact and looks back to worry about Feelings, Faith and Feelings fall off the wall, but Fact never does.

 

[nickybr38]

I cannot help you understand. I was born believing in God. Even when I didn’t know who or what He was - I believed. I was born to atheist parents. It’s not something I can explain, it’s just always been there. I’ve never had any ‘real’ proof but I’ve never needed it.

 

[Moscati]

That’s a bit like asking me why I love my fiance, I think. I could say “because he has blue eyes”, “because he loves me”, or “because evolution designed me to”, but in the end, none of those answers are particularly satisfactory. They don’t really express how I feel, or adequately capture my motivations and experiences.

I guess the right answer is “just because”, which is what my fiance says when I ask him why he loves me.

 

[VetA]

Well, this is supposed to be a forum asking answers from catholics, so I come here to do so.

I want to know why you believe in Christianity/Judaism/Pastafarnarianism/Whatever. I’m not some random trolling atheist, I genuinely want to know why you believe the things you do.

because every time i go to church i can feel the presence of God. when i think about how our bodies are put togther i think there is no possible way all these cells could come togther randomly. whenever i pray my prayers are alwayes answerd, just not alwayes in the way expect. i read the bible and i feel that God is speaking to me even when i do not understand. i could go on and on, but i will stop here

 

[adrift]

True, but it also says he created the world in seven days, a few thousand years ago. The world (and universe) have been proved by many methods to be much, much older then this. For example, blue-shift and carbon dating, as well as the fact we can observe light that has taken more then those thousands of years to travel here.

Although the bible discribes creation in seven days the Catholic Church does not teach that they are literal 24 hour days. The bible teaches a religious truth not a scientific one. The point of the creation story is that God created the world.

As for your few thousand years, I know of nothing in the bible that gives such a date. The Catholic Church doesn’t espouse such a concept. It is one that is held by fundamentalist.

If if find a watch on a tree stump, I know that someone made it. I guess you have to believe that the world always existed if you think it wasn’t created I think that is harder to believe than the world was created.

 

[StillWondering]

True, but it also says he created the world in seven days, a few thousand years ago. The world (and universe) have been proved by many methods to be much, much older then this. For example, blue-shift and carbon dating, as well as the fact we can observe light that has taken more then those thousands of years to travel here.

This is how I explain the genesis story of Adam and Eve to my 10 year old students. This is not high level theology I used, but do know that getting into the bible seriously is a great deal of intellectual work and discovery.

The explanation for the kids is that what is written about the creation story is true and real and really happened symbolically. There really was two first humans and they are our first parents. God really did create the world from nothing and everything we can see, no matter how far we look, was created by God. However, we must understand the language. If I were to tell you my wife left me and my heart is broken. You would know what I meant and know that my heart is not physically broken. So to understand the creation story, we must understand what is it actually saying in it’s own language.

The kids said “Oh, I get it!” So here above gets you two basic points, Adam and Eve were our first parents and God created the world out of nothing. There is much more to be learned from the early books of Genesis, but that depends on where one is at in understanding and openness to growth.

 

[StillWondering]

To answer the original question honestly:

I believe in God and the teachings of the Catholic Church because God gave me the graces to believe in Him and His Church.

That is my honest answer. It may not make sense to a non-believer. When I was very little, I looked up and knew there was something there who I could not see that loved me more than my heart can hold. It is not about a lovey-dovey feeling–I can get that around my stuff animals which aren’t even alive. It is this deep and vast love that protects me, cares for me, and guides me in my life. This is how I knew to look beyond myself. A great saint tells me that “When you think you found God, know that you have already been found.” This doesn’t mean that God didn’t know us before, but that we are found because God has thought us into being. I recognized this truth before I even knew how to write or do mathematics. It really is a grace (a gift from God).

 

[arkenbergcn]

Well, this is supposed to be a forum asking answers from catholics, so I come here to do so.

I want to know why you believe in Christianity/Judaism/Pastafarnarianism/Whatever. I’m not some random trolling atheist, I genuinely want to know why you believe the things you do.

Simply put, I believe in God because without a higher creator (God) who loves us and places value on us life would be of no value. Without a supreme creator (God) the value of life would be left up to the opinions of each individual. If this was the case them you could never say that Hitler was wrong for killing the Jews since he felt it was OK to do so. Hitler’s opinion was that Jews were not persons and that their lives had no value. He was obviously wrong, but we can say this only if life has value. Secondly, when you look around and see the things of this world they are too perfect to have been created just by chance. Those who think that people exist because of random acts of the natural world have to ask who created this random process. An object in motion tends to stay in motion, but it has to have had a force which acted upon it before it will move. Again, even motion points to a creator (God). Lastly, the God of Judaism/Christianity for me seems to make the most sense. Much of my Catholic Faith I do not understand - this I take on Faith because I do not have the mind of the creator. History has also shown and proven that the God of Judaism/Christianity has actually revealed himself to us throughout time. No pagan “god” has ever revealed themselves to thier believers because they do not exist. Also, multiple “god’s” exsiting at the same time makes no sense either because which “god” would be the ruling one? Anyway, I that’s my quick 2 cents worth and I hope it helps.

PS the creation account in Genesis is not to be taken as a scientific account of how long the world was created. Moses - the author of Genesis was not trying to give a scientific account about the creation of the world when he wrote Genesis. He was trying to convery the fact that God created Man above all the other creatures on the earth to rule the earth and worship God. The “Theory of Evolution” was the farthest thing from the mind of Moses when he wrote Genesis.