How can you have faith in your religion?

Question

I have struggled with that question for as long as I can remember. My parents and everyone around me has always instructed me to believe whatever is in our holly book as it is written, yet no one can prove to me that those are the words of god. By all accounts, the book was manufactured, printed, sold and distributed by human beings yet I am supposed to believe everything that is in it.

How can god hold us accountable in the afterlife for not having faith ? God gave us intellect, yet he expects us to believe that the holly book contains his words without any proof? If god wanted us to follow a certain religion, why doesn't he schedule a one day seminar for all of the inhabitants of this earth and instruct us on how to live our life according to his wishes?

I honestly believe that anyone who follows a book who's true identity he/she cannot believe is lying to themselves. Common people, if god wanted us to live our life a certain way, he would contact us directly.

It is quite saddening how little all of the "believers" really know. Firstly, the bible has been rewritten, edited and the sort over one hundred times, therefore it is not completely equal to the original. The bible also says that the sun revolves around the earth, when in actuality, it has been proven that the earth revolves around the sun.

Just so you guys know, I truly believe that there is a god out there, I just don't believe in organized religions. I will continue not to believe in organized religions until I am proved otherwise. Having said that, I strongly believe that there is a superior being behind man's creation and I refer to it as "god".

It is also kind of funny how angry the believers of organized religion become when you don't believe as they do. Their only recourse is to belittle you because you choose not to believe in something of which there isn't concrete proof. God afforded us the luxury of thought and inquiry, and we should scrutinize the rules by which we live our lives.

Answer 1

Faith is just wishful thinking. If a god existed (which they don't), I can't believe a god would consider wishful thinking to be a virtue.

Answer 2

The book should be nothing more than a guide taken on its own merits and nothing more.

The only spirituality that means anything is the one you experience directly. When God speaks to you in a way that is unlike any other experience of the mind, then you can know that God is real. The faith would then be real and not a false faith imposed by traditions, or worse, fear.

I for one, am still waiting. Hopefully it will happen to me.

Answer 3

Some people reject God because they can find no evidence for Him which satisfies both their hearts and minds simultaneously. Then there are others who accept God on the basis of emotional or irrational reasons which satisfy their hearts, but leave their minds unsure. These two groups of people have never found a satisfying answer to the question of their relationship with God. Then there are yet others who have found the correct path which God intended for us: to accept Him and His message to us using our minds first and foremost, and the heart follows easily and naturally as a consequence.

Instead of searching for the answer, there are also some people who chose to simply brush the question aside and ignore it unfortunately. This is the easy way out of what appears to be a very difficult, mysterious question which may seem to have no final solution. Most of these people are unaware of a very powerful message which completely and unequivocally establishes the correct path to God. This message squares with both the mind and the heart, and it has no equal since it comes to us straight from God Himself.

The message comes in the form of a book. In fact, God has given us several Books of guidance through the years, but each one was ultimately corrupted and changed by dishonest people. Each Book essentially contained the same fundamental message as the previous Books. Mankind was expected to guard these Books from harm, but unfortunately failed to live up to this expectation. Slowly but surely, each Book was edited and tampered with, destroying its authenticity. This is partly why God kept sending us more revelations.

However, almost 1400 years ago, God sent us another Book with the same basic message as the earlier ones, but with a small but very important difference. This time, God decreed that this Book would be the last Book sent down to us because God would protect it Himself. Regarding this Final Book, God said,


"Behold, it is We Ourselves who have bestowed from on high this reminder: and behold, it is We who shall truly guard it" [Chapter 15, verse 9]

Today, if we compare the 114 chapters in every copy of this Final Book with each other, we will find they match perfectly word for word - from the oldest copies made 1300-plus years ago to the ones printed just a few hours ago. No human hand has changed it.

The rational person has every right to be doubtful, of course, if he or she has never read this book. For such people, here is a small sample of what the Final Book contains. Suppose we wanted to ask God several questions about Him and about ourselves. Short of Him speaking to us directly (such a privilege has been granted to only one person out of all humanity), the Book has the best answers one can find. It is on the strength of these answers that an honest person may be struck with the conviction that the Final Book is from none other than God Almighty. Again, here is only a small part of the information one might find. ---

Answer 4

Unfortunately you were brought up in a "Christian" faith which said: "believe or be punished."

That is not the true God.

God wants us to *internalize* our Faith, to truly make it our own as we are able to see the intelligible reasons for its teachings, and see them for ourselves as good|


But there is still *obedience* and *mystery* in Christianity.

However, you obey the teacher (or parent) because he or she has proven themselves trustworthy and has proven themselves as loving and competent with your best interests at heart, so you joyfully and trustfully believe them (as opposed to the abusive parent or teacher who is on a power trip).

But as you obey, even if you don't first understand, you are then rewarded with an understanding of the mysteries that are being taught to you, as this light of understanding ever grows, with an ever increasing sense of wonder and awe at what you are grasping|


And there is always mystery, as the human intellect can penetrate only so far into the nature of creation and the nature of God|

But it is *intelligible mystery* as for the humble man the fact that there is so much beyond him is the cause of his greatest joy, as there is no end to the wonders and profundity of existence|






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Answer 5

Having faith in a religion is harder then having faith in God.
Religion is all about restrictions, God is about what He did so we can enjoy life and the rules He gave well they are so that you can enjoy life till the end and after, and not only for a short period of time.

Answer 6

I totally understand what you're going through, because I did too. You're making the same error I made as well - you're confining your definition of "god" to the one the Christians like to feed us.

Everything you need to know is inside you. People can be inspired and even find wisdom in holy books, but the only "truth" is what lies in your heart. I know that's incredibly trite, but it's true.

You can believe in a god without Christianity being involved. We live in a culture where there seems to be only three choices - Christianity, atheism, or a weird cult or non-mainstream faith that you probably wouldn't even consider, like Scientology or Buddhism. This is an illusion. Consider the possibility that deities can exist outside of any human-made religious construct.

I believe in the existence of deities, not because of any book, but because of my own combination of experience, knowledge, logic, and intuition. (I am not a Christian.)

Good luck.

Answer 7

No one should have faith in anything. Faith is belief in something absent evidence, or in the face of contrary evidence, and is a deliberate abandonment of logic. The ability to use logic is the defining characteristic of H. sapiens, and if you abjure logic, you abjure the essence of your humanity. What could be more evil than deliberately turning yourself into an animal? Logic, applied to evidence, will tell you all you need to know -- or can know.

Answer 8

read 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Proverbs 3:5-7

Answer 9

Well so far as the Bible goes, it is the most historically accurate book in all antiquity. That is to say that it is the same now as it was way back in the day when it was first written. We have more proof that the Bible is accurate than we do that Julius Ceasar existed. It mentions real people and real places, and it has fulfilled prophecies. Need i say more?

Answer 10

I disagree. There is a lot of evidence for the Bible. You just have to use that open mind to look for it. A quick Google search does the trick; TONS of proof & resources out there. I can email you links.

"I strongly believe that there is a superior being behind man's creation and I refer to it as "god"."

That's cool. Now, why don't you use your curiosity to find out more about Him? I promise it will be a great journey -- it was for me. I can email you my story if you'd like. :)

Answer 11

That's one of the reasons I'm not religious. I tried to be Christian but i kept questioning and making excuses for religion.
Oh, and Ashley, Aristotle knew in 400 b.c. that the earth was round. And those prophecies in the bible are just coincidences, there are prophecies in Moby Dick too, it's just coincidences.