I want to believe!?

Question

Growing up i was catholic, i believed in god and in Jesus. Back then i thought that id never become what I'm today, I started to lose my faith a few months ago, i used to beg to go to church every Sunday but i seem to try to avoid it now. My family forces me but i push away. I seem to hate talking about God now, and i truly believe he does not exist, but now i have been feeling lost. Ive been looking for inspiration, I feel as if i want to believe again but in my mind i cant tell myself to believe in lies. Help!

The lies - Bible. What i think. Don't want to offend sorry if i did.

And don't ask why i don't want to believe cause i don't know why i feel this way. I was a happy atheist but now i feel as i need faith in god, I'm so confused.

Answer 1

Start reading some science books such a 'Brief History of Time'. Just because God doesn't exist doesn't mean the universe isn't full of wonder. Try to understand the beauty in the very structure of the universe that allows for an unfolding of increasing complexity.

Answer 2

Hello I am a believer in the father son and holy spirit about a year ago I let the father of lies tell me that i was not forgiven for all the things i had done because you just keep on doing the same things even thou i knew better I followed his lead and the feeling that came over me was a feeling of total loss like there was just nothing hopelessness and maybe that is what you are feeling when you stated you feel lost I have never not believed since the age of 12 when God first answered my prayer and thou i was not a saint i still knew he was is and has always been there.You did not say what has changed in your life that has made you question and lose faith.You sound angry at God I have gotten angry with him and my question to him was why me I still do but I know one thing that no matter what bad things happen in my life it could never never be as bad as that lost feeling i had when i thought he was not there for me and even now he is there for you try him again never loss faith because when you do all you receive is loss and no matter what we do or how we feel he saids ask and we are forgiven you will be in my prayers.

Answer 3

If you are going to be an atheist, do it for the right reasons.

The Bible does not contain lies, but it does contain legend, myth, satire, and revised history. People think it contains lies because they do not understand ancient literary genres, cannot understand the original language, and have no historical or social context for the subject matter. Before rejecting Christianity based on the content of Scripture, it is important to actually understand what the Bible says, what it means, who it was written to, and how the original hearers understood it.

Along the same lines, it is important to understand the role of the Bible in Christianity. It was never intended to be the "Word of God." The Bible did not gain significance in Christianity for many centuries after the origin of the Church. It was a supplement at best. Christians didn't even officially list the books of the Bible until some 600 years after Christ - before that, the issue didn't really seem important enough to legislate.

Also, you will want to consider the opposing arguments. I have been hanging out on Yahoo Answers for a year, and I have yet to see anyone, Christian or atheist, actually describe an authentic Christian argument for the existence of God. Christian theologians spent centuries mapping out their justification for believing in God, but the concepts are difficult to understand and hard to track down. Before abandoning a belief in God, it is important to study actual theistic arguments, and make sure that you have an answer for them. Start here: http://home.earthlink.net/~gbl111/cosmos.htm, here: http://www.scottmsullivan.com/links.htm, and here: http://www.orlapubs.com/AR/index.html.

Answer 4

Try looking into other religions. Base what you know about God on the Bible and not on what a church says. The Catholic church is one of the hardest ones to break away from because they tell you that you are going to hell if you don't belong to the church. Years of this teaching leads many to despair.

when I was in Alcoholic Anonymous, people raised Catholic had the hardest time accepting a "higher power' that could and would help them recover. The god taught in the Catholic Church is angry and judging. (yes, I know I am going to have a lot of catholic people hating me but I don't hate catholics, I hate the religion because of what it has done to so many who desire to find Christ)

The Bible says God is Love. If you can't seem to get back to a Catholic church, look into other churches. Compare what they have to say vs. what you have been taught. Cross check it with what the Bible says and see who is right.

If you can't find actual inspiration at this time, use your anger at the catholic church to inspire you. Find out what things you were taught that were wrong according to the Bible. To start, you can look at the ten commandments in Exodus 20 and compare them with your catachism. You will notice the 2nd commandment has been deleted in the catholic version and that they split the 10th in two. (so that it still adds up to ten) I am NOT kidding.... they did this! I found it in my catechism!

Check into the origins of Christmas. Also, try to find the place in the Bible that says that works will not get you into heaven.

Use a Concordance and look up a word and study all the places that word is used to learn more about a subject. It can be fun, just to explore. Don't spend so much time in ritual. It will not save you. Learn about the God who wants to get to know you and wants you to get to know Him.

The Bible actually makes sense if you remember that God is Love. Death is the punishment for sin, not eternal burning in a fire where you never die. The second death is caused by fire but it is not going to torment you forever. The commandments are still valid. Death is like sleep.

Answer 5

The first thing you need to realize is that you can't trust your feelings to show you truth. Your feelings will change from time to time, as they apparently have already with regard to church and the things of God. Truth, on the other hand, does not change.

If you have lost your faith, the best question you can ask yourself is what that faith was dependent upon in the first place. Why did you enjoy going to church? Why did you believe in God? Was it all based on feelings to begin with? From what you have said, it seems like that must have been the case.

If you're looking for evidence of the existence of God, I can give you the following, which I personally think is very strong: (I've offered it here on Yahoo Answers before):

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1. We know that matter is not infinitely old, meaning that the material universe must have had a beginning.
2. It is not possible to have an infinite series of event regressions in reality, therefore, we know that time had a beginning.
3. Since it is logically impossible for a person or a thing to perform any actions before they exist, we know that the universe cannot have created itself.
4. All evidences point to the universe being a closed system.

Based on the above, the reasonable conclusion is that the universe had a beginning, and that it was brought into being by an immaterial force, one that is neither defined nor confined by the laws of nature (since those laws are dependent upon the existence of the universe, they can't have played any role in its origin...in other words, they cannot be responsible for their own origin).

That said, can evolution account for the origin of the universe?

Darwinian evolution can only deal with naturalistic, material things. It cannot address the immaterial. By that token, the universe must have come into being as a result of natural processes, but how can this be when there was supposedly nothing in existence before the universe? As Stephen Hawking has said, to talk about a time before time is like talking about what is north of the north pole; for that reason he maintains that the universe has always existed.

In other words, Hawking would have us believe that the universe is self-existent, that nothing created it, that it just IS. Oddly enough, this is very similar to the Christian concept that God is self-existent, that He just IS, "I AM that I AM".

So which idea is superior?

Again, we know that matter cannot be infinitely old, because matter breaks down over time (the principle of entropy). We also know that linear time must have had a beginning. Every evidence of science and reasoning tells us that the universe must have had a beginning, a beginning that cannot be accounted for by natural, materialistic means.

To my way of thinking, this makes a very strong case for the existence of a self-existent creator who is not bound by either time or the laws of nature.

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On a more personal note, you are obviously struggling with an internal desire. Something within you is not satisfied. If you were nothing more than a product of molecules-to-man evolution, this would not make sense, because this is a spiritual need, not a physical need. Again, in a Darwinian conceptual scheme, we would be nothing but material products of chance, driven by what we need to survive and reproduce in the physical, material realm.

So how then do you explain this immaterial need you have? In a Darwinian sense, you can't. It should not exist at all. The Christian concept of God, on the other hand, can explain why such a hunger can exist in you. God created us in His image, with qualities and needs that go beyond the physical universe and our material make up, and only He can satisfy us ultimately because He created us for fellowship with Himself.

The Bible says, in Jeremiah 20:13 - "And ye shall seek me, and find [me], when ye shall search for me with all your heart." If you truly want to know God, He will reach out to you. The fact that you are here asking this question now may be His way of doing so.

I've been a Christian for a long time now, and I can tell you that I have not always "felt" my faith. I've had struggles. But my belief is no longer affected by my feelings, and that has been very liberating. Let me encourage you to really seek out God, and to seek to know Him, not just to go through rituals that might make you feel good for a time. Seek a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and really KNOW that which the Bible calls "a peace which passes all understanding".

Check out the following for how you can begin a personal relationship with God:

http://www.insight.org/site/PageServer?pagename=relationship

God bless you as you seek to know Him.

Answer 6

Whatever you choose, know this: there are signs everywhere of Jesus' existence.

#1: healings done in Jesus' name
#2: demons getting cast out of people, again in Jesus' name
#3: The language of tongues. It seams to come out of nowhere, and happens only when a persona asks the Lord for the Holy Spirit. Hmm...gee, I wonder why?

There are actually many more signs, but you are not ready for those yet.

Answer 7

this is something i dont understand and dont know if i ever will... i dont get what prompts someone to say they don't believe in God??? i think you are entitled to believe what you want and if not believing in God makes you happy so be it. I hope you find the answers you need because i have none for you...sorry to waste you time...I just dont get how a person can believe and then not believe it is like what happened in your life that was so bad that changed your mind????

Answer 8

You seem to be contradicting yourself. You want to believe again but you don't believe what is taught. In that case, I say wanting isn't enough. You have to, at least, believe some things of the religion to believe again. You're not going to do that if you are telling yourself that it's a bunch of lies.

Answer 9

its your choice to believe or not to believe...you are either undecided or stubborn...i think your stubborn...but that's something only you and God knows

All the best in finding your way back to Him Who has never left YOU...you re in my thoughts...God bless

EDIT: crazyj....how is appreciating Gods work gonna help you answer God why you chose to reject Him anyway...the Creator of the Universe

EDIT: oh wally!! why must you preach the Love of God in the same breath as your loathing for the catholic church?

Answer 10

I want,

When you deal with faith and wisdom you must listen to the voice wisdom and not the voice of man. See when we get to thinking of something crazy or about to do something stupid or think about losing out religion it is not the human voice you need to listen to it is the voice of god and his voice of wisdom that you need to listen to. I would say sit down in your room with the lights off and clear you mind and see what the voice and wisdom has to say. If you think you want to believe again why not check out another branch of faith outside your own to see if that jump starts your faith.