faith crisis?

Question

Ive had a faith crisis for years now, ever since i got into the science and maths scene and other things in my life changed my views, I was thinking recently about why i stopped believing in GOD (im a Catholic). I keep getting told by my friends who are into the christian faith pretty heavily that im going to go to hell if i dont believe etc. but my questions to them is... so whats happening to other religions why would god create people knowing that they will believe other things and still condemn them if he knew they would do that anyway... they just come back with the we have free will argument and i never get a straight answer. I couldnt see how GOD was real and then now that i think about the creation of the universe it is easier to believe that someone made the universe than to think that an infinite amount of possibilities ended up with the creation of our universe.

But then i also think well if god created heaven and heaven is real... then why isnt hell just as real?
help plz.

Answer 1

Dear Mus3fan:

I have some quotes for you to look at before I get into the body of your question:

"Evolution is a replica of Creation Thought - but in a different experience - that of physical-ness." God is not physical.

God is a spirit-mind of pure Intelligence combined with steadfast love. He Creates. BUT, His Creation has no form, no color, and can not be "seen" by human standards. He is not seen; but, He is Known - within the soul that lies behind the human Intellect.

God has Thought every Thought first. We are Created as part OF Him, but not Him. Creation was expansive. He Created more of Himself - other spirit-minds, within Himself. We have our own autonomous thinking as well as receiving His Thoughts of Unlimitedness, Non-opposition, Creation impulses, steadfast love, Inclusion, and His Created One-ness. God honors the Thoughts of His sons of God, but knows His Creation to be the highest Thought possible.

God's children desired the experience of physical life. Through the Free Will of God's Creation, that Thought was honored - with the knowledge of the vast learning that could come from the experience: The physical world offers individuality, self-interest, limitations, opposition, and exclusion. We may learn and conclude from this physical experience.

"God is not a mathematical equation or formula. He does not interfere with the evolution of this physical world, but exists along with it. "

"One day, we all will know exactly where He is. It's not a location. It's an intense intimacy. An intimacy of the Mind. "

In the 1980s and continuing, a movement began in religious denominations. It was called, the Modernist Movement. All who became part of that thought system preferred to see God as working through the laws of science and nature. They ". . . believed if they could dispose of the archaic model of a Transcendent God, they could form a theology that is far more pertinent to the 21st Century. But, one may ask themselves, who is happy with a God Who wallows around with us in the mess we have caused? Shouldn't we want a God with the Power to lean down and TEACH us how to haul ourselves out of it? Of course the Great Teachers have been provided for that purpose, and His Holy Spirit for Guidance and Comfort.

God knows of the great multitude of religious systems in His Created and Beloved's minds. Through the Holy Spirit He is aware of all worldly things we can learn. God, "Mus3fan," has no judgement on "beliefs." You see, all paths led to Rome! All worldly paths eventually lead to God. We can experience anything we desire - within a moral structure. There is no condemnation. Nothing led you astray. You are Journey-ing. You are learning. Your adult journey is not a finished product, yet.

God did not Create a heaven. Heaven is a physical concept. He is everywhere, and unseen due to his lack of physical-ness. Like a spirit essence that fills all dimension and space.

What about the human concept of hell? Hell is a "Hellish" mind. On this Journey, we are responsible for two things: Our mental and spiritual health. They guarantee our eventual Return to our Home in God. Jesus and the Holy Spirit help us make that Return. When minds are destroyed on the Journey of physical experience, when they have become beyond restoration, they are unable to make the Return - ever. These are demonic-type minds. Now different from the Creator, never pure enough or cleansed enough to be in His Presence and Purity, their minds have become a thing of "Hell." That situation is taken care of. No physical hell are they sent to. But, God knows and has the solution.

I have given you a glimpse into Truths known in Spirituality. Nothing occult. Nothing pagan. Just the study of spirit-mind, as Created by God, in His Own Likeness. If these principles seem "right" in your own perception of things, there are wonderful books to peruse through without the confines of doctrines associated with denominations. They are safe, and perhaps even more close to the Truths about God's Nature and our own Self than the traditional viewpoints.

If you would like to, I extend an invitation to you to contact me outside of Questions and Answers on real e-mail. I am available for spiritual "chat," as I now offer to you. Contact me at [e-mail].

Best regards, Lana

Answer 2

You have a lot of good questions, but I think you are getting sidetracked by questions that are impossible to answer on the basis of logic (and science), yet you want to apply logic to get the answers.

Faith takes off where science leaves off. If you keep looking to science you will answer many physical questions, but no spiritual ones. Eventually, you will probably come to a place where faith will want to be heard, where the answers are not based on an equation. You will then reach a point of decision regarding heaven, hell, God, Jesus, church, etc.

But I think we all get off track on this complexity. Jesus said we need to be more like the simple, trusting, child who scrambles into the lap of his loving parent.

Yet we fight this simplicity because we have brains that like to figure everything out. We will never figure everything out in science or philosophy or religion. Science unveils ten new mysteries for every new discovery, and everything else is just opinion.

I think it is cruel for your Christian friends to tell you that hell awaits you if you don't do what they do, or believe what they believe. That is terrible. God is the only judge, and we are not privy to his decisions.

I think if we do away with the performance requirement of religion, and emphasize love and forgiveness, we will have captured the essence of what Jesus was all about. The law (ten commandments) will be taken care of quite nicely if we can learn to love.

Eventually, you may ask where love came from. Science says there is a cause for every effect. Where did we humans gain the ability to love? Mystery again. Some say the ultimate cause of love is God. You have to figure that one out for yourself.

Best wishes to you on this universal journey of discovery.

Answer 3

You seem to be hurting and for that I'm sorry. I hope you find resolution.

There is nothing wrong with having questions. Everyone questions. It is an innate part of us. It's part of the human condition.

If I may, do not believe me or anything else anyone tells you. Use what we offer as a guide to help you with your journey to your truth.

You ask some tough questions. I doubt we will break them down on here today. I will offer what I can.

I do not understand God plan, I submit to what I believe I'm supposed to. I will say, I don't all the time. I fail but when I get right, I try again.

I think God has alzheimer's or even amnesia! I say this in jest as we are supposed to fall and pick ourselves up and try again. God does not punish, he loves. It is his Grace that I write to you today.

Perhaps it may work for you not to define yourself as Catholic or worry about free will or the lack thereof. That is how we men define us and our doctrine. The real question should be about your faith.

There have been great men of faith who have been men of science. Don't let your education replace your relationship with Christ.

If you take nothing from this, faith is all that is require. Everything else is noise.

With all my heart, I believe the message Jesus sent us. It is a message of freedom. This freedom comes from faith. If you're asking me how to obtain more faith? Then you need to ask your maker for help and guidance. Nothing happens overnight. It is not wasted time. God does want a relationship with you.

I hope you find the answers to your question. There is nothing worse than not knowing what to do or whom to seek council. Feel free to E-mail me if you like, just remember I too am man. I only seek to offer as a guide on your journey.

Answer 4

"Faith" means accepting beliefs without evidence. Religious authorities have always promoted faith as a virtue, but I think faith has held humanity back. We have always made progress in knowledge, not by believing stuff, but by questioning assumptions. Skepticism, not faith, has advanced human well-being. So I try not to be a "believer" about anything but to be a skeptic who wants evidence before any claim is accepted. This is the way science works, and it is the way our justice system works. In a modern courtroom, the judge will insist on evidence before proceeding to a judgment. Faith all too often means accepting some judgment before you consider the evidence, and remaining blind to the reality that the evidence may contradict the conclusion you want to believe. For a clean healthy mind it is good to review your beliefs, even your most firmly held beliefs, at all times, and to be preparared to dump beliefs that are not in keeping with the evidence. When you look at what you believe, you may come across a belief which you tell yourself you must not doubt. "I can doubt other things, but not that one, oh no no no, I would lose my faith, alas alas, that wouldn't do at all." Well, guess what, that fearful reaction is a sure sign that this particular belief is the very one you should question most critically if you want mental health and a free mind.

Answer 5

It tends to happen that when people educate themselves and enhance their logical thinking, they generally suffer a collapse of their religious beliefs. The concept of a invisible man who lives in the sky and sees everything that everyone does just doesn't stand up to really any sort of critical thinking.

Of course, Christians would say that that's just what the devil wants you to think, that you're not supposed to think, that you're supposed to have the faith of a child.

My question would be that if God didn't want us to use our minds, then why did he give us one?

And my sympathies about the run-around you've gotten regarding your questions. I've asked that same question for years and years, about why God would create people if he already knew they were basically going to flip him off and thus get sent to hell because of it, and I've never, ever, not-one-single-time gotten a straight answer. It's always been the free-will, God-does-as-he-wants-to answer.

My reply has always been that, if that's really the way it happened, then God must be an incredibly sadistic being, and a really confused one, as well (confused because he's forced to send people to hell because of a set of arbitrary rules that he himself set up). Most people don't like that, but it's as far as my thinking takes me.

Suppose that's why I don't believe there's a god up in the sky.

Answer 6

Al people have a choice, either to believe what Jesus did for us was real or not. Of course God knew that many would not. It is written in the Bible. It is a choice my friend a personal choice, not a choice to be made by your friends, but by you. After all it will be you standing in front of him one of these days for judgement and what will you say? My friends told me you were not real, but I kind thought you might be. Something to say to a man who shed his blood for you don't you think. I do not think that any of your so called friends would make the same sacrifice, would they. Sounds like some serious soul searching is in order. Oh, by the way I too travel in the same math and science circles you must learn to have a thick skin.

Answer 7

In the case, however, of the one who has never heard of Christ, yet sincerely worships God as he knows Him, and lives consistently with moral law as he understands it, we do have some grounds (Acts 10 ) to believe that God may be pleased to grant a further special revelation involving the Gospel of Christ Himself, which one would then, in turn, either accept or reject. I believe that many who would by no means except such a revelation never get this sort of revelation. Those who will come receive it.. The church was strong and healthy all through the Communist crack downs is both The Soviet Union and China's People's Governments. They still are and they are growing. God draws those who will come.... Jim

Answer 8

The origin thing has an easy retort. If the universe is too complicated and wonderful to exist 'by chance' then so is god who is more complicated and wonderful. The arguments of the theists that somehow god does not need a cause are nonsensical, they are just defining him as such. Just accept that there is no explanation of why there is somethng rather than nothing.

The rest of your post seems to indicate you are thinking on the right lines.

Answer 9

Faith isn't incompatible with a love of math and science, but it could be that your conception of what faith means is simply evolving.

Rather than look at it as a crisis, see this as an opportunity, and study a variety of viewpoints from different writers and spiritual leaders. If your friends persist in tormenting you, and you still want to be friends with them, change the subject. No need to willingly take on hostility from people while you're searching.

Answer 10

We have to have doubt, otherwise there would be no faith, but sometimes it is hard to find, but quote" if ye ask of God having real intent and faith in Christ, He will manifest the truth if it unto you" at the begining God gave us our Free agency. the right to choose whatever we like, to do whatever we liked. we are drawn to different thing because of satan and God. God can only hope we will not be seduced by the work of the devil. God does not "let" us do anything.. he gave us the right to choose, but he is there if you choose to turn to him and let him help you. God gave us the gift to seee that without pain there would be no compassion. without sorrow there would be no happiness. God gave us the right to choose everything, from poilitics to religion, but after that on judgement day in havean if we had no one approach us about the true religon, it will be taight to us, if we accept it, we can live wihth Him again. hell is real, but we do not have to go there or be near it if we live this life going throughit living the way we should. Shall we not go on in so GREAT a cause? ill pray for you.

Answer 11

I'll pray for you.

It's terrifying how much can be said about our faith to disprove it. I go through the same thing all the time. But remember, nothing science says can ever disprove religion.

Not only Christians go to Heaven. Muslims, Jews, Buddhists...all in Heaven! Those who know God and reject him, they go to hell. Which is very real. God is just and loves all his children. He knows what circumstances they are born into and rightfully judges them.

Also know that just because you have these thoughts, does not mean you will go to hell. It is a test, you can overcome it.

Life is like God teaching you to walk. Sometimes you will trip up, but you can get up, laugh about it and continue walking together.

Check out DrDino.com or the Evolution Cruncher. It changed my views and helped me unterstand my inner battles.

God bless!
Keep your faith, what have you got to lose? :)