Does it strengthen your faith or make you question it?

Question

Some (not all) non Christians tend to answer questions or pose questions that encourage coming to a knowledge that God does not exist. Some questions and answers are very well thought out, interesting, and apparently logical. I am not talking about the insults and junk. Do any of these questions or answers make you rethink your faith? I have found that it has only strengthened my own. I was only wondering if this was having an effect on others since there are many atheists that stated that they were once Christians. Sorry for the length of this. I simply wondered if all of this serves as a crisis in faith or lights a fire?

Answer 1

It has strengthened mine, for I know in whom I have believed. I think especially athiests' questions help us to really analyze oppositions to our faith and help us to solidify the reason we believe the way we do.

(If you forgive my long answer, I can surely forgive your long question, even though there's nothing about it that needs forgiving - lol!)

Answer 2

The only way to strengthen faith is by constantly questioning it. It works simple as that. All people, not just Christians or Jews or Muslims or whatever creed they adhere to have a religious notion. To belong to a certain faith doesn't make a person better, you can only come close to good by practicing your faith as intended and without all the doctrine and surficial shallowness that it gets presented for.

Christianity is a faith of inclusion, if I remember the points that Jesus brought up correctly. If you look at Christendom however it uses all the tactics of exclusion up to feeling superior to others. If you look at a lot of things that were done in the name of Christ, wonder if Christ himself would back those things. A lot of people use their religion (not just Christians) to suit their personal needs, even to the point where it harms the needs of others. That simply goes against the basics of religious principle.

The Jewish and the Hindu faith are based on exclusion. You have to be either Jew or Hindu to receive their sermons and benefits believed to derive from believing. Christ went against that idea (Good Samaritan), Buddha did the same with Hinduism and in his effort gave rise to Buddhism.

Personally I don't belong to any of the organized religions. I think a relationship with God is personal first of all. And in my view God is very different from what most people think would or should be God. I like to view God as the impersonal person or the indivisible division. That said, there is no true faith but there sure is truth out there.

Answer 3

I am not shaken by intellectual questions... I have read very few here of that caliber.... most questions here are about proving God exist.
I don't really know if anyone here was a Christian before and then became an Atheist.... or did they just have a false conversion? brought on by a scare or some other kind of tactic..... I saw a lot of conversion due to 911 and then when things settled down many of those same people couldn't be found in church 6 months later.....

Read Matthew 13:1-23

Answer 4

Very few. A girl or women who posed some interesting Bible quotes about Slavery made to re-think if I view the bible as literal or not.

But as a whole, most anti-relgious people cling to beliefs that are FAR more full of holes than the belief in God and Jesus!

Why everyone thinks Evolution, for example, is a fact is beyond me. It is the THEORY or evolution, which means, we THINK this might have some credibility, but we have no LAWS yet to confim it.

It is the THEORY of the Big Bang, which means we don't know for sure, because there is ALSO the THEORY of STEADY STATE.

Next week they decide if Pluto IS or is NOT a planet and we may have to re-write the text books, which means that ALL KIDS will be taught WRONG for the next 5 years until those textbooks hit the schools!

Answer 5

None of these questions has ever in any way caused me to question my faith - only to strengthen it.
It never fails to amaze me that Christians are constantly seen as narrow minded and prejudiced. Quite the contrary - I'm thankful that my mind is not addled - but open and learning more than I could have possibly imagined. I always forgive, and even forget - which is a real blessing for both them and me.
I question God at every opportunity - because that's what He asks us to do.
This is just the tip of the iceburg - good question.

Answer 6

It is not at all realistic to expect arguments - even rock-solid ones - against religious faith to sway the faithful. As E.O. Wilson described it, these are like shooting "steel-jacketed bullets through fog". Religious belief is not about paying attention to the evidence, or even about using reason effectively. It's about believing, despite the complete lack of evidence, and in a religious system, the highest virtue is to persist in belief, not to follow the evidence in pursuit of the truth.

Of course effective religious belief systems have built-in defenses against counterarguments - that's how those belief systems persist in the long run despite the lack of any supporting evidence.

Now, it should go without saying that the opposite is also true, though for entirely different reasons. The believers who use religious methods (essentially just confidently asserting the belief over and over again) to try to persuade nonbelievers are missing the mark just as badly. The fact that someone else firmly believes in a god does nothing whatsoever to persuade me that there is a god*. We might refer to this as "using fog in an attempt to stop steel-jacketed bullets".

Worse (and I see this in some of the answers here), some of those believers persist in the assumption that nonbelievers are simply people who haven't thought about these things as much as they (the believers) have. That's simply and demonstrably false - in fact it's generally quite the opposite. Non-belief doesn't come from a failure to think about religion and spirituality: it comes only after thinking about those things far more than the typical believer does.

* Though the fact that some believers behave like adults and also do not use old and silly arguments for their beliefs does persuade me that religious belief is not a simple matter of stupidity.

Answer 7

I have an open mind and will listen to any rational idea. It does not make me rethink my faith, maybe the ideas I have about religion or interpretations of certain issues but never my faith. People who question what you believe is always good. They make you dig deeper and harder for the answer. If you cannot back up what you believe with rational thinking and scripture, that is when you need to rethink your faith.

Answer 8

If your faith is strengthened, that must be because you need it more to deny the reality of things. I am not denying the existence of a higher being, but I see "faith" as a control mechanism that I can't take part in. I don't mean to insult your beliefs, but don't focus on your faith so much as the need to help others. THAT is what is important in life, not going to heaven. If your maker sees it fit to bring you to him/her, then so be it. Just do the right thing, regardless of what you might think of spirits or the afterlife.

Answer 9

It doesn't really strengthen or weaken my faith for that matter, but stuff like that is a wake-up call that I should really study God's word more so I can know how to answer people who are sincerely seeking, or maybe just challenging the Christian faith.

1 Peter 3:15 - "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear..."

Answer 10

I think there will always be unanswered questions in my faith. Even when I come to a conclusion with some issue, it only seems to leed to more questions. It wouldn't be faith if all the questions were answered or if proof sat before you. You have to wrestle with it. God seems to encourage that over and over again in the Bible. He doesn't strike down those with questions. He builds them up. I have yet to encounter an earth shattering question.

Answer 11

Human logic can explain anything and everything. I am strengthened by discussions. The Lord is GOD! Jesus warned us about those who will not believe. Those that will deny His Name. Thus, making these arguments true. Look at Christ, all of the arguments strengthened His resolve. The Lord reigns and will reign at the end! God Bless!